








^*".. 



o, ♦-TV.* A 









\ 



<* '» 






iP-A 















V y*^ '.■' 



0° -^^jj^' ''o ,**\c^.\ co*.:^;;>*°o A-i.;^.'"'^^ / 



-<>.*-^^'%o^ V^;/ -oJWu^ \;>^\*^* • 






.•^^\c:^%\. /-^^^^ .^^yj^.%^ /.^J^t.^o, ,^^^ 



o ^4q, 















V 




5V *--V .. V*-^°*s*'' %-' 










^ .l:^'. 



V •'•^- c 



/^!«^'\ o°*.is^'% /\.i.;^/^-e^ 0°* . t^«jj;i» *«o ,** 



,-10. 







' A^ 



<^' 


















"•^o 

c 






i ft <► ^ ^-^ J 







0« ft 






« • o. 




' .♦^-"^ 






bV 






^^0^ 

^^' ,^-^^- 



., ^^^'-o^'-^^^' "^^^^-^-^^0^ ^^^'^:^«\^^^ %^^^^'\o^ ^ 



- ^^o.^^ 









'^ttt* a 



^0^ 



■• %...' .-i^^v %„/ .-i^-. X.-^' 






^ 
% 



« 



% 



:i 



'-> 



\ 



*^ 



% 



>'^ 



^\sKER/C/|^ 



'i'S^ 



2>i;li3- 



Cutl^erai^ Biodrapf^ies; 

OR, 

Historical Notices of Over Three Hundred and Fifty Leading Men 

OF THE 

American Lutheran Church, 

From its Establishment to the Year 1890. 




WITH A ^^. 

Historical Introduction and Numerous Portrait Engravings. 



REV. J. C. JENSSON, 

Pastor of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church, 

Milwaukee, Wis. 



"ReTieinuer them who have the rule over you, who have sooken unto you the word if God; whcjse faith 
follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and tu-day, and forever'' 
— PaITL. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by 

REV. J. C. JENSSON, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Press of A. Huulkamp & Son, 
Milwaukee, Wis. 



"©EtsieATiON- 



TO THE 

GOOD BRETHREN AVHO WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE HAND OF 

GOD IN BRINGING ABOUT THE GLORIOUS UNION OF THE 

NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN CHURCHES, CONSUMMATED 

AT MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., JUNE THIRTEENTH, 

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY, THIS 

WORK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED BY THE 

AUTHOR. 




EEV. HENEY MELCHIOE MUHLENBEKG, D.D. 

PATHIAROH OF AMEBIC AN LUTHEEANISM. 



'Preface 



'"^N offering this galaxy of American Lutheran Divines to the ^jnljlic, the 

. I author deems it proper to make a few prefatory remarks. In three words 

its title plainly tells what it contains. It gives outlines, sketches, and 

delineations of a Inrge number of the more prominent standard bearers in onr 

American Lutheran Church, both living and deceased. 

In its arrangement the alphabetical order has been adopted. 

As to its object, little needs to be said. With the author, at least, it is the 
spontaneous result of a long-felt want. Often has it happened that he was asked 
to give a brief account of some prominent man in our Church, wdien he was obliged 
to make the humiliating response, that, beyond his name, he knew but little about 
him; nor did he know of any published work where such information could be 
had. To serve the interests of our Church by supplying this want lias, there- 
fore, been the chief object of the author in the publication of this book. 

As a manual of reference in the Lutheran family it cannot fail to awaken 
more interest in the reading of the many ably edited periodicals of our Church. 
Every reading Lutheran, who is at all interested in the general work of the 
Lutheran Church, and who has taken some pains to keep himself informed, 
both as to her inner life and outward development, by a regular perusal of some 
of her periodicals, knows by personal experience, that he has always read with 
greater interest such articles of whose author he happened to have some 
knowledge. Thus it has often happened that an article which was read with more 
or less flagging interest, was re-read with the closest attention, when the reader 
discovered that he had some kowledge of its author. Just as our interest in 
conversation is gauged by our knowledge of, or intimacy with, the person with 



vi. AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 

whom we speak, so is also, in a similar proportion, our interest in reading 
ganged by onr knowledge of the person who speaks to us through the columns 
of the church paper. 

We live in an age Avhen the press wields a marvelous influence both for 
good and for evil. Every phase of poisonous literature, from the heart- 
corrupting novel to the faith-destroying "Robert Elsmere", finds its way to 
almost every home in the land. Nor do the religious sects and fanatics, by 
which our country is overrun, fail to employ this modern facility for dissemin- 
ating their unwholesome productions. An endless medley of confusing ideas 
and doctrines are scattered broadcast over the land to unsettle the better prin- 
ciples of our people. In view of this increasing deluge of nineteenth century 
literature, the time has manifestly ccme when eveiy man and wcman in our 
Lutheran Zion, who has the welfare of the Church of the Reformation at heart, 
should put forth a more vigorous elfort than ever before, to counter-balance this 
influence, and endeavor to crowd out this confusing and corrupting stuff from 
among onr people, by j)lacing into their hands the clean, wholesome, elevating, 
and christianizing papers and periodicals of our Church, of which there is made 
such ample provision in all languages. 

The good effect of such a general effort along the entire line (^f American 
Lutheranism can scarcely be calculated. The people would become better 
informed in regard to their church, and the consequence would be that they 
would also become more devoted and loyal members of her. To love our 
Lutheran Church, she must be known; and to know lier correctly, her doctrines 
and principles must be studied. It folloAvs, therefore, that our first effort 
must be to bring about a more general and considerate attention to the great 
fundamental principles of our Church among our Auierican Lutheran people, 
in order to secure for her the attachment and following that she deserves. The 
chief object of this volume is to do something tow^ard securing this general 
interest and attention; and if it succeeds in helping to create more interest in 
the home study of our American Lutheran Literature, by introducing to the Lutheran 
families some of the great and good men of our grand old Church, such as the 
editors of her periodicals, the authors of her books, her leading educators, and 
her more successful preachers, pastors, and pioneers, its j)^^blication has not 
been in vain. 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. vii. 

While the author tenders his sincere thanks to the many brethren who have 
encouraged and assisted him in this work, he apprehends that the book may not 
fully meet the expectations of those who have so kindly encouraged its 
publication. It is a matter of regret to the author that he has been unable to 
make this volume more complete. Despite repeated and earnest efforts 
to secure the sketches of a considerable number of educators and divines, who 
have not received a mention in this book, he has unfortunately been compelled 
to drop their names for want of the necessary information. In a number of 
cases the author's requests for auto-biographical sketches have been persistently, 
though courteously, declined, chiefly on the ground that such publicity did not 
meet their idea of propriety, savoring, as they thought, too much of vanity. It 
is also more than probable that the critical reader will discover inaccuracies, which 
might not have occurred, had the work been done by a more competent hand. 
Especially does the author regret the unavoidable disproportionateness of a 
considerable number of the sketches it contains. While some subjects have 
been allotted several pages, a few of the most prominent have barely received 
mention. Although this is quite unfortunate, the author hopes to be 
exonerated from any blame on that ground, having made all reasonable efforts 
to give more complete accounts of some whose biographies are mere statements 
of the most important events in their history. Since the compilation of this 
work, he has, m.ore than ever before, been impressed with the fact that the men 
of the most genuine greatness, and whose devotion and labor have given them 
merited fame in the Church, are generally the most averse to the publication, 
especially while they live, of their biographies. This will account for the dis- 
proportionate space allotted in this book to some of the foremost subjects. 

Among the many brethren who have rendered the author valuable assistance 
in the compilation of this volume,^ — to all of whom he hereby expresses his 
grateful acknowledgment, — he is especially under obligations to the Rev. F.W. E. 
Peschau, A.M , of Wilmington, N.C., who has taken a special interest in the work, 
and furnished a number of carefully prepared sketches, the most of which would 
probably not have appeared, had it not been for his very cordial and persevering 
assistance. The highly interesting, historical, and statistical introduction, has 
been specially prepared for this work by the Rev. J. E. Bushnell, A. M., of Ro- 
anoke, Va. His acknowledgment is also due to his friends and co-laborers, 



yiii. AMEBIC AN LUIHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 

the Kev. W. K. Frick, A. M., Pastor of the "English Lutheran Church of the 
Redeemer," Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Rev. O. H. Lee, Pastor of "Our Savior's 
Evangelical Lutheran Church," Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Rev. J. H. Schlerf, 
Pastor of "Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheian Church," Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 
also the Rev. M. Sheeleigh, D. D., of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. To the 
Rev. Sylvanus? Stall, of Baltimore, Md., he is indebted for the free use of a con- 
siderable number of cuts. The Rev. R. Anderson, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
author of "History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;" Rev. J. 
Nicum, of Rochester, N. Y., author of "History of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Ministerium of the State of New York;" and Rev. Prof. E. J. Wolf, D.D., 
of Gettysburg, Pa., author of "The Lutherans in America," have rendered him 
invaluable assistance, both through their great historic works, and by personal 
communications. To the Rev. J. G. Morris, D. D., L L. D., of Baltimore, Md. 
and Rev. C. A. PCay, D. D., of Gettysburg, Pa., he is indebted for the loan of a 
number of photographs and engravings, granted from the collection of the 
"Lutheran Historical Society", of Gettysburg, Pa. For financial aid in the 
publication of this work the author is under obligations to his friends and par- 
ishioners, Mr. P. H. McCarty, of the "P. H. McCarty Lumber Co.", and Mr. T. 
E. Eriksen, superintendent of the "Island Sash and Door Co." 

In brief, the author begs to thank all the brethren wiio have in any way 
assisted or encouraged him in the preparation of this work. 

May the God of our Lutheran standard bearers add His blessing to this 
humble effort, that it may prove a benediction to our Church, and stimulate her 
members to a more diligent study of her literature, and to the emulation of the 
zeal and devotion of the eminently godly and self-denying men to w^bom this 
volume introduces them. This is the earnest desire and fervent prayer of the 
author. 

J. C. JENSSON. 

Milwaukee, All Saints Day, 1890 



i^lMistoriGal © Intro flaGtioii.l^ 



I HE wonderful growth of the Church naturally commands a corresponding 
-^ recognition of the ministry. With over five thousand pastors and 
teachers in the congregational and educational work, the Lutheran ministry is 
exerting a formative influence upon the religious life of our great Republic. 

The dark days between the first settlement of Lutherans in 1621* and the 
arrival of the patriarch Muhlenberg in 1742 were mainly marked by ecclesiastical 
absorption and political oppression. Through the sweep of a whole century we 
could not muster at any one time a dozen Lutheran ministers in the colonies. 
The spiritual aeal of John Campanius, the first protestant minister to the Indians 
was shown in the translation of Luther's Catechism for this pioneer service in 
1642. It was printed in Stockholm, and was the first publication in the Indian 
tongue, except Elliot's Bible. Campanius and others distinguished themselves 
for devotion to the faith and suffering amid false brethren. 

The formation of the "Ministerium of Pennsylvania" in 1748 begins the firm 
establishment of the Lutheran Church in America, when we had only 11 
ordained ministers, 33 congregations and an estimated membership of 60,000, 
scattered over several states and speaking various tongues. The first church in 
Philadelphia was dedicated at this date; the first printed edition of the Catechism 
was issued from Franklin's press the same year. The first [native minister 
(Christian Streit) was born the following year. The growth of our ministry 
during the past three centuries has been remarkable and is a most suggestive 
fact, when we consider the moral and, spiritual force of such an educated body of 
representative men. In 1690 we had 3 ministers. In 1790 the estimated number 
was 50. In 1890 our official reports give us 4,612 regularly ordained ministers, 
with an additicmal force of fully one thousand consecrated teachers engaged in 
the schools and charitable institutions of the church. 

* 1623 is the date given by some. 

2 



X. AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 

The organization of the first general body in 1820 marks the second era. 
The growth of the church from that time is an inspiration to all who study the 
historic record. Within the memory of many of our ecclesiastical leaders the 
existence of the Lutheran Church in this country was once a struggle against 
the flood-tide of religious fanaticism. .The destruction of evangelical and 
churchly ministrations was experienced along all the border lines. Fifty years 
ago we had hardly 150,000 communicants, and only a handful of educational and 
charitable] institutions, and one religious paper. On the other hand, the 
Methodists had 1,230,069 members, the Baptists 831,035, and -the Presbyterians 
451,239. We may thus see at a glance the relative disadvantages under which 
the ministers of our church labored duriug this favorable period, to say nothing 
of pioneer struggles. Now our official reports excite public admiration, and the 
biographical sketches of our efficient ministers cannot fail to secure a general 
appreciation. 

In his valuable history,* Dr. Wolf says: "One of the most laudable features 
of Lutheran educational work is the care of the orphans. By no other sign 
does she more clearly testify that she has the spirit of God "in whom the father- 
less find mercy." When we recall the instrumentalities by which the Lutheran 
Church came into organic being in America, it may be said that she had her 
birth in an Orphan House. That glorious institution at Halle communicated the 
breath of life to the unorganized mass ready to perish on these shores; and from 
that same fountain the Church was nursed for fifty years. The great preachers 
of that period were graduates of that orphanage. It is not surprising therefore 
to read that one feature marked all the early Lutheran preachers: their attention 
to the young, the poor, the sick, and especially the widows and orphans." With 57 
institutions for the systematic care of the orphan, the stranger, and unfortunate, 
and all, save one, established within the past fifty years, the record of our Church 
for practical Christian charity must cheer any loyal heart. Like many other 
important trusts these eleemosynary enterprises experienced a melancholy 
neglect for a season, but the revival of a faith that works by love, and a more 
intelligent appreciation of our historic church life, have given a new impulse 
to this humane and godly work. The establishment of the Deaconess' Mother 
House at Philadelphia, in connection with the renowned German Hospital, 
under the patronage of that distinguished prince of Lutheran philanthropists, 

* "Lntherans in America," p. 4<S+. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GKAPHIE8. xi. 

Mr. Jolm D. Laukenau is a foretaste of the better day. "With 26 theological 
schools, 36 colleges and seminaries, 37 academies, and 1,000 parochial schools, 
the spiritual influence of the Lutheran Church becomes an important factor in 
the evangelical growth of this country. 

The polyglot and international lil:e of the Lutheran population in America 
makes it an interesting item in the study and solution of vexed social questions. 
False views of the way of Salvation have prejudiced thousands against our 
Church, who might have been blessed and useful under our evangelical care, and 
within reach of the means of grace. The Lutheran Church has always held 
foL-th an open Bible as the only rule and standard according to which at once 
all teaching and teachers should be esteemed and judged (Formula Concordiae). 
She honors Christ as the ouly living Head — follows no spirit save Him who 
speaks according to the revealed Word, leading the believer into "all the truth." 
She is lo3^al to every historic confession of the faith as witnessing to the manner 
and to the places in which the teachings of Holy Scripture were preserved, 
observing with equal faithfulness the written and the sacramental word. 

Despite national and local diversities— enjoyed under the liberty of the 
Gospel — there is a substantial agreement in all fundamental matters of faith and 
usage. Union in love and labor is the poj)ular demand of our one million com- 
municants, who constitute the court of final appeal under the synodical system. 
Thirty years ago, Avhile the church was yet represented by the one general 
body, my grand-father — a graduate of the first class of the Gettysburg Seminary, 
— pleaded with voice and pen for the organic union of our whole American 
Church. The spirit of love and fellowship fled before the rage of internecine 
strife. Those who had met as brothers in the name of the Prince of Peace, met 
as enemies in battle array. The songs of Zion were silenced by the trumpet of 
fratricidal war. Yet the morning cometh. The union of the Scandinavians* is 
the promise of closer fellowship for the German and English churches, and a 
more general co-operation is being promoted, notwithstanding linguistic and 
geographical barriers. Commercial and social intercourse has solved many 
of our ecclesiastical problems. Some appreciation of our linguistic and 
national features may be realized by a glance at the list oi our current publica- 
tions. Since 1831 our religious periodicals have increased from one small paper 
{Lutheran Observer) to 48 English publications, 51 German, 15 Norwegian, 16 

* This union was effected aC Minneapolis, Mien , June 13, 1890. 



xii. AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGiiAPHIES. 

Swedish, 4 Danish, 1 Icelaudic, 3 Finnish, and 2 French, to say nothing of the 
imported publications in various European tongues. Synodical and personal 
individuality is preserved; j^et there is one mind and one spirit for the thousands 
who speak regularly through the polyglot channels of the Lutheran publications, 
and sectarianism has never been known among us. The latest statistics show 
that, of the Lutherans in all lands, 82,000,000 speak German, 5,300,000 Swedish, 
2,500,000 Norwegian, 2,300,000 Danish, 2,048,000 Finnish, 1,250,000 English, 
1,113,000 Hungarian, and that in every other civilized tongue she is well repre- 
sented, numbering in the world 28,406 educated ministers, 38,381 church edi- 
fices, and 50,061,280 baptized members. 

Reviewing the toil and sacrifices of the early years, with the glory, and 
riches, and power of the United Church of the future in reach of our faith and 
hope, w^e should meet the issue like men and Christians. The grand achieve- 
ments of our fathers should encourage us to render a more glorious service amid 
the golden opportunities of our present advantages for personal and synodical 
co-operation. The love of Christ, abounding along the highway of progress, 
along natural lines, should bind us who seek the more important ends of spirit- 
ual advancement closer than railroad and telegraph systems, the promoters of 
commercial and industrial combinations. Choose each man what best 
becomes a loyal Lutheran! For my part, I seek union in love and labor upon 
the honorable terms of faithfulness to every Scriptural mark of our ecclesiastical 
identity, so as to promote charity and quietness in making provision for outward 
uniformity in worship, and for proper governmental authority in our educational, 
missionary, and publication enterprises. 

The Germans and Scandinavians, who compose over two-thirds of the 
American Lutheran Church, are doing as grand a work as the English-speaking 
Christians of any denomination, and this claim needs to be more generally 
recognized. The Mother Church of the Reformation deserves a front rank in 
the evangelical work of this Protestant country. Cardinal Gibbons has scattered 
a book broadcast, in which he seeks to show, by an ingeniously constructed 
table, that the Protestants put Luther and others in the place of Jesus Christ, 
as the founder of the Church. The Episcopalian bishops take a more kindly 
view and recognize our fellowship with Christ, while they deny our Apostolic 
succession in the ministerial service. The Baptists repudiate our church 
membership, and claim that neither the Lord Jesus nor his Apostles would 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. xiii. 

admit us to the Holy Sapper, if they were to found the Church anew. The 
Methodists eschew our system of educational religion, and, despite the fact, that 
Lutherans everywhere constantly and publicly confess their faith in the Holy 
Spirit, our teaching on this important subject is ignored and practically re- 
jected. It is not uncommon to hear their preachers extolling a system of work- 
righteousness and declaring that a man must save himself. Whereas, the 
Lutherans are taught from their childhood to answer: "I cannot by my own 
reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him; but the 
Holy Ghost has called me in the true faith; in like manner as he calls, gathers, 
enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and preserves it 
in union with Jesus Christ in the true faith; in which Christian Church He 
daily forgives abundantly all my sins and the sins of all believers." The dis- 
position to ignore the teachings of our church is not confined to the masses, 
many of whom iiave been led to suppose that "the Germans are a nation of 
illiterate infidels"; but men in high ecclesiastical position need someone to 
teach them the "first principles of the oracles of God." At the great inter- 
national Sunday School Convention in Pittsburgh, Bishop Vincent — amid much 
popular applause — reviewed the strength and weakness of the historic Churches 
in their rise and progress; but the most suggestive fact was^ that in the full 
length of his labored discussion no place was found for the old Mother Church 
of Protestantism, and both her historical existence and the sweep of her ec- 
clesiastical influence was completely ignored. Prominent delegates noticed the 
oversight and suggested to me that the Bishop could not notice all the many 
denominations. Yet, surely such an experienced speaker should not forget the 
Church of the Reformation in a historical survey of the ecclesiastical world, 
when his c^wn mother was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith. 
A certain authorized publication, at the close of an extended sum- 
mary, fails to give our statistical report, after placing the Presbyte- 
rians in the lead, saying for our supposed comfort (p. 240): "If you 

add the Lutherans who are nearer to Presbyterianism than they 

are to Episcopacy or Independency, we have a population of fifty-five out of one 
hundred and seven millions of Protestants, or an actual majority of the 
Protestants of the world."* These statements are made with the best of good 
will, and in the catholic spirit of a true Christian charity. Men in com- 

*''History of Presbyterianism." 



XIV. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



mercial circles advocate liberality; yet, when they come to estimate their 
proxies and count their suflPrages, some regard for the actual ratio of facts is 
evidently demanded, lest the tail should wag the dog. 

For the information of all who desire the facts, the following carefully pre- 
pared summary of Lutheran statistics, published recently by Secretary Lenk- 
er for the Immigrant Society, will be of service: 





Ministers. 


Churches. 


Baptized 
Members. 


Eu rope 

Asia 


22,980 

203 

314 

132 

4,710 

47 

20 


29,644 

142 

237 

310 

7,964 

61 

23 


43,133,096 
90,969 


A f rica . . . . , 


103,821 


Oceanica 


125,794 


North America 

Soiith America 


6,511,500 
95,500 


Jewish M issions 








Total in the world 


28,406 


38,381 


50,061,280 



Many of us have the blood of two empires in our veins. We have put the 
teachiugs and faith of the Fatherland into our English tougue. Thousands of 
our people speak and write fluently in two and three languages, and use the 
English with an intelligent regard for American tendencies of thought. If 
Prof. Freeman, of Oxford, can protest, with any show of rtasou, against our 
calling the British subjects foreigners, how much more should Americans 
everywhere protest against the miserable prejudice which calls our own natural- 
ized Scandinavian and German citizens "foreign elements in society." The 
moral intiuence of the Scandinavian Lutherans saved North Dakota from 
the blighting incubus of the lottery and saloon schemers; and may God forbid 
that these loyal fellow-citizens should ever be esteemed as less American because 
they speak several languages in place of one, and combine the virtues and piety 
of model Lutheran kingdoms with the thrift and industry of our new Republic. 
In Europe, as in America, the Scandinavians possess the elements of the highest 
civilization. Speaking from the standpoint of personal visitation and study of 
real life in the land of universal Lutlieranism, honest men of every creed, like 
Dr. Hamma, write down the Norwegians as the ideal people of the world, and 
the Swedes and Danes as next in rank for all the cardinal virtues of a true 
civilization. Is the Scotch-Irish, or any other European blood, less foreign than 
the German and Scandinavian? Sliall the scholars of this country obtain their 
religious, scientific, and literary culture at the renowned German Universities ? 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. xv. 

Shall the Christian charities of the world receive their inspiration from Halle 
and Kaiserswerth, and America not love and honor the Fatherland? A gracious 
God hath not ignored the German Reformation and its final victoiies under the 
heroic leadership of Gustavus Adolphus, who sealed our liberties with royal 
Swedish blood in Jesus' name. Protestant principles, dearer than life to our 
fathers, are being translated freely into the English language. The scientific 
and theological truth of Germany has largely influenced and formed the 
scholarship of America, and we may reasonably expect good results from the 
personal life of this educated people in the active fellowship of daily intercourse. 
Our thrifty and virtuous German and Scandinavian Christians have grasped the 
jeweled Crown of Northern Europe to enrich and honor the land of their 
adoption — in the social and commercial progress of our Western Republic. 
Such Christians — and they constitute the truly representative element from a 
religious standpoint — have a lawful and abiding place in the evangelical work 
of the American Churches. 

May the true union of all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth 
soon come, when the one Holy, Christian, Catholic, and Apostolic Church can 
joyfully use a common order of worship, unite in the Scriptural Confession of 
faith, and labor together in love for the salvation of the world. "For the ob- 
taining of this faith, the ministry of preaching; the Gospel and administering the 
Sacraments was instituted." — Conf. Aug., Art. V. Those who serve in the holy 
office of pastor or bishop, are worthy of double honor, and should ever be esteemed 
highly in love for their work's sake. They deserve a good report from those 
who are without, and should especially command the greatest possible confidence, 
respect, and love from a Christian public. While we recognize the universal 
priesthood of believers, every man is not called to the ofiice of the ministry; 
but all are called to support and honor this work. Bearing historically 
the name "Evangelical Lutheran," we joyfully embrace the Holy Gospel, 
which gives us Christ the Savior; and are not ashamed (2 Tim. 1: 8) 
of the heroic preacher whom God set forth as a fearless witness of the 
truth in a benighted age, Christianity puts a consecrated personality above 
all forms of ecclesiastical polity. The enlightened worker is more than a mere 
method of work. We follow Paul, or Luther, even as they follow Christ. 1 
Cor. xi, 1; ITh. i, 6; Heb. 6, 12. 

The educational feature is a distinctive idea with the Lutheran Church in 



xvi. AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 

America and Europe, and our average pastors and teachers begin where many . 
of other denominations end. Among our ministers we have hundreds of highly- 
educated pastors and teachers doing a grand, gloTious, and efficient service for 
the moral and spiritual elevation of society. Many of these true teachers will 
go down to their graves in some neglected church-yard, where no costly marble 
will tell to the rising generations of their toil and self-denial. The ministry of 
the Gospel rises above the praise and honors of men; yet one word of cheer to 
the living is worth a dozen funeral sermons, or a whole book full of praise after 
the worker is dead. 

The following biographical sketches of the pastors and teachers who have 
obtained a good report among us is the assurance of things hoped for, and the 
promise of a more successful work at home and abroad. This valuable pub- 
lication which I have the honor to introduce, cannot fail to interest and instruct 
the general public, and by the wide circulation, which it so richly deserves, 
prove a spiritual blessing to the Church and her devoted ministry. A careful 
review of the consecrated lives memorialized in this timely record will be a 
helpful inspiration. The author has aimed at completeness with little regard 
for the labor and expense incident to his task. Many have cheered his heart 
by a generous and prompt response. Some, for reasons best understood by 
themselves, have failed to evince any interest or appreciation, and this often ex- 
plains the omission of sketches which would have been read with great interest. 
In a few cases extra attention to the territory secured a general representation. 
As a reference book of American Lutheran Biographies, this book meets a felt 
want. It will make about 700 pages with some 350 sketches and numerous 
engravings, prepared at great expense. Pastors, teachers, and the public gener- 
ally will find this record of our church -leaders a useful hand-book, richly de- 
serving prompt and wide circulation. Following the writer to the Hebrews, we 
should be especially cheered by the labors of our fathers in the faith: 

"Therefore, let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud 
of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, 
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, 
the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, 
endnred the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the 
throne of God." Heb. 12, 1-2. 

John Eichelberger Bushnell. 

Roanoke, Va., Reformation Day, 1890. 



JffigriGaD latkraD liograpEies. 




KEY. ISKAEL ACEELIUS, Provost. 



"An interesting personal notice is given 
of Acrelius by one of the most distin- 
gnished of his contemporaries in Ameri- 
ca. Dr. William Smith, at that time 
Provost of the Philadelphia Academy, 
and who subsequently took so active a 
part in the American Revolution. In a 
letter to Dr. Seeker, at that time ( Nov. 
1st, 1756, ) Bishop of Oxford, but subse- 
quently Archbishop of Canterbury, he 
says: "The bearer of this is the Rev. 
Mr. Israel Acrelius, a learned Swede, 
who has been several years commissary 
to the Swedish congregations on the 
Delaware, and now returns to considera- 
ble preferment in his own country as a 
reward of his faithful labors. He is 
well entitled to the honor of your Lord- 
3 



ship's notice, and knows the state of all 
the Missions in the province perfectly 

well He has often preached in 

English, and made use of our service. 
" — Introduction to Acrelius, His- 
tory of New Sweden, p. xxvi. 

Acrelius has written a "History of 
New Sweden," published by the "His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania," in 1874. 
With special reference to this work. Dr. 
Wm. M- Reynolds says in his introduc- 
tion: "It is somewhat remarkable that 
Acrelius' labors as a historian, and es- 
pecially as a church historian, has been 
so little recognized either in his own 
country or abroad. The only notice we 
find of him among church historians is 
in Skarstedt's "Manual of Swedish 



18 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Church History," p. 196, where we have 
an account of his controversy with Al- 
nander, in 1761, in regard to the doc- 
trinal relation of the Church of England 
and of Sweden to each other; but no ref- 
erence either to his residence in Ameri- 
ca or his work in New Sweden. Even 
Dr. Rudelbach, who devotes the fifth 
number of his "Christian Biography" to 
an extensive sketch of Bishop Svedberg, 
in which his connection with the Amer- 
ican Mission is particularly noticed, 
makes no mention of this work, in which 
Svedberg' s missionary zeal is so amply 
illustrated. We infer from this that 
but a small edition of the work was print- 
ed, and that it had a very limited circula- 
tion, which is further confirmed by the 
fact that so few copies are now to be found 
either in this country or in Sweden. 
Acrelius lived over thirty years after his 
return. to his native land, dying in the 
year 1800, at the patriarchal age of 
eighty-six." 

From Dr. W. J. Mann's "Life and 
Times of H. M. Muhlenberg," we quote 
the following: 

"During the summer of 1750 the Rev. 
Israel Acrelius, of Sweden, pastor of the 
Swedish Lutheran Church at Christina, 
(Wilmington, Del.,) and Provost of the 
Swedish Lutheran pastors of the Swed- 
ish congregations on the Delaware, ar- 
rived on the field of his future labors. 
In this ofiice as Provost he had as his 

predecessor the Rev. John Sandin , 

who died in August of the year 1748. 
The office had been instituted by the ad- 
vice of Archbishop Jacob Berzelius, of 
Sweden, who had the Swedish churches 
in America under his supervision by a 
royal decree of January, 1747, to pre- 
vent irregularities caused in some of 
them by Moravian intrusion and other 
disturbing elements. Acrelius was ap- 
pointed provost May 29, 1749. He was 
intended at first as pastor for Raccoon 



and Pennsneck, N. J., but information 
of Tranberg's death having been re- 
ceived, he was at once transferred to 
Christina, and left Stockholm July 20, 
arriving at Philadelphia November 6, 
1749, in company with Rev. Eric Unan- 
der, appointed to serve at Raccoon and 

Pennsneck In 1752, Acrelius 

was recalled, and ordered, before leaving, 
to appoint Parlin provost, provided no 
special order should have come from 
Sweden. Acrelius' departure was delay- 
ed until 1756 Following his 

literary tastes, he assiduously collected, 
during his sojourn in Pennsylvania, the 
material for his History of New Sweden, 
which work he wrote after his return to 
his native land, and thereby erected for 
himself a lasting monument. He was a 
man of much practical tact, ample in- 
formation, solid and sober religious con- 
victions, and sound judgment. Before 
coming to America he had served as 
chaplain in the Swedish navy. After 
his return to Sweden he served the 
church of his country through many 
years, as provost and pastor at Fellings- 
bro, diocese of Westeraas. 

Muhlenberg introdoces in his diary ( in 
the year 1784, Oct. 20, ) a letter addressed 
to him, under date June 15, 1784 .... 
wherein it is stated that at that time 
Acrelius was almost totally blind and un- 
able to do any work He had 

an accurate knowledge of the German 
language, and sometimes preached like- 
wise in the English. 

The following is taken from • Acrelius' 
History of New Sweden, p. 311-12: 
"At the meeting in Germantown, in the 
year 1751, the Provost (Acrelius) de- 
livered a sliort oration in Latin, on " The 
Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace.'* 
At the request of the German ministers 
at the meeting in New Providence, in 
the year 1753, he prepared in Latin, a 
narrative on ^'The Origin and Progress of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



19 



the German Evangelical Congregations in 
Pennsylvania and the Adjacent Countries." 
This was presented to the government in 
Philadelphia, as also to the trustees of 
the Free School which had lately been 
established there. In all official trans- 
actions he w^as not only treated affec- 
tionately by his beloved brethren in the 
faith as a faithful adviser, but also hon- 
ored as a presiding officer." I 
The first four years, in succession, he j 
had to undergo severe intermittent fe- : 
vers, which every year trouble the in- 1 
habitants of the country. The numer- \ 
ous official duties, which every year, even 
among the English population, increased 
the more, the more he became acquaint- 
ed with them, and which could not be 
performed without constant traveling I 
over the country, gave him reason to , 
think that his strength w-ould not con- ! 
tinue to be sufficient for this work. He \ 
therefore requested his bishop to re- ; 
lieve him as early as possible, and was i 
assured that this should be accorded as ■ 
soon as proper advancement could be | 
found for him at home. Nevertheless, ■ 
this w^as delayed for several more years un- ! 
til February, 1756, when the recall home, i 
granted by His Most Gracious Majesty ' 
(Frederick Adolph), together with a 
grant of one thousand dollars silver, for ; 
his traveling expenses from the same 
Gracious Sovereign, came to hand. 
Hereupon he was allowed to take his ; 
departure whenever he thought proper, 
and in the meantime Mr. John Abr. ' 
Lidenius, Pastor Extraordinary, might ; 
be appointed Vice-Pastor, and the Rev. ! 



Mr. Parlin Vice-Provost, in his place, 
until the receipt of further orders. But 
as he found that in so free a land it was not 
safe to leave the congregations upon this 
footing, he delayed his departure until 
the arrival of the Royal commissioners, 
whereby Mr. Parlin, the pastor of Wica- 
coa, was appointed Provost for all the 
congregations, and Mr. Eric Unander, 
pastor in Raccoon and Pennsneck, to be 
pastor in Christina, and the Pastor Ex- 
traordinary, Mr. John Abr. Lidenius, as 
pastor in Raccoon and Pennsneck. It 
was also thus settled what Avas to be 
done by the Minister Extraordinary, Mr. 
Peter Nordenlind, upon his arrival, in 
the month of September, which filled up 
the number of the Ministers. 

After he had set all this in order, he 
could resign and joyfully take his de- 
parture, which he did with a sermon at 
Christina, Dom., p. xvi Tr. ( sixteenth Sun- 
day after Trinity), but not without mu- 
tual tears. From the beginning, his 
hearers had embraced him wdth so much 
love, that the separation was wath equal 
regret. Thereupon he delivered a fare- 
w^ell sermon in six different places where 
he had frequently held divine service, to 
which the people followed him from one 
place to another, in great numbers, sor- 
rowing most of all, that they should nev- 
er more behold his face. His departure 
took place on the 9th of November, 1756. 
After his arrival at home he was, by the 
Supreme Consistory, through a special 
grace of the king, appointed to the pas- 
torate of Fellingsbro, in the diocese of 
Westeraas. 



"X^., 




20 



AMEBIC AN LUIHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. EEINHOLD ADELBEEG. 



Eev. Eeinhold Adelberg, pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran St. Peter's Church 
at Milwaukee, Wis,, was born Nov. 9th, 
1835, at Arnstadt, Germany. His par- 
ents were Gunther and Pauline Adel- 
berg. He received his classical educa- 
tion at the Gymnasium in his native 
place, and his theological training at 
Hartwick Seminary, near Cooperstown, 
Otsego county. New York. 

He came to America in 1855. Hav- 
ing finished his course at Hartwick Sem- 
inary, he was called by the Mission 
Committee of the New York Ministerium 
to take up the Home-Mission work at 
Saugerties, N. Y. In 1859 a brick 
church was bought at this place, from 
the German Methodists, for $650.00. 
Having served this charge for two years, 
he accepted a call from the Second Ger- 
man Lutheran Church in Albany, N. Y., 
in October, 1861, where he remained for 
eight years. In 1864, he was elected 



German secretary of the New York Min- 
isterium, and at the convention of this 
body, held in his own church at Albany, 
Aug. 31st to Sept. 5th, 1867, he was 
elected president of the Ministerium. 
succeeding Dr. H. N. Pohlman in that 
office. This position he held for two 
years, Dr. G. F. Krotel being his succes- 
sor, in 1869. Eev. Adelberg' s labors at 
Albany were signally blessed, the com- 
municant membership of his church 
having increased from 260 in 1862, to 430 
in 1864. In 1863 he was nominated by the 
New York Synod as professor at the 
Hartwick Seminary, which, however, he 
declined to accept, preferring to remain 
with his congregation in Albany. Dur- 
ing the latter part of June, 1869, Eev. 
Adelberg accepted a call from a congre- 
gation in Watertown, Wis., which 
belonged to the Wisconsin Synod. He 
served the congregation at Watertown 
for four years. In June, 1873, he ac- 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



21 



ceptecl a call from the Evangelical Lu- 
theran St. Peter's Church, at Milwaukee, 
Wis. , where he has labored with marked 
success for the last seventeen years. In 
1885 his congregation built a beautiful 
thirty-five thousand dollar church, the 
old one having become too small. His 
congregation maintains a flourishing 
parochial school with a general attend- 



ance of about 350 children. Rev. Adel- 
berg has for a number of years, been 
Vice President of the Wisconsin Synod, 
has been treasurer of its institutions for 
sixteen years, and for six years editor of 
the "Gemeinde Blatt." In 1859 he mar- 
ried Miss Julia M. Miller, a daughter of 
Rev. Geo. B. Miller, D.D., Professor of 
Theology, at Hartwick Seminary, N. Y. 



REY. LUTHER E. ALBERT, D.U. 



One of the most able and distiDguish- 
ed clergymen of the General Synod of 
the Lutheran Church, is Rev. L. E. 
Albert, D.D., of Germantown, Philadel- 
phia. He was born in Berlin, Adams Co., 
Penn., March 7, 1828. Like so many 
distinguished men of the church, he is 
the son of a clergyman, Rev. John Jacob 
Albert, who was a man of more than or- 
dinary mould, and rich piety. The son 
was sent to Pennsylvania College, Get- 
tysburg, where he was graduated in 
1847. He immediately continued his 
course in the seminary there, and enter- 
ed the ministry in 1849. After some 
preliminary w^ork, in 1851, he took charge 
of Trinity Lutheran Church, of which 
he is still the beloved pastor. After thirty 
nine years service, in 1867 his Alma Mater 
conferred upon him the degree of D. D. 



He has been repeatedly honored by his 
syDodwith various important offices such 
as, trustee of college; director of theo- 
logical seminary; member and president 
of publication board; president of the 
Pastor's Aid Society. He was elected 
Professor in the Theological Seminary 
in Gettysburg, but declined in favor of 
the pastorate. He has contributed sev- 
eral articles of ability to the Review and 
Quarterly. 

He is an able sermonizer and preach- 
•er, noted for his clear, strong, and lov- 
able utterances. He is rarely winning in 
social and pastoral qualities. He is a 
man of even temperament, excellent 
judgm^ent, and far-seeing sagacity. He 
is well read and abreast of the day. In 
all, he is a leader in the church. 




REY. CHARLES STANLEY ALBERT, D.D. 



Among the younger men in the Gen- 
eral Synod, few have attained to such 
prominence and influence in the church 
as Rev. Chas. Stanley Albert, D. D., of 
Baltimore, Md. He was born August 
17th, 1847, in Hanover, Pa., where hit? 
father, Rev. John Jacob Albert, at that 



time had charge of a large Lutheran 
pastorate. His collegiate course was 
taken at Pennsylvania College, Gettys- 
burg, Pa., where he graduated in 1867 
with the first honors of his class. He 
then entered the Theological Seminary 
of the old Pennsylvania Synod, at Phil- 



22 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



adelphia, Penn., from which he grad- 
uated in 1870. He began his active 
ministry the same year, in Lancaster, 
Pa., where he became an assistant to 
Dr. Greenwald, pastor of Old Trinity 
Church, and had the charge of one of 
the missions of that congregation. 
Daring this time he was connected with 
the old Pennsylvania Synod of the Gen- 
eral Council. In 1872 he was called to 
the pastorate of the Lutheran Church 
in Carlisle, Pa., where he labored with 
great success and ever-growing influ- 
ence and popularity until 1881. This 
church being in connection with the 
West Pennsylvania Synod, of the Gen- 
eral Synod, Mr. Albert transferred his 
membership to that body, and has since 
remained in connection with the Gener- 
al Synod. In 1887 he was called to the 
pastorate of St. Mark's church, of Balti- 
more, Md., to succeed Dr. Charles A. 
Stork, who had been elected as Profess- 
or of Dogmatic Theology in the Semi- 
nary at Gettysburg, Pa. Here Dr. Al- 
bert still remains at this writing 
(1890), and the continued growth and 
development of this large and influen- 
tial congregation proves that they made 
no mistake in selecting him to follow 
the great and good men, father and son, 
who had served there so succcessfully 
the previous quarter of a century. 

From the beginning of his minisiry, 
the church has recognized and appre- 
ciated the unusual abilities and faithful 
earnest spirit of Mr. Albert. In 1887 
he'received the degree of Doctor of Di- 



vinity from his Alma Mater, and he has 
been called to many positions of honor 
and responsibility. He has several 
times been a delegate to the Gener- 
al Synod. In 1784 he was elected a 
director of the Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg, from the West Pennsyl- 
vania Synod, and in 1881 was made 
President of the Board. In the same 
year he was appointed a member of the 
Board of Home Missions, by the Gen- 
eral Synod, and since 1883 he has been 
the President of the same Board. He 
has also served on some of the most im- 
portant committees of the General 
Synod, and is now a member of the Gen- 
eral Synod's Committee to prepare a 
development of Luther's Smaller Cate- 
chism, for the use of the churches. In 
1886 he was elected President of Penn- 
sylvania College, but declined, prefer- 
ring to remain in the pastoral work. 
He has also been a frequent contributor 
to the Church Reviews. 

As a thinker. Dr. Albert is clear, 
logical and convincing. As a preacher, 
he is direct, forcible, and eminently in- 
structive. Well read in theology and in 
general literature, and thoroughly 
abreast of the times, his utterances in 
the pulpit and through the press ever 
command an interested hearing or read- 
ing, and have a most convincing effect, 
while in the counsels of the church he 
has for years been recognized as 
at once strongly aggressive, sound- 
ly conservative, and eminently wise and 
safe. 




REV. C. ALBRECHT. 



Rev. C. Albrecht was born in the 
Grand Duchy of Baden, March 10, 1824, 
and was 62. years, 10 months and 12 days 



old when called to his eternal reward. 
When in his ninth year his parents emi- 
grated to America, settling at Tiffin, O.. 



AMERICAN LIJTHEARN BIOGRAPHIES. 



23 



His collegiate and theological education 
was received at Capital University, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. The latter under the 
supervision of Dr. C. F. Schaeffer, of 
blessed memory. He graduated in 1843, 
when not quite twenty years of age, and 
at once entered upon the active duties 
of the ministry. He served congrega- 
tions in Fairfield, Pickaway and Perry 
counties, Ohio, spending seventeen years 
among the several charges. In 1859 he 
took charge of the congregation in Cir- 
cleville, but, after serving them six 
months, resigned and accepted a call to 
the Miamisburg charge, then composed 
of five congregations, entering upon his 
pastoral office April 1, 1860. 

The charge was afterwards subdivided, 
and he retained the congregations at 
Miamisburg and Ellerton. In 1883 the 
charge was again subdivided, and he 
took pastoral oversight of the one at 
Ellerton, the congregation there having 
built him a beautiful and comfortable 
parsonage. And here in the midst of 
his usefulness, God saw best to call him 
to eternal rest, after having served the 
Church forty -four years. 

Rev. Albrecht was a faithful and de- 
voted pastor, winning the love and es- 
teem of his people; he was a true preach- 
er of the Word, and his sermons were 
models of thought, labor, and devotion 
to his work of saving souls. 

He was also full of zeal for the mate- 
rial prosperity of the Church. There 
was hardly a charge that he served 
where he did not leave a monument to 
his labors in this direction, in the shape 
of a new parsonage or church edifice or, 
as at Miamisburg and Ellerton, both. 

In the general work of the Church he 
also took an active part. He was one of 
tJiR founders of the Evangelical Lutheran 
District Synod of Ohio, to which he be- 
longed, and was its president during the 
first four years of its existence. He, also, 



took an active part in the formation of 
the General Council, being elected a 
delegate to the first three Conventions. 

He was twice married; first to Miss 
Conrad, while at Amanda, who lived but 
a few^ years, leaving him a son. He was 
married the second time in 1851 to Miss 
Julia Wagenhals, daughter of the late 
Father J. Wagenhals, one of the pio- 
neers in the Lutheran ministry in this 
state, and she, w^ith her four sons and 
three daughters, still survive to mourn 
his sudden departure from among them. 

Rev. Albrecht, while still pastor at 
Miamisburg, met with an accident which 
resulted in the dislocation of his left 
shoulder, and from which he never fully 
recovered. He was still active and vig- 
orous, however, and after the separation 
! of the charge in 1883, took the pastorate 
of the congregation at Ellerton, and en- 
. tered with zeal and earnestness upon the 
I work there. 'In the fall of that year, in 
I the midst of the Jubilee services, he was 
, stricken with paralysis, which for a 
^ short time partly disabled him, the 
stroke falling upon the left side, already 
weakened by the fall of a few years be- 
fore. But he gradually recovered from 
its effects, and under his pastoral labors, 
his congregation steadily increased in 
membership, until the old church be- 
came too small, and it was determined 
to erect a new and larger one. 

A separation then took place — it be- 
ing a Union church — the Reformed 
buying the old edifice, and the Luther- 
ans starting upon the work of erecting 
a new one. The corner-stone was laid 
and it was expected to get the church 
under roof before winter set in. 
But the contractors for the brick work 
failed to keep their promises, and so the 
building stood open and exposed to the 
rains and snows of that time of the year. 
This was a source of much vexation to 
pastor Albrecht but, in as even a frame 



24 



AMEBICAK LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of mind as could be expected, he kept 
on with his work, looking forward with 
eagerness to the resumption of opera- 
tions in the early spring. 

All sudden and unexpected, therefore, 
came his death. He had been suffering 
for a few days with what seemed a 
slight cold, but no one dreamed of fatal 
results. On Saturday afternoon, Janu- 
ary 22d, he went to the post office for 
his mail. He felt very weak on his way 
back home, and sat down at the new 
church to rest. After chatting a few 
moments with a member, who was work- 
ing there, he started for the parsonage. 
He took but a few steps when he fell to 
the ground. Those near ran to his aid 
and found him conscious, but in great 
pain. He was borne home, where he 
lingered a couple of hours, steadily 
growing weaker until death eased his 
sufferings, and the laborer had entered 
upon his reward. 

His funeral took place the following 
Wednesday, and, in spite of a bluster- 
ing snow-storm, the whole congregation 
gathered to pay the last tribute to his 
memory. Large numbers were present 
from the neighboring towns, especially 
from Miamisburg, where he had 
preached so many years. Be vs. Mech- 
ling, Poorman, Brown, Bowman, Al- 
brecht and Seibert of the Lutheran 
Church, and Bevs. Dr. Beiter, Dr. Herr- 



man and Williard of the Beformed 
Church, were present and took part in 
the service. Bev. S. AVagenhals, of Ft. 
Wayne, a brother-in-law of the deceased, 
was present with the bereaved family. 
The choir of the Lutheran church at 
German town, by request, had charge of 
the musical part of the service. Bev. 
A. E. Seibert, the pastor of the same 
church, spoke a few earnest words from 
Psalms cxii, 6, urging all to keep "in 
everlasting remembrance" the life and 
labors of the departed pastor, after 
which Bev. G. W. Mechling, of Lancas- 
ter, Ohio, read the obituary of the de- 
ceased, closing with a fervent exhorta- 
tion in German, from Hebrews xiii, 7, 
that their remembrance of him who was 
so suddenly taken from them, should be 
a following of his faith, and a walking 
in the way he had set before them, by 
his life and teaching. 

After the close of the service in the 
church, his body was reverently laid to 
rest under the shadow of the new church 
he had labored so earnestly to have 
erected, and to whose completion he had 
looked forward anxiously and yet lov- 
ingly, which now is a more fitting mon- 
ument to his memory than shaft of mar- 
ble or granite; and yetl'more enduring 
than either, will be the everlasting re- 
membrance of his life and labors — 
Workman. 




BEV. NICODEMUS ALDBICH. 



Bev. Nicodemus Aldrich, son of Bob- 
ert and Ann H. (Lebby) Aldrich, was 
born at Charleston, S. C, Jan. 14th, 
1816. He prepared for college in the 
South Carolina Society School, at 
Charleston. His Theological studies 



were pursued under Dr. Barnwell, of the 
Episcopal church, and were completed 
in 1840. He was licensed in 1840, by 
Rev. John Bachmann, D. D., and or- 
dained in November, 1841, by the Synod 
of South Carolina. His first charge 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



25 



was at Savannah, Ga., 1841-47. From ' 
this time until 1854, he was compelled | 
to rest from active pastoral work, when ' 
he was elected Principal of the Acade- 
my for Young Ladies, at Edgefield, S. j 
C. In 1856 he was appointed General | 
Agent of South Carolina for the Ameri- 
can Tract Society, which position he 
filled until appointed Agent for the 
Newberry College, in 1859. He remain- 
ed in this capacity until the opening of 
the rebellion. Mr. Aldrich served dur- 
ing the war as Chaplain of the First S. 
C. Regiment. In 1855 he accepted a 
call to Charlotte, N. C, in connection 
with which he taught a parochial school. 



His third charge was at Vandalia, 111., 
1874-77. In 1877 he accepted a call 
from King's Mountain, N. C, and some 
years later to Giles county, Va., where 
he remained two years, after which he 
returned to North Carolina. In 1884 he 
went to Baltimore, where he remained 
until his death. He was editor of the 
"Southern Lutheran" and the "Evan- 
gelical Lutheran." He was married 
Nov. 1st, 1838, at Charleston, S. C , to 
Elizabeth Stroebel, who, with two sons, 
survived him. He died June 3d, 1866, 
of apoplexy, aged 70 years, 4 months 
and 11 days, and was buried at Char- 
lotte, N. C— Stall. 




REV. PAUL ANDERSEN, 

Whose full name is Paul Andersen Nor- , piously brought up, so that it can be 



land, was born in Yang, Yalders, Nor- 
way, August 24th, 1821. As he had pious 
parents, and especially his mother being 
a gentle, earnest God-fearing Chris- 



truthfully said of him what we read 
about Timothy, (2 Tim. 3, 15) 
"From a child thou hast known the holy 
scriptures, which are able to make thee 



tian woman, he was from his childhood j wise unto salvation through faith which 
4 



26 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



is in Christ Jesus." In his early 
youth his heart was drawn to the Lord, 
so that he learned to know and love his 
Savior. But it was more especially 
when preparing for confirmation by the 
eminent Pastor Halvorsen, of Skjold, 
that the truth of God's word made a 
lasting impression on his heart. When 
he arrived in New York, a pious man 
came to him and presented him with a 
tract, which made a serious impression 
on his mind just at his entrance into the 
new world. It can truly be said of 
him that from his youth he grew in 
grace and knowledge of the truth. 

It has been asserted that he was con- 
verted by EllingEielsen, but this is not 
so. Andersen had been in this country 
for some time before he met and became 
acquainted withEielsen. When he came 
to Chicago he met his friend and ac- 
quaintance from Norway, Andreas 
Scheie, who then held devotional meet- 
ings ar>.ong the emigrants from Norway, 
and here their old friendship was 
renewed, which lasted until the 
end of Scheie's life. Soon after 
Andersen also became acquainted with 
a friend and brother, Rev. O. Andrew- 
son, and between them a life- long friend- 
ship was established. 

While Andersen was yet young his 
parents removed from Valders to Skjoldg, 
near Stavanger. His father died soon 
after. Andersen then entered the ser- 
vice of the rich and esteemed Sheriff 
Egesdahl, where he soon was promoted 
from watching the sheep to office work. 
He also enjoyed the instructions of a tu- 
tor engaged to educate the sheriff's own 
children. Andersen's ardent desire to 
gain knowledge, a gift he possessed from 
childhood, received encouragement, 
and here was laid the foundation to his 
future education. Andersen felt a 
strong desire to be educated for the 
ministry. Assistance was promised him 



to attend the University of Christiania, 
but the promises were never fulfilled on 
account of sickness and other untoward 
circumstances in the family of the bailiff. 

P. Andersen remained with Egesdahl 
about ten years. There he acquired, 
among other useful knowledge, a knowl- 
edge of English, so that when he came 
to America, in 1843, he was able to read 
and write the English language. A 
short time after his arrival he became 
acquainted with an American minister, 
Lemuel Hall, residing in Geneva, Wis. 
By him he was advised and encouraged 
to enter Beloit College, at that time just 
commenced. It has been asserted that 
"Elling Eielsen encouraged this hope- 
ful young man to study," but this is not 
true; on the contrary, Eielsen sought to 
discourage him, and told him that it 
was dangerous for one that studies to 
be preserved in tlie simplicity of Chris- 
tianity, and much more of the same stuff. 

When he entered college, it was told 
the young Paul Andersen Norland that 
his Norwegian name was too long, and 
that he ought to drop "Norland" and 
only retain Paul Andersen. He was in- 
duced to do this, but has since regretted 
that he did not retain the beautiful 
name of his fathers. He has, neverthe- 
less, not seen his way clear to change 
his name, as he was generally known by 
the name Paul Andersen. His children, 
however, who are all grown up, have 
legally adopted the name Norland. In 
1847 he was appointed to translate and 
have printed in the Norwegian language 
the State Constitution of Illinois. In 
1854 he was called upon by the Govern- 
ment at Washington to translate the 
United States Constitution into the Nor- 
wegian language. 

On a call from the Norwegian people 
residing in Chicago, P. Andersen visited 
them on the 6th of January, 1848, to, if 
possible, unite them in an organized 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



27 



Lutheran congregatioD. His old friend, 
Even Heg, father of Col. Hans Heg, 
went with him to Chicago and led the 
singing in the divine services. The first 
Norwegian Lutheran congregation in 
Chicago was organized February 14, 
1848, and P. Andersen was unanimously 
elected pastor. So soon as navigation 
opened on the lakes he took a steamer 
for Buffalo, and thence to Schoharie, 
near Albany, New York, there, at the 
annual meeting of Synod, to be exam- 
ined and ordained to the holy minis- 
terial office. At that time there was no 
English Lutheran Synod in the West- 
ern states known to P. Andersen and 
his friends. In the first part of June, 
1848, after a satisfactory examination, 
he was ordained and hastened back to 
Chicago, where he, with much zeal, be- 
gan his pastoral duties. He was the 
first Scandinavian Lutheran minister in 
this country who introduced regular 
English services in his congregation — 
placing the English on an equal footing 
with the Norwegian — and also estab- 
lishing the first Sunday school among 
our people, which was also in English. 
By this course he gained the confidence 
and co-operation of the young people. 
Old and young gathered around him, 
and the blessings of God rested on pas- 
tor and congregation, so that in unity 
and love they worked in harmony to 
build up the kingdom of God and pro- 
moted the salvation of souls. The con- 
gregation increased year by year and 
became the largest city congregation 
among our people in this country. 

By mutual sacrifices from pastor and 
people, a very roomy and well-arranged 
church was erected on Superior street. 
In the beginning it was used by the 
Norwegian congregation only, but after 
awhile, when several Swedish families 
united with it, and it became evident 
that the Swedes needed a pastor of their ] 



own. Pastor Andersen advised them to 
unite in the organization of a Swedish 
Lutheran congregation. When the 
Sw^edes, by Pastor Andersen's efforts, 
had become a congregation, they called 
Erl. Carlson as their pastor. The Swe- 
dish congregation used the Norwegian 
church on Superior street for their ser- 
vices, and the pastors, Andersen and 
Carlson, labored together in harmony 
and brotherly love. When, however, 
both congregations, especially the Nor- 
wegian, increased very rapidly, so that 
the church became too small, the Nor- 
wegian congregation sold the church to 
the Swedish sister congregation. Pas- 
tor Andersen's people bought lots on 
the corner of Erie and Franklin streets, 
and proceeded at once with the erection 
of a large brick church, the cost of 
which was about S18,000. As many of 
the members were laborers in rather 
straightened circumstances, they were 
not able, with all their exertions and 
sacrifices, to complete the church with 
their own limited means. Pastor 
Andersen went to the Eastern states, 
and collecetd money among Lutherans 
for the erection of a church. He was 
successful in his efforts, and collected in 
the Eastern states, about $4,000. The 
church was erected and finished, and for 
many years it was the largest and most 
conveniently arranged church among 
the Norwegian Lutherans in America. 
Pastor Andersen labored continuously 
in Chicago for a period of thirteen yeare. 
He preached often, instructed the young 
people in the word of God, visited the 
sick and dying, helped the poor and 
needy, assisted his Norwegian country 
people to get work, and labored inces- 
santly to_^relieve temporal and spiritual 
distress. Very often he had to labor by 
night and day, in order to help and 
bring relief to his own people and others 
in their distress and misery. 



28 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



When the cholera and other contagious 
diseases prevailed in Chicago, Pastor 
Andersen was continually at work to 
procure doctors and medicine for the 
sick, find shelter for strangers, and get 
decent and Christian burial for the many 
that died. All this incessant labor in 
and outside of his own congregation, his 
many journeys to different settlements 
to preach, ^etc, etc., all this continual 
toil and labor, caused his otherwise 
strong constitution by degrees, to fail. 
In order to res:ain his health — if possi- 
ble — he asked his congregation to grant 
him a vacation for a year, to visit Nor- 
way. Here he remained one year. He 
returned, seemingly cured, but when he 
again commenced his pastoral duties, 
his throat difficulty commenced anew. 
He therefore felt himself under the ne- 
cessity, for a time, to resign his pastoral 
labors, and seek rest in private avoca- 
tions. He removed to Norway, and re- 
mained there a few years. But his children 
did not enjoy life in Norway, and were 
longing to return to America, wherefore 
he returned to his old home in Chicago. 
He believed that on account of his throat 
difficulty, which he feared would again 
appear if he should resume public min- 
istrations, that it would not be prudent 
to again take up the loved labor. He 
preached, however, while he resided in 
Norway, and in this country, as often as 
he was requested to do so, and his health 
would permit. The Lord, in his al- 
wise providence, willed it, however, that 
he should resume the public ministry. 
In 1876 he received and accepted a call 
to the Scandinavian Lutheran Congre- 
gation in Milwaukee. Here he labored 
successfully for eight years, and was be- 
loved and respected by old and young. 
Pastor, and afterwards Professor, L. 
P. Esbjorn, was the first Swedish Lu- 
theran pastor who came to this country 
to preach the word of God to his coun- 



trymen, and gather them into Lutheran 
congregations. Between this pious and 
orthodox man, and Pastor Andersen, a 
band of unions and mutual confidence 
was established as soon as they became 
acquainted, and they labored together 
for the upbuilding of the kingdom of 
God. By their united efforts Kev. E. 
Carlson was called to Chicago, and T. 
N. Hasselquist to Galesburg. These, 
the oldest pastors of the Swedish Luth- 
eran Church, and Pastor Paul Andersen 
always stood in the most intimate union 
of faith and love. In the confcbsional 
struggle, which had to be maintained 
during the latter years that they were 
connected with the Synod of Northern 
Illinois against unscriptural and un- 
Lutheran Doctrines, Andersen had gen- 
erally to take the lead, as he was the on- 
ly Scandinavian minister in the Synod 
who had a proper command of the Eng- 
lish language, but all the other Swedish 
and Norwegian pastors, especially L. P. 
Esbjorn and F. N. Hasselquist and Er- 
land Carlson, stood firmly by him in the 
defense of the Lutheran Confession. 
At the meeting in Cedarville, 111., Sept. 
2^0ct 4, 1857, Eev. Andersen was elect- 
ed president of the Northern Illinois 
Synod. 

As already stated. Pastor Andersen 
labored for the erection of two church- 
es while he was pastor in Chicago. He 
also gathered the first Swedish Luther- 
an congregation in Chicago, and was in- 
strumental in saving our Swedish breth- 
ren from the proselytism of the Epis- 
copalians and Methodists. His Swedish 
and Norwegian brethren have, for this, 
and foi his confessional steadfastness, 
expressed publicly their acknowledge- 
ment and grateful thanks. 

The many poor and needy which he 
has assisted in times of trouble and dis- 
tress, the many widows and orphans 
which have been comforted by him in 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



29 



their helplessness, have not forgotten to 
thank God for the timely help recdered 
them in the name of God, through the 
instrumentality of Pastor Andersen. 
During the prevalence of cholera in Chi- 
cago, he took a number of Norwegian 
children, at two different times, to the 
Lutheran Orphanage at Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Those he brought there the first time he 
went there were the first orphans 
brought to that institution. He ac- 
knowledged and confessed always, that 
we are not sufficient of ourselves to ac- 
complish anything, as from ourselves, 
but our sufficiency is from God, who al- 
so made us able ministers of the new 
covenant, not of the letter but of the 
spirit. — 2 Cor., iii, 5-6. 

His scriptural, instructive and ear- 
nest sermons always attracted a large 
number of hearers around his pulpit; 
and we may rejoice in the hope that the 
truths he presented were, and will yet 



continue to be, a means of admonition 
and guidance for many yet alive, and 
that on the great day he will meet many 
among the great multitude of the re- 
deemed and saved, who, by his instru- 
mentality in the hand of God, were led 
unto eternal salvation. 

He has taken an active part in church 
work amoiig us from the very begin- 
ning, and has taken his part in promot- 
ing the welfare of our people and to 
build up the Kingdom of God among us. 
On account of old age and poor health 
Pastor Andersen resigned the congre- 
gation in Milwaukee. He preaches yet, 
however, sometimes in English and 
sometimes in the Norwegian languages, 
when he is requested to do so and his 
health permits. It is our hope that 
the Lord will add many years yet to his 
useful life for the glory of God, the 
well-being and blessing of his family 
and many friends. — H. 



KEY. EASMUS ANDEESEN. 



Eev. Easmus Andersen was born in 
Yedelshave, Asperup parish, by Middle- 
fart, Denmark. His parents were An- 
ders Easmussen and Maren Jorgensen. 
Of their four children, Easmus was the 
youngest. They were in limited circum- 
stances, had only one house on a small 
parcel of land. The father was a tailor, 
and like many of similar circumstances 
in Denmark, they had only enough to 
supply their daily wants, wherefore they 
could not afford to let their son follow 
his inclination to study, no matter how 
willing they were. From earliest child- 
hood the son loved to read. He was al- 
ways imbued with this love; both when 
he was home and when he was watching 
his parents' cow, he always had a book 
in his hand. The Holy Spirit was op- 



erative in the child's heart, and the 
thought to work for the promotion of 
the kingdom of God early entered the 
child's mind, whereupon it was his con- 
stant wish that it might be possible for 
him to enter a school, and thereafter to 
go out as a missionary. The minister, 
Melbye, lent books to the boy so fond 
of reading, and he read with special 
interest "Melbye' s Narratives from 
Church History." Likewise he sought 
to obtain the Missionary reports and 
Missionary publications. J I These still 
more filled his heart with a living desire 
to work for the kingdom of God. Es- 
pecially when he read of some poor boy 
that, in spite of his poverty, had suc- 
ceeded in finishing a course of study, he 
wished and prayed from his heart, that 



30 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




the Lord would likewise make this pos- 
sible for him, and henceforth he always 
looked to the hour when he might depart 
from the Fatherland and go out with the 
glad tidings. A little incident from his 
childhood is here cited: In the Middle- 
fart country Christian life was manifest- 
ed to a great degree, especially from the 
earlier Fyenske revival days; the be- 
lievers assembled in private houses, 
where some lay preacher "would preach 
the word. These preachers were partly 
from the revival days; at times a preach- 
er was sent to them from the Moravian 
congregation in Christiansfeldt. On the 
second day of Christmas was to be a 
meeting on the field of Kustrup; the 
Danish missionary-school in Copen- 
hagen was just about to be opened, and 



T. Andersen, the son in the house, was 
admitted as the first pupil of the school. 
It was the first religious meeting that 
he ever attended. When he came the 
lady of the house spake these words to 
him: "It is indeed you that wishes to 
become a missionary;" and the son, T. 
Andersen, said: "Come hither and sit 
by me, also I will be a missionary." 

After the meeting it was said to him : 
"Is it possible that you can feel inclined 
to go so far away?" While the mouth 
as yet hardly dared to express it, an un- 
qualified "yea" was given in the depth 
of the heart. In his mind and in his 
thoughts he went far away from the 
Fatherland to work as a missionary. The 
missionary idea and the call to be a mis- 
sionary had now taken definite shape in 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



31 



his mind. But in what mission he should 
work was not as yet so clear. The Lord 
in his wise providence caused T. Ander- 
sen to be among the first missionaries 
that were sent from the Danish mission 
to the East Indies in order to re-com- 
mence the old mission, and he became 
its real founder, and of the American 
mission R. Andersen was the first one 
sent by us to take up the - work among 
the Danes in America. 

This was the call in boyhood to be a 
missionary; thereupon he was prepared 
for confirmation by Eev. M. Melbye. 
This was a blessed time which, through 
the help of God, he will never forget. 
Rev. Melbye sought to lead the catechu- 
mens to Jesus, and wished that they 
once might give him the testimony the 
disciples of John gave, namely that he 
did no miracles, but all things, that he 
spake of Jesus were true ( John 10, 41 ) ; 
so that they could speak from their own 
experience and say, like the Samaritans 
to the woman: Now we believe not be- 
cause of thy saying, for we have heard 
him ourselves (John 4,42). After being- 
confirmed he desired to enter a seminary, 
l)ut he lacked the necessary means. He 
was led into other connections, and as it 
did not seem possible to attain anything 
else he took up manual labor. There- 
upon the Lord tried him by a long and 
protracted sickness, but this was also led 
by the hand of a loving Father and 
Saviour. After having recovered he was 
appointed to be an assistant teacher of 
the lower classes in the common school, 
and afterward he was engaged likewise 
in a free-school. 

At this time he was informed of the 
missions already begim among the Scan- 
dinavian seamen in foreign parts, and es- 
pecially of the Norwegian seamen-min- 
ister's work, and thereby a definite idea 
entered his mind to begin a mission 



I among the Danish seamen, and among 
the Danes in America. He inquired of 
a friend whether ministers or mission- 
aries were sent to America. The friend 
knew nothing about this. The constant 
idea was to begin a mission among sea- 
men and Danes in foreign lands, but as 
only ministers, or candidates that had 
passed examination at the University of 
Copenhagen, were sent out on such mis- 
sions the idea could not be realized. He 
now thought of serving the heathen mis- 
sion but he was hindered from making 
an application to this effect by those 
conversing with him on this subject. 
The ways of the Lord are wonderful; 
and the Lord led him in wonderful ways. 
Since it was not possible to enter some 
school he had to stop teaching; and he 
had to begin with something else. He 
came to Odense, where he worked; the 
evening hours he spent in attending an 
evening school, which was conducted by 
three of the pastors of the city, three 
teachers, two theological candidates and 
two law candidates. 

At that time Dean J. Victor Block re- 
signed his office in order to go out as 
a missionary among the Mohammedans. 
His plan was to go to Athens or to Con- 
stantinople and work to get a Northern 
Union Mission,, and to see if a union 
could be effected with the Greeks. This 
missionary thought pleased him ( Ander- 
sen), especially since there would be 
opportunity to work among Northern 
seamen, in some Greek or Turkish port 
and he applied to Dean Block. But 
this mission lasted only till Block had 
made a journey to Greece; whereujjon he 
sought to be reinstated in office. But 
now he read an article in Den indre Mis- 
sionstidende of 1867. The article was 
signed with the anonymous name "Mon- 
itor," and urged the necessity of doing 
something for the Danes in America. 



32 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Hencefortli it was plain to him that the 
Lord had called him to work among the 
Danes in America. 

But as yet there was no one that 
worked for this mission, wherefore he 
did not know to whom he shonld apply. 
Dean J. Yahl had before spoken in favor 
of the seamen's cause, and he applied to 
him, and at the same time wrote an arti- 
cle: "The Danes in America," which 
was printed in Dean Yahl's paper, Al- 
mindelig KirJietidende, No. 25, 1868. Dean 
Vahl referred him to the school in Rys- 
linge, where he could obtain efficient 
help and Christian guidance from Eev. 
John Clausen. At first Andersen had a 
conversation about the matter with Eev. 
J. Moeller, in Odense, and he receive(j 
him with fatherly love. After having 
conversed with Eev. Clausen he, by the 
help of Eev. Moeller and believing 
friends, on the 8th of May, 1869, entered 
the school in Eyslinge. He attended 
this school two years and took private 
lessons besides. By the assistance of 
the Pastors Moeller and Clausen, and 
also at Faro Academy, he prepared him- 
self for the mission in America, even 
before any society was organized with 
this end in view. "The Church Union 
for the bishopric of Fyen" had at its 
meeting in 1868 thought of beginning a 
mission in America. In October, 1869, 
"The Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel among the Danes in North 
America" was organized. The Pastors J. 
C. Moeller and J. Clausen were the lead- 
ing men in this mission. In the spring 
of 1871 the first missionaries were to be 
sent out; those sent were Pastor A. C. 
L. Grove Easmussen, now pastor in Den- 
mark, Pastor A. L. Nelsen, and mission- 
ary E. Andersen. On the 31st of May 
they sailed from Hamburg on the steam- 
ship Thuringia, arriving at New York 
on the 13th of June. After a couple 
of days stay in that city they went to 



Chicago, having started out to begin a 
mission that was entirely new to Den- 
mark, — the mission among the Danes in 
America. The Lord soon saw fit through 
sickness to try Brother Andersen. On 
the 22d of June he had to be sent to the 
small-pox hospital in Chicago. While 
in the hospital he received a letter from 
Eev. Adam Dan, who a few days pre- 
vious had arrived at Eacine, Wis., hav- 
ing accepted a call from the Danish con- 
gregation there. Having recovered from 
his sickness he went to Eacine July 26, 
(Grove Easmusssen and Nelson had 
gone back to the mother country). 
While in Eacine he received a letter 
from Eev. Mueller Eggen, advising him 
to enter the seminary of the Norwegian- 
Danish Conference. He accordingly 
went to see Eev. Mueller Eggen. After 
having enjoyed the kind hospitality of 
Eev. Mueller Eggen, on Eock Prairie, 
he, on Sept. 15th, entered Augsburg 
Theological Seminary at Marshall, Wis. 
Acting according to the recommenda- 
tion and advice of Prof. Wenaas he 
spent his Christmas vacation in Wau- 
paca, Wis. On the second day of 
Christmas the Danish Evangelical Luth- 
eran congregation of that city called 
him as its pastor, and on Dec. 30th he 
received the call. After the vacation he 
again went to Augsburg Seminary and 
remained there till Pentecost, when he 
passed examination. He thereupon went 
to Waupaca, Wis. 

Since the Society wished to work in- 
dependently among the Danes in Amer- 
ica, Andersen, as their missionary, could 
not, as he first intended, remain in the 
"Conference." It is to be deplored that 
afterward dissensions arose between the 
Danish Mission and the Conference, in 
which both sides were to blame. How- 
ever, the Lord has caused all this to 
work together for the good, and He 
whose will is that his children should be 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



33 



one, and that his disciples should be 
known by their brotherly love, has 
more and more enabled the Lutheran 
church to work together in love. 

June 26, 1872, Andersen was ordained 
to the holy ministry by Bev. A. S. Nielsen. 
The two other Danish ministers, Adam 
Dan, who had been called from Jerusa- 
lem by the Danish congregation in Ba- 
cine, and Bev. Thomsen, who formerly 
had been missionary in the East Indies, 
and who of his own accord had sailed 
to America and become a minister of the 
gospel in Indianapolis, Ind., were like- 
wise present and assisted at the ordina- 
tion. Andersen preached, his text being 
I Cor. ii, 1 2. At the ordination four 
Danish ministers were present, and this 
was the first Danish church meeting and 
ordination in America, and it was the 
beginning of a Danish church union. 
On the 8th and 9th of September the 
pastors Dan and Andersen held a meet- 
ing in Neenah, Wis., where "Our 
Savior's Danish Lutheran" congregation 
was organized. The Danes had former- 
ly belonged to the '•Conference" congre- 
gation, but the union was dissolved in a 
friendly and l:>rotherly manner. At the 
same time the Danish ministers and con- 
gregations were organized as a union, 
under the name, ''Kirkelig Missionfor- 
ening." Soon Dan, Andersen and several 
laymen commenced to publish the "Kirk- 
elig Samler," as the organ of the Mission 
Union. Bev. Thomsen, who was ab- 
sent, c(mnected himself with it after- 
ward. 

On the day of Pentecost, Juiie 1, 1873, 
Andersen laid the corner stone to the 
new church in AVaupaca, ''The Church 
of the Holy Ghost." He likewise suc- 
ceeded in building a church in Neenah, 
"Our Savior's Church," which was ded- 
icated Oct. 12th, 1873, by Bev. J. A. 
Heiberg, of Chicago, who, a short time 
previous, was sent out by the Society. 



He was ordained by the pastor of the 
church, A. Dan, and A. C. Jacobsen, of 
the Conference. Heiberg was at the 
same time chosen a member of the direc- 
tory of the Church Mission Union, and 
the next year he was elected president. 

The Society sent out more ministers, 
so that the small Danish Church Mis- 
sion Union made commendable pro- 
gress. Bev. A. L. J. Soholm accepted 
a call from Perth Amboy, N. J., and 
Bev. H. Bosenstand became tlie pas- 
tor of a congregation in Manistee, 
Mich. In June two more co-labor- 
ers were expected from the Society 
in Denmark. J. Pedersen and O. L. 
Kirkeberg were ordained by Bev. A. L. 
P. Soeholm in the Trinity Church, Chi- 
cago, on the 25th of June, 1874. On 
June 26, 1874, Mr. Andersen was mar- 
ried to Miss Dorthea Elsabeth Thom- 
sen, in the Trinity Church, Chicago, 
the Bev. Heiberg performing the cere- 
mony. Mrs. Andersen had served three 
years at the Deaconess' institute in Co- 
penhagen. A meeting was thereupon 
held in Bacine, Wis., where the name of 
the Society was changed to "The Dan- 
ish Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
xlmerica." 

Bev. Andersen labored also among the 
Danes in the vicinity of Waupaca. He 
organized the Danish Lazarus congre- 
gation in Pine Biver, and besides, served 
several other small missionary congre- 
gations. There he continued the work 
until 1878, when he received a call from 
St. Stephen's congregation, at Perth Am- 
boy, N. J., and adjacent c(uigregations. 
In connection with this he was also to 
serve as immigrant missionary in Castle 
Garden, N. Y. Bev. Andersen and his 
wife now departed from the congrega- 
tion where they had spent so many hap- 
py days. The remains of their only 
child, a little girl, rests in the grave yard 
at Waupaca. 



34 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



On the day of Pentecost, the 9th of 
June, 1878, he preached his first sermon 
in St. Stephen's Church, in Perth Am- 
boy, N. J. A large field lay before him, 
since he was the only Danish minister 
of the Gospel in the Eastern states. It 
was especially the seamen and the im- 
migrant mission that attracted him to 
New York. He was too far away to 
take proper care of this mission. As 
yet he had not preached either in Brook- 
lyn or in New York, bnt Wednesday, 
Jiily 10th, he succeeded in making a be- 
ginning. On Sept. 13th, he removed 
from Perth Amboy to Brooklyn. This 
was a gain to the Immigrant Mission, 
but a loss to the congregation in Perth 
Amboy. Mr. Andersen was now con- 
nected with the Danish Seamen's Mis- 
sion, and as its pastor, received support 
from it. He had to make missionary 
journeys to the Danes scattered in dif- 
ferent states. He served a congregation 
at Lansingburgh, N. Y. 

The Seamen's mission was first begun 
in a hall called "Augsburg Chapel," cor- 
ner of Twenty-second Street and Third 
Avenue, Brooklyn, and also at St. John's 
German Lutheran Church, Greenpoint, 
Brooklyn. 

In the beginning of 1881, Andersen 
and wife made a trip to Denmark, by the 
steamship ThingTalla. He traveled a 
great deal in Denmark and spoke the 
cause of the American mission ; especial- 
ly did he speak in favor of Emigrant 
and Seamen's Missions and called the 
attention to the necessity of beginning 
a Danish mission among the Mormons 
in Utah. He preached in several church- 
es in Sjalland, Fyen and Jylland. 
Strengthened by the Christian associa- 
tions and the love of the saints, they 
again sailed back to America by the 
Thingvalla, on May 17th, 1881. 

In the beginning of 1881 brighter 
times dawned upon the Danish Mission. 



The house No. 193 Ninth Street, Brook- 
lyn, was rented for the public services of 
the congregation and mission. Several 
lent their aid, especially does the gener- 
al agent of the Thingvalla line, L. C. 
Petersen, deserve special mention in 
this connection. The lower story was 
remodeled into a church and the upper 
story into a parsonage. 

Quinquagesima Sunday, Feb. 4, 1883, 
Andersen dedicated ''Our Savior's Dan- 
ish Lutheran church," and on the 17th 
of April, 1883, the congregation was or- 
ganized. It was now possible to have 
divine services every Sunday and also 
every Thursday evening, as he had an 
assistant in Rev. Lilleso, who afterwards 
resided in L^nsingburg, N. Y. 

In Denmark a "Danish Comitee" was 
appointed, of which grocer Christian 
Moller Andersen, of Copenhagen, was 
appointed cashier, to purchase the two 
houses, 193 and 195 Ninth street. These 
houses were very convenient, and on the 
29th of June, 1886, the church and the 
house. No. 195, was purchased for the 
sum of $7,500. This, however, incurred 
a debt of $4,000. The house, No. 195, 
was afterwards added to the parsonage. 

Sunday, the 29th of January, 1888, 
the St. Stephen's Danish Lutheran 
church, in Perth Amboy, was dedicated 
by Rev. Andersen, assisted by a numbei* 
of other brethren. 

In the fall of 1888 still another co- 
laborer came to the Eastern states, 
namely: Rev. J. H. Poulsen, the mis- 
sionary of the General Council to India. 
He accepted a call from Portland, Maine, 
and in 1889 the Rev. P. Eriksen arrived 
from Denmark and accepted a call from 
Boston. 

The little Danish church has, during 
its brief existence, proved to be a source 
of blessing to many, and has been attend- 
ed by a diversity of hearers. The little 
chapel is now too small. But in a city 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



35 



like New York it is no easy matter to 
procure a roomy and convenient church. 
The Danes are so scattered and every- 
thing is so high. Yet the Lord 
has helped and blessed the church, 
so that it can soon l)e enlarged. The 
Danish minister residing in Washing- 
ton, Count C. W. Sponneck, R. of D., 
had his little son baptized in the church 
and has not only taken part in its ser- 
vices, as also the Countess, but also made 
an application to the Danish govern- 
ment to help to enlarge the church, and, 
owing to the application of the Baron, 
the church has received 8,000 crowns, 
about $2,116.40. 

Andersen has also devoted some time 
to literary w^orks. He has given to the 
public several pamphlets pertaining to 



the church and mission, and also sermons 
and dissertations on church topics. 
He has written articles for a number of 
papers in Denmark and America. 

He has published the following works 
in book form: "The Old Northmen's 
Voyage to America;" "From the Visit to 
Old Denmark;" "The Immigrant's Mis- 
sion," published both in Denmark and 
America, and "Israel's Mission in New 
York." His chief work is the "History 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
America, from its Beginning up to the 
Present Time." 

Rev. Andersen belongs to the Danish 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ameri- 
ca, but receives aid also from Denmark. 
He is the pastor of the Seamen's 
Mission, New York. 



REV. OLE ANDREAVSON. 



Rev. Ole Andrewson was born in 
Hjertdahl's parish, Telemarken, Norway, 
March 2, 1818. His parents were An- 
ders ToUevsen and Engebor. The par- 
ents being poor, with many children to 
support, young Ole hired out as shep- 
herd-boy at an early age. Being highly 
talented, however, he was soon advised 
to enter some institution of learning for 
the purpose of qualifying himself for 
teaching. He accordingly entered Hvid- 
eseid's Seminary, from which he was 
graduated in due time, having finished 
the regular course. After his graduation 
he taught a parochial school for some 
three years. In 1841 he came to Amer- 
ica and settled in Racine county. Wis., 
where he remained about three years. It 
was in 1842 that the great purpose of 
giving himself wholly to the Master's 
service w^as conceived in his heart. To 
maintain himself he at first worked on a 



farm, but while thus engaged he also 
improved every opportunity to preach 
the word of God to his poor countrymen, 
who were then "as sheep without a shep- 
herd." He soon gave himself entirely 
to this work, traveling from place to 
place preaching the gospel in the Nor- 
wegian settlements in Illinois and Wis- 
consin. This Christian pioneer and 
missionary work he followed for about 
four years. 

On the 8th of June, 1843, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Ragnhild Paulsen, with 
whom he had eleven children, five sons 
and six daughters, of whom one son'died 
in infancy. In the fall of 1844 he moved 
with his family to Jefferson Prairie, Wis- 
consin, where he settled on a piece of 
land, at the same time ministering to the 
spiritual wants of his countrymen who 
had settled there. 

In 1846 he was called as pastor by a 



36 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




■)^i'^ ^%'iifi^W^ 



number of Norwegians at Mission Point, 
La Salle Co., 111. Having accepted this 
call, and moved there in 1847, he suc- 
ceeded in organizing congregations at 
Leland, Fox Eiver, and Lisbon, all of 
which he served with the means of grace 
until 1851. He, however, met with much 
determined opposition from the Mor- 
mons, Baptists, Methodists, and even 
Quakers, who had already succeeded, in 
a measure, to alienate quite a number 
of the early Norwegian settlers from 
the Church. 

In 1851 he accepted a call from Wis- 
consin, where he organized the congre- 
gations at Eacine, Milwaukee, and Mus- 
kego, continuing faithfully to serve 
them for two years. 

In 1853 he was again called to take 
charge of the Fox Eiver congregation in 
Illinois, which he accepted and served, 
in connection with other churches, until 
1856, when he accepted a call from the 
Ev. Luth. Church at Clinton, Wis. At 



this place he continued to labor with re- 
markable faithfulness and great accept- 
ance for nearly thirty years, serving also 
other congregations at Muskego, Queen 
Ann Prairie, Wis., and Leland, 111. 

In 1880, on the resignation of the Eev. 
O. J. Hatlestad, as president of the Nor- 
wegian Augustana Synod, Eev. Andrew- 
son w^as elected president of that body, 
in which capacity he served with faith- 
fulness to the day of his death. 

He departed this life Feb. 23, 1885, 
aged 66 years, 11 months and 22 days. 
His end was peace. He died in the full 
assurance of faith in the Saviour, whom 
he faithfully served in the gospel minis- 
try for over forty years. A sorrowing 
wife and ten children remain to mourn 
their great loss. 

His funeral took place on Sunday, 
March 1, 1885, and was attended by a 
large concourse of people. Sympathiz- 
ing friends from Leland, Chicago, Mil- 
waukee, Muskego, and other places, 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



.37 



were in attendance to the number of 
about eight hundred. The Rev. G. Ras- 
mnssen, pastor of the Norwegian Synod's 
congregation near Clinton, spoke words 
of consolation to the bereaved family 
and friends in the house of the departed. 
In the church Rev. Omland, of the Con- 
ference, read the Scripture lessons, and 
offered prayer. The Rev. O. J. Hat- 
lestad, by the request of the departed on 
his death-bed, preached the funeral ser- 
mon in Norwegian, from Phillipians 1, 6. 
At its close the Rev. E. G. Lund, of Mil- 
waukee, delivered an appropriate and 
touching funeral discourse, in English, 
from Psalm 116, 15. 

The Church in which our departed 



friend had so often preached the word 
of God [w^as draped in deep mourning. 
The congregation bore all the funeral 
expenses. It was a very solemn time, 
and will long be remembered by all 
present. 

Rev. O. Andrewson was a hrm believer 
and a strong defender of the doctrines 
of the Bible as taught in our precious 
Confessions. He was a good preacher 
and a faithful pastor, beloved by all who 
made his acquaintance. He was also a 
most laborious worker, made many long 
missionary journeys, and was a faithful 
and competent presiding officer. 

He rests from his labors, and his works 
do follow him ! 




REV. JOHN GEORGE ANSPACH. 



Rev. John George Anspach was born 
in Peun's Valley, Centre county, Pa., 
on the 13th day of September, 1801. 
His father's name was John Anspach 
and his mother's maiden name was 
Catherine Rein hart. Their marriage 



was celebrated early in the year 1800. 
Rev. Anspach's grandfather was John 
Adam Anspach, wlio was the oldest and 
at the time only surviving brother of 
Major Anspach, who served under La- 
fayette in the war of the American 



38 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Revolution. These brothers emigrated 
from the city of Aospach, in Germany, 
where their parents resided, to this 
country about the year 1780. They were 
honorably descended, and the name of 
the family is associated with the leading 
events of their times in the history of 
Franconia. John Anspach died in the 
spring of 1864. His wife Catherine had 
died almost forty-seven years before, in 
the fall of 1817. They "died in the 
faith," the wife and mother being es- 
pecially devout. 

Rev. John George was the oldest of 
eleven children — five sons and six 
daughters. One of these, a daughter, 
died in infancy. The others grew to 
manhood and womanhood. The first of 
the ten to die was the third to ttie last 
child and the youngest son. Rev. F. R. 
Anspach, who departed this life in the 
53d year of his age. Since then three 
of the sisters and all of the brothers have 
died, leaving of the original family 
4wo sisters — one Mrs. Elizabeth Murray 
and one Mrs. Catherine Landis, resid- 
ing in Philadelphia. 

In early life Rev. iVnspach was bap- 
tized by Rev. Elgen, and later in life he 
was confirmed by the same person. To 
the end of his days he was accustomed 
to refer to him in terms of admiration 
and gratitude. From very tender years, 
until he had passed his majority, he 
worked upon the home farm, besides 
cultivating the cleared soil, clearing soil 
for cultivation. Many trees did he as- 
sist in felling and many a day stood 
knee deep in snow, converting timber 
into boards and shingles. During the 
winter months he attended a country 
school — as from labor upon the farm he 
could be spared. He was twenty-four 
to twenty-five years of age when he 
quitted the plow and began to study 
privately with Rev. Abele, successor of 
Father Elgen in Penn's Yalley, with a 



view to entering the then newly estab- 
lished Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, Pa., and subsequently the Chris- 
tian ministry. Rev. Daniel Moser, who 
died years ago at Pine Grove Mills, 
studied with him. Two or three years 
he continued under the tutelage of Rev. 
Abele and as long a period pursued his 
studies at Gettysburg. He was one of 
the first class of graduates from that 
now famous "school of the prophets." 

He was licensed to preach by the West 
Pennsylvania Synod at its annual con- 
vention in Greencastle, in 1830. For a 
while after his licensure and during his 
vacations he wrought in the interest of 
the American Tract Society, collecting 
money and establishing branch organiza- 
tions in the lower counties of the state. 
A part of the time he was engaged in 
soliciting subscribers for a Lutheran 
magazine then published. In both un- 
dertakings the records show him to have 
been quite successful. During his last 
illness, among many other pleasant 
ejaculations that escaped his lips was 
this: "I must preach up the Tulpehock- 
en at 7 to-night." He did preach up 
the Tulpehocken in Berke county sixty 
years ago. while employed as stated. 

He was called to the Mifilinburg pas- 
torate in the early part of 1831. and on 
the 8th of May. the same year, began 
his ministry in Mifilinburg. in the old 
St. Elias church, and also in the Bufi^alo, 
now Dreisbach's church. A week later 
he preached for the first time as pastor 
in Lewisburg, on the 12th of June at 
White Deer, and the 19th of June at 
Laurelton. Subsequently he preached 
regTilarly in New Berlin, at Ray's or St. 
Peter's, and the Union church, and many 
years later organized a congregation, 
built a church, and preached at Cowan. 

Fifty-three years he was occupied with 
the work of the ministry, and all these 
years without change of pastorate. What 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



39 



was originally one charge or parish has 
become five self-sustaining charges. It 
is a remarkable fact that for a year and 
more, previous to his retirement from 
the pulpit, there was not in any one of | 
the congregations served by him a liv- j 
ing soul who was a member of any of i 
them when he began to preach, except I 
one old lady in the AYhite Deer congre- 1 
gation. In this half century and more, i 
he was instrumental in the erection of 
nine new churches, the projects being ! 
inaugurated and the necessary funds \ 
largely collected by him. In and out of 
his field he laid, or assisted in laying, 
the corner stones of twenty-eight 
churches — officiated at the dedication of 
an equal number — the first one being in 
Northumberland county, charge of Jere- 
miah Schindel, in May, 1832; the last 
one in Union county, Ray's or St. 
Peter's church, March 30, 1834. 

Rev. Anspach was devoted to the work 
of the Church — among ministers and 
layjnen noted for promptitude and zeal. 
In his entire ministry only three regular 
conventions of the Synod were missed 
by him, and these on account of illness. 
He was present last at the convention 
held in Mifflinburg in 1887, although 
then too feeble to appear unsupported. 
His attendance upon the more frequent 
meetings of the conference was equally 
marked. Appointed to directorship in 
the boards of our institutions, he never 
failed in his attendance upon their 
stated meetings. 

"There was one thing" writes his son, 



"for which I always admired my father 
(many things for which I loved him), 
and that one thing was his respect for 
truth. I never knew him to exaggerate 
a hair's breadth from actual fact. When 
he related a thing which was seen by 
both of us, it was always precisely as it 
occurred. There was no over-portraiture 
— it was not underdrawn. There are 
few men who do not unwittingly embel- 
lish — represent a thing slightly greater 
or less than it actually is. He did not. 
When he narrated a thing as- hav- 
ing occurred in his early or his later 
life, no matter how remarkable or 
wonderful it was, I always felt 
that it was just as he declared it. Inti- 
mately associated with him for six years 
in the work of the ministry, and for 
many years enjoying the comforts of the 
home he provided for us, I never knew 
him to say a word, do a deed, or act a 
part in the least inconsistent with his 
high and holy life." 

Rev. Anspach was married twice. His 
first wife's maiden name was Susan 
Wolf, daughter of Abraham and Rebec- 
ca Wolf, of Hamburg. His second wife's 
maiden name was Susanna Schoch, of 
New Berlin. By the first marriage there 
were two children—Luther Wolf and John 
Melanchthon. By the second three chil- 
dren — Amanda Civilla, William Gilbert 
and Jennie Elizabeth. 

This venerable minister of the Luther- 
an church died at Mifflinburg, Pa., on 
the 8th of February, 1889, at the age of 
87 years, 4 months, and 25 days. 




40 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



REV. FREDERICK R. ANSPACH, D.D. 



Rev. Frederick R. Anspacli, D. D., 
was born in Potter township, Centre Co., 
Pa., in the month of Janiiary, 1815. His 
parent's names were John and Catharine 
R. Anspach. Concerning his childhood 
he himself has written as follows: "Hav- 
ing lost my mother while not more 
than twelve or eighteen months old, I 
was deprived of that tender care and 
those sweet maternal influences, so es- 
sential to the development of the youth- 
ful mind. I enjoyed all the facilities of 
education which the neighborhood af- 
forded, but these were few and limited. 
When I was twenty years of age I left 
home, and, after traveling for some time, 
repaired to Mifflinburg, Union Co., (his 
brother, John George Anspach, was pas- 
tor of Lutheran congregations in this 
place and vicinity, and gave him a home ), 
and entered upon a course of classical 
studies under Rev. Mr. Todd, an old- 
school Presbyterian minister. During 
the year I spent in his academy I com- 
menced Latin grammar and committed 
it to memory in four weeks, read ^sop's 
Fables, Cseser, Yirgil's ^Eneid, six books." 
In 1835 he entered freshman class in 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa., 
and graduated therefrom in 1833. With 
reference to this class and his school 
days he has left these observation^: "My 
classmates had enjoyed far superior ad- 
vantages. When I heard them read es- 
says and debates I was much discour- 
aged, and never hoped to be able to cope 
with any of them. I applied myself 
energetically. After a year had elapsed 
I found that I was able to discuss a 
question satisfactorily. Always extreme- 
ly diffident, I had no confidence in my- 
self, and never aspired to any of the 
honors which the literary societies be- 



stow upon their members. In the soph- 
omore year I was chosen debater for the 
society to which I belonged. This made 
a favorable impression on my mind; it 
gave me confidence, for I judged thus: 
that if the members of our literary soci- 
ety confided their reputation to me, as 
their representative, it was fair to pre- 
sume that they believed I was able to 
sustain the same. Although my effort 
may have been very humble, it inspired 
me with more confidence, and from that 
period I began to hope I might some 
day make an acceptable preacher of the 
gospel. In the following year I was 
chosen as speaker in the public contest, 
and at the close of my senior year was 
accorded the valedictory of the class. 
My college life was pleasant, my class- 
mates were noble youths, and we formed 
friendships that will last forever." 

In 1839 the subject of this sketch en- 
tered the Theological Seminary at Get- 
tysburg, and graduated therefrom in 1841. 
He was licensed to preach the gospel 
that same year. In this same year he 
took charge of Barren Hill and White- 
marsh, in Montgomery county. Pa., and 
continued pastor of the Lutheran con- 
gregations here until 1850. Yery often 
did we hear him tell of the joys and 
comforts of this pastorate. In 1850 he 
went to Hagerstown, Md., and was pas- 
tor of St. John's Lutheran congrega- 
tion at that place until 1854. His min- 
istry here was likewise pleasant. While 
he remained in Hagerstown he took 
great interest in founding the Female 
Seminary," still located in that place. 
Many public addresses did he make on 
higher, than then customary, education 
for young women. From Hagerstown 
he removed to Baltimore, where he be- 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



41 



came associated with Rev. Geo. Diehl 
in the publication of the Lutheran Ob- 
server. This was in '55 or '56. He re- 
sided in Baltimore from 1857 to 1861. 
In this latter year he retired from active 
work and removed to Westburg, Anne 
Arundel Co., Md. He was in the habit 
of passing a great portion of the winter 
in Baltimore, where he died on the 16th 
of September, 1867. Rev. Dr. McCron, 
an old and staunch friend, who was with 
him at his death, wrote concerning it: 
*'His end was peace." 

Rev. Dr. Anspach was twice married. 
The name of his first wife was Miss 
Lilly Rhinehardt, of Shepherdstown, 
Ya., and beside her in the cemetery of 
that village his remains sleep. His 
second wife was Mrs. Susan M. Gale, of 
West River, Md. Both these ladies 
were of rare and charming character, 
and in his domestic relations he was 
among the happiest of men. One child 
survives from the first marriage, and two 
from the second; and they sustain to 
each other cordial relations. 

Rev. Dr. Anspach was the author of 
a number of publications. In 1852 he 
published a discourse on the ''Life and 



Character of Henry Clay." In 1853 a 
discourse delivered before the Maryland 
Synod on "Systematic Beneficence." In 
1854, "Sepulchres of Our Departed." 
In 1855, "Sons of the Sires." In 1857, 
"The Two Pilgrims." Quite a number 
of other publications were the product 
of his pen. He received the degree of 
D. D. from Franklin and Marshall Col- 
lege, Lancaster, Pa., in 1857. 

He was among the ablest, noblest, and 
most amiable of Lutheran pastors. His 
disposition was something beautiful to 
behold. It was like a calm, unclouded 
summer day. He was always bright, 
sensitive to insult and injury, and won- 
derfully considerate of the comfort and 
happiness of others. AVhen he resided 
at AYestburg he preached on Simday 
evenings to the slaves of his own and 
adjoining plantations, and these slaves 
loved him with sincerest devotion. 
Among his own, he had five or seven 
who led in public prayer, and it was a 
joy to hear them pour out their heart to 
God. We were audience to this on the 
occasion of a visit to him in 1864, when 
we preached for him. 

"The memory of the just is blest." 

— A Friend. 




REY. JOHN M. ANSPACH, D.D. 



Rev. John Melanchthon Anspach, 
D. D.,Pastorof Christ Lutheran Church, 
Easton, Pa., was born on the 13th day 
of January, 1841, in Mifflinburg, Union 
Co., a pleasant village of 1200 inhabi- 
tants, situated nine miles west of the west 
branch of the Susquehanna river. His 
father was Rev. John George Anspach, 
who for fifty-three years served congre- 
gations in Buffalo Yalley, same county, 
never having changed his field of labor, 
(his original parish having divided and 
6 



sub-divided until, what was once one, is 
now six self-supporting charges.) His 
mother was Miss Susan AYolf, who died 
when he was a child of less than two 
years of age. Both parents were pious 
from childhood, and members of the 
Lutheran churcli. His father was edu- 
cated at Gettysburg under Rev. Dr. J. 
G. Sell mucker. His mother was a 
woman of sweet and gentle spirit, re- 
fined, educated, and accomplished. She 
died at the early age of 29 years. Among 



42 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



his relatives was the Eev. F. K. Anspach, 
D., D., who died in 1867, who was the 
author of several most readable works, 
pastor of the Lutheran church at Barren 
Hill and Hagerstown, and for years as- 
sociated with Bev. Geo. Diehl in the 
editorship of the Lutheran Observer. 

The subject of this sketch was bap- 
tized in infancy by Bev. Erlenmeyer, 
for many years pastor of the church in 
and churches around Freeburg, Sny- 
der Co., Pa. At the age of fourteen he 
was confirmed by his father, in the old 
St, Elias Lutheran and Beformed church, 
at Mifflinburg, and became a member of 
the congregation of this place. He was 
prepared for college at the Mifilinburg 
Academy, an institution which fitted 
youths'for the higher branches of study. 
In 1857 he entered the freshman class, 
Wittenburg College, Springfield,0., Bev. 
Samuel Sprecher, D. D.,LL. D., Presi- 
dent, graduating in 1861. He stood 
third in a class of nine^ he being Eng- 
lish salutatorian. The Latin salutatory 
and valedictory were had by Bev. J. O. 
Haigh and Mr. Joseph H. King. The 
latter was a specially hard student, and 
went to his grave before September of 
the year of his graduation. Among his 
classmates were Bev. Dr. Helwig (after- 
wards president of Wittenberg College), 
Bev. Dr. Hamma, Bev. S. Huper, and 
Bev. A. C. Felker. After leaving Wit- 
tenberg College, he went to Selinsgrove 
and pursued his theological studies 
there, under Bevs. Drs. B. Kurtz, H. 
Ziegler, and P. Born. He was licensed 
to preach in 1862 and ordained a minis- 
ter of the Gospel of our Lord, one year 
later, in 1863. During these, years, and 
up to 1868, he was associated with his 
father, his father preaching German and 
he English in the same field. 

In Feb., 1868, he received a call from 
Trinity Lutheran Church, Danville, Pa., 
and entered a month later upon the 



work of that parish. Five years h© la- 
bored among this people, and they were 
five of the most pleasant years of his 
life. A spell of ague, which greatly en- 
feebled him and threatened to wholly 
unfit him for pastoral work, led him to 
look about for another field of labor. 
He wrote to Bev. Samuel Domer, D. D., 
now of Washington, D. C, then of 
Beading, entreating his offices in his be- 
half. He was answered immediately to 
this effect: 'T have resigned my charge, 
come on and preach for me, and if you 
are acceptable you may be my suc- 
cessor. He went, preached, was 
elected, and in June, 1872, began 
his ministry to St. Matthew's Luther- 
an Church of that city. The cor- 
diality with which he was received made 
him feel at home from the start, and the 
constant and faithful co-operation of 
Mrs. Esther G. Otto, of Dr. and Mrs. 
Diller Luther, of Hon. and Mrs. J. S. 
Linngood, of Mrs. Amanda Ladd, Mr. 
Edward Scull, Hon. S. E. Anoma, and 
others, under God, made his ministry 
successful, blessed, peaceful, — replete 
with golden memories. 

An unsolicited, and wholly unexpect- 
ed, call to Christ Lutheran Church, 
Easton, Pa., was received in September, 
1877. Although he had no desire, and 
no occasion, to leave Beading, he was 
impressed with the conviction that it 
was his duty. He resigned accordingly, 
accepted the call to Easton, where he 
has been since. 

In the winter of 1880 he delivered a 
series of lectures on the general subject 
of "Thieves of Homes, or Habits that 
Impoverish," which, at the earnest so- 
licitation of friends, were published in 
book form. The book was well received. 
He is also the author of a work just is- 
sued by the house of Funk & AVagnalls, 
New York, entitled, "Divine Bod and 
Staff in Death, or Consolatory Thoughts 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



43 



for the Dying aud Bereaved." He is 
serving his third term as English secre- 
tary of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. 
He was married on the 27th day of 
June, 1865, to Miss Lydia Catherine 
Bucher, daughter of Rev. J. C. Bucher, 
D.D., of the Reformed Church. The 
wife of his bosom is still spared to him, 
while two sons . and one daughter com- 
prise with them the happy domestic 
circle. One dearly beloved daughter 



went to her heavenly home on the 21st 
of February, 1879. It is the only shadow 
that overhangs their household, and 
hope, like stars, bestuds the darkened 
skies. 

Rev. Mr. Anspach received his degree 
of D. D. from the Missionary Institute, 
Selinsgrove, Pa., now in charge of his 
most competent, learned, and pious in- 
structors. Rev. Drs. P. Born and J. R. 
Dimm. 




REV. FREDERICK W. M. ARENDT. 



Rev. Frederick William M. Arendt, 
son of Frederick John and Rebecca Ju- 
liana (Thieman) Arendt, was born at 
Potsdam, J'russia, September 1, 1839. 
He prepared for college at Rev. F. 
Brunn's Institution, at Steeden, Wis- 
baden, Germany. In 1863 he came to 
America, and entered the Evangelical 
Lutheran Seminary, at St. Louis, Mo., 
graduating in 1864. On July 6th of the 
same year he was ordained by Rev. E. 
Roeder. His successive charges were as 



follows: at Middleton, Canada West, 
1864-8; Rainham, Ontario, four years; 
Ridgway, Michigan, for half a year; 
and, finally, at Eraser, Macomb Co., 
Michigan. 

Mr. Arendt was married to Miss Mary 
M. Roeth, Nov. 2, 1864, with whom he 
had three sons and three daughters. He 
died of tumor Aug. 31, 1884, aged 44 
years, 11 months and 21 days. He was 
buried in the St. John cemetery, at 
Eraser, Macomb Co., Mich. 




REV. B. A. ARENSIUS 



Rev. Arensius came from Holland and 
entered upon his duties as Fabricius's 
successor at New York, in 1674. He 
labored with great success among his 
countrymen, the Hollanders, in New 
York. His full name was Bernardus 
Antonius Arensius. He is described as 
"a gentle personage, and of a very agree- 
able behavior," the exact reverse of his 
predecessor. It is not known by whose 
authority he was sent across, nor is the 
date of his arrival settled, but as the 
same order of Governor Lovelace which 



granted permission to Fabricius to 
preach his farewell sermon empowered 
him also "to install the new-come minis- 
ter, according to the custom used by 
those of their religion," he must pre- 
sumably have arrived shortly before that 
date. 

He served the congregation at Albany 
as well as the one at New York. But 
his career was of that peaceable, noise- 
less tenor which seldom attracts the at- 
tention of the historian, and hence but 
few notices of this servant of God ap- 



44 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



pear in tho contemporary records. 
Governor Dougan's report of the state 
of the province, April 13, 1687, men- 
tions a Dutch Lutheran amojig the min- 
isters then living in New York, and the 
editor of the Historical documents, III., 
page 415, speaks in a note of Kev. Ber- 
nardus Arensius who "succeeded Domi- 
nie Fabricius and was minister of the 
Church in 1688." 

AVhat the membership of his two con- 
gregations numbered is nowhere report- 
ed, but from a letter dated September 
28, 1715, and written by one of his suc- 
cessors, Rev. Justus Falckner, we learn 
that at that time four small congrega- 
tions existed in the province of New 
York, "and all these four consist in all 



c>f about one hundred constant commun- 
icants, besides strangers going and com- 
ing in the city of New York.'' The sec- 
ond church was erected in 1684, on the 
corner of Broadway and Rector street, 
on the lot which had been allotted for 
this purpose by Governor Colve, in lieu 
of the one on which the first Church 
had stood without the wall. 

How long Pastor Arensius continued 
to live and minister to these congrega- 
tions has not, up to this time, been ascer- 
tained, but as there is no trace of the 
presence of any other Lutheran minis- 
ter in the province prior to the year 
1700, it is probable that he continued 
until about the close of the century. — 
Wolf. 



REY. HORACE G. B. ARTMAN 



Rev. Horace Greeley Bockeustoss Art- 
man was born in Zionsville, Lehigh 
county, Pennsylvania, where his parents 
were members of Z^on's church. The 
Erdmans and Artmans have long been 
well known as active and honored mem- 
bers of our churches in Lehigh county, 
and warm supporters of her institutions 
and work. In early youth, his parents 
removed to Philadelphia, and became 
members of St. Mark's church, in which 
he grew up and was confirmed by Rev. 
J. A. Kunkleman, D. D. 

In June, 1876, being then in his nine- 
teenth year, he graduated from the 
Philadelphia Boy's Central High School, 
taking the fourth honor of his class. 
The following winter was spent in pri- 
vate teaching at the Blind Institute, 
and at studying Greek, which was not 
taught at the high school. He gradu- 
ated from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1877, and from the Theological 
Seminary of Philadelphia in 1880. 



Mr. Artman, before entering the sem- 
inary, was a most active member of St. 
Mark's Church, where his energy and 
enthusiastic interest found ample field 
for exercise in the Young Men's Sc ciety 
of the congregation He was associate 
editor, with Rev. C. C. F. Haas, of the 
5^. Mark's Journal. He made many 
friends among his seminary associates, 
and when, at graduation in 1880, his in- 
tention became known to go as a mis- 
sionary to India, it was felt that new life 
and interest would be aroused in the 
work. The sequel has shown how well 
placed was the confidence all had in his 
willingness and capacity to labor in 
word and work. The important educa- 
tional interests were at once taken in 
hand and reorganized, and, if we mis- 
take not, the first fruits of his zeal was 
Mr. Frederick J. McCready, who, at his 
solicitation, consented to come to Amer- 
ica to be educated for the mission work. 
— Workman. 




Rev. H. G. B. Artman. 

Page 44. 




Rev. S. Aughey, Ph. D., LL.D. 

Page 45. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



45 



Mr. Artman was ordained for the work 
of missioDs at Lancaster, Pa., May 26, 
1880. He was married to Miss Lizzie 
M. Vaux on Thursday evening, June 8, 
1880, at St. Mark's Church, Philadel- 
phia, the Rev. S. Laird, D. D., officiat- 
ing. Mr. Artman and his wife left for 
India July 7, arriving at Rajamundry 
in the fall. 

Mr. Artman was the first missionary 
born and raised in this country whom 
the General Council has thus far been 
able to send out. He died at Rajamun- 
dry, India, Thursday, Sept. 18, 1884, 
from the effects of malarious fever, con- 
tracted in the Rumpa country, while out 
on mission work there, aged 26 years, 11 
months and 25 days. He was a most 
zealous and hard-working missionary, 
and very popular in his district. Dur- 



ing the five years that Mr. Artman la- 
bored in the Godavery district, he 
helped to establish the Hindu High 
School, educating up to the matricula- 
tion standard; he opened a school for 
Mohammedan girls and boys — a Sunday 
school for Christians — a Zenana class 
for the well-to-do people, and a caste 
girls' school for the middle classes of 
Hindus. He worked with considerable 
success on behalf of the mission at Dow- 
laishweram. He always had some good 
work in hand, and the result of his la- 
bors in the Godavery will live in the 
memory of the people. 

The remains of Mr. Artman were in- 
terred in the Lutheran cemetery, at 
Rajamundry, Sept. 18, 1881, Rev. Diet- 
rich officiating in English, and Rev. 
Poulsen in Telugu. 




REV. S. AUGHEY, Ph.D., LL.D. 



There is no greater scientist in the 
United States, than R^v. Prof. S. Aug- 
hey. Ph. D., LL.D. Any church and 
any land can be proud to have such a 
learned and yet humble man in its fold. 
A genius in intelligence and possessing 
the genius of unrelenting perseverance 
and industry, he has placed his name 
among the nation's dignitaries and 
grandest scholars. The history of his 
eventful life and interesting career, give 
us an idea of the man, and the records 
of his unremitting labors show us his 
ability and greatness, for he is great in 
his abilities, and in his abilities there is 
greatness. 

Dr. Aughey is the son of Samuel and 
Elizabeth Aughey, and was born Feb. 8, 
1831, in Milford township, Juniata Co., 
Penn. He labored on his father's farm 



until he was old enough to teach school. 
At the age of 20, in 1851, he was sent to 
Gettysburg College, where he entered 
the preparatory department and passed 
through the college and Theological 
Seminary. In 1858 he entered the min- 
istry and preached at Chester Springs, 
Pa., 1858-9; Lionville, Pa., 1859-62; 
Plainsville, Pa., 1862-3; Duncannon, 
Pa., 1863-5. From Pennsylvania he 
moved west to Nebraska, preached 
awhile, we believe, in Dakota City, Ne- 
braska, until 1867, when he devoted him- 
self exclusively to scientific work. 

He is not gifted as an orator, but the 
eloquence of matter in his discourses, 
addresses and lectures, show a master- 
mind of the loftiest character. There 
is in all his public efforts, a system, a 
polish, a profundity of learning, a cor- 



46 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



rectness and therefore authoritativeness 
that interests and instructs and makes 
him a welcome speaker. He was an 
earnest, faithful, conscientious, pains- 
taking pastor, whilst laboring in the 
ministry, and wherever he lived and la- 
bored, he won and kept the esteem of 
the community for his fidelity to God, 
his church, his duties, and his people. 
Inclined from early life to study nature, 
and a love for teaching its wonders and 
mysteries, the desire to become a scien- 
tist grew and grew, until it became the 
all-absorbing idea of his lifa He could 
be frequently seen, armed with the 
scientist's equipments, microscope, ham- 
mer, lenses, etc., to study nature, in for- 
est and field, on hills and in vales, along 
rivers and brooks. 

Having become so much interested in 
his studies and so proficient in analysis, 
and well-informed in science, as to be- 
come recognized as a scientist wherever 
he went, and having by lectures, ad- 
dresses, etc., made himself an authority 
on scientific subjects, he was, in 1871, 
elected Professor of Natural Science 
in the University of Nebraska. It was 
a happy choice. He most eminently 
suited the place, and the place suited 
him, as he could realize the cherished 
desires and hopes of his life. This hon- 
ored position he has held for many years, 
and he has honored himself, the univer- 
sity and the state, by the eminent ser- 
vices rendered. To him belongs the 
high honor of having performed the dif- 
ficult and trying task of classifying the 
birds of the northwest, and of writing 
up a catalogue of flora, etc., in some of 
the great Western States. He has been 
a pioneer in Western science, showing 
the acumen, learning of a man even su- 
perior to his surroundings and therefore 
eminently qualified to do the great Work 
spoken of. The government recogniz- 
ing his proficiency and skill, made him a 



member of the U. S. Entomological 
Commission in 1877. He delivered the 
Nebraska State address at the U. S. 
Centennial, in Philadelphia, in 1876. 
In 1881, he was made by the govern- 
ment a U. S. Artesian Well Commission- 
er. To show how he has been honored, 
we mention the following facts: He is 
a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, also of 
the Buffalo, N. Y., Academy of Science. 
He is president of the Nebraska Acade- 
my of Science, and secretary of the Ne- 
braska Historical Society. 

Three different institutes have confer- 
red the honorary degree of Ph. D. upon 
him, namely, the University of Ohio, in 
1874; Wittenberg College, in 1875, and 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, in 
1876. In 1878 Wittenberg College be- 
stowed upon him the degree of LL. D. 
Surely but few, very few, men are thus 
honored. 

He is a prolific writer and if all his 
newspaper and magazine articles were 
published, it would make quite a library. 
He has published the following: 

Renovation of Politics, sermon. 1861; 
Geology of Nebraska, address, 1872; 
Superficial Deposits of Nebraska, Hay- 
den Survey, 1874; Catalogue of the Flora 
of Nebraska, 1875; Catalogue of the 
Land and Fresh Water Shells of Ne- 
braska, Hay den Survey, 1876; Material 
Resources of Nebraska, 1877; Food of 
the Birds of Nebraska and Formal List, 
Publication in Governm ent Report, 1878 ; 
History of Nebraska, 1878; Physical 
Geography and Geology of Nebraska, 
pp. 326, 1880; The Ideas and the Men 
that Created the University of Nebras- 
ka, 1881; Geological Report on Sho- 
shone and Beaver Oil Regions of Wyo- 
ming, 1880; Geological Report on all 
the Wyoming Oil Basins, 1881; Luther- 
an Population in Nebraska; Lutheran 
Quarterly, YIII, 382; Report of U. S 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



47 



Artesian Well Commission (Augliey 
and White), 1882; Genesis of the Rocky 
Mountains, 1882. 

It is impossible in a sketch like this, 
which is but an epitome of his life's la- 
bors, to give any adequate idea of the 
man, his make-up, his talents, the many 
interesting incidents it has had, the 
wide-spread influence he has exerted, 
the extended power he has wielded, his 
communications with the greatest men 
of our land, and the greatest scientists 
of Germany and Europe, who glean 
from the wide fields of his varied ex- 
periences and observations. We hope 
an abler pen will some day give us a full 
biography of him. We have seen him 
and heard him. He has been our guest 
and we his, and so from across the track 
of the fleeting years we pay this tribute 
to our great friend, whom we will ad- 
mire while he lives, and honor and 
revere when he is gone, while with us 
life will last. 



Let the Lutheran church ever be 
proud of this giant in science, who is, 
has been, and will be, for all time to 
come, considered the first great scientist 
of the Northwest, and who has, as such, 
done a work that f ature generations will 
thank him for. The illustrious trio of 
Lutheran clerical scientists. Rev. John 
Bachman, D. D., LL. D , of Charleston, S. 
C, Rev. Prof. J. B. Davis, D.D., of Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, and Rev. 
Prof. S. Aughey, Ph.D.,LL.D., with 
whose life work we have often come in 
contact, have in their way rendered the 
Lutheran church a service and given 
her a prominence, whose value only fu- 
ture generations and the careful student 
of history will know how to prize and 
appreciate. 

"Fn life or death no evil can befall 
The pure in heart ; Their pains and griefs but serve 
As trials here, while at the gate of death 
God's ang<^ls stand and watch their coming steps, 
To lead them on to endless peace in Heaven." 

-P. W. E. P. 




REV. JOHN BACHMAN, D.D, LL.D, Ph.D. 



Dr. Bachman was descended from an 
old German family, although his first 
American ancestor came from Switzer- 
land to this country as the private sec- 
retary to William Penn. During his j 
childhood he knew nothing of the Ger- ! 
man language, but in after life he spoke \ 
and wrote German with great fluency. 1 
Dr. Bachman first acquired his knowl- 
edge of German at college, and after- : 
ward made himself master of that and \ 
other modern languages during his visit 
to Euroi)e. 

His father, like other farmers around 
him in those days, was a slave-holder, 
and to the last year of his long life Dr. 



Bachman took occasion, from time to 
time, as opportunity offered, to make in- 
quiry concerning the fate of the negroes 
w^ho were the companions of his tender 
years. He has often been heard to speak 
of those former bondmen and lament the 
fate that had befallen them. 

Dr. Bachman received a liberal educa- 
tion, and at the early age of twenty- 
three was licensed by the Lutheran Syn- 
od of New York, having been previously 
elected pastor of three congregations in 
the vicinity of his own neighborhood in 
Rensselaer county, New York, where it 
was then his expectation to spend the re- 
mainder of his days among the friends 



48 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



^S- 




EEV. JOHN BACHMAN, D.D., LL. D., PH.D. 



and relatives of his boyhood and early 
yonth. A hemorrhage of the lungs, 
however, with which he had been at- 
tacked while in college, was making a 
fearful inroad on his health, and he was 
advised by his physicians to seek relief 
in a more southern climate. About this 
time a call was sent from the Lutheran 
church in Charleston, S. C, to the presi- 
dent of the Synod of New York, Dr. 
Quitman, with a request that he should 
recommend some clergyman who might 
be adapted to this field of labor. Dr. 
Quitman and Dr. Mayer, of Philadel- 
phia, therefore proposed Mr. Bachman's 
name to the congregation in Charleston. 
A call was immediately sent inviting 
him to become their pastor. After con- 
sultation with his family and congrega- 
tion, he obtained a leave of absence for 
nine months, the hope being expressed 
that during that time his health would 
become sufiiciently restored to enable 
him to return and resume his ministerial 
labors at the north. The Lutheran 
Church had then scarcely an existence 



in the Southern states, and as there was 
no Lutheran Synod here, an extra meet- 
ing of the Synod of New York was con- 
vened in December, 1814, at Ehinebeck, 
for the purpose of ordaining him. The 
ordination services were performed by 
Dr. Quitman and the other officers of 
synod in the Lutheran church at Ehine- 
beckj and, without returning home, the 
young clergyman proceeded on his way 
to Charleston, where he arrived on the 
10th of January, 1815. A meeting of 
the vestry of the church took place on 
the 12th, two days afterward, and the 
charge of the congregation was in due 
form committed to his trust. On Jan. 
10th, the day of his arrival, he attended 
the first funeral, and on the 16th per- 
formed the first baptismal service of his 
ministry in Charleston. 

The congregation then worshipped in 
a small wooden building situated in the 
rear of the site of the present church. 
It was an antiquated building of pecul- 
iar construction, resembling some of the 
old churches in the rural districts of 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



49 



Germany, and had been erected previous 
to the Revolutionary War. The congre- 
gation was composed of Germans, who, 
during the stormy season of the Revolu- 
tion, had been the strenuous advocates 
and defenders of the rights of their 
adopted country. Its pastors, from 1771 
to 1815, when Dr. Bachman was called 
to the charge of the congregation, were 
Rev. F. Daser, Rev. Mr. Martin (who 
was driven from the church by the Brit- 
ish officials in consequence of his refus- 
al to pray for the king), Rev. John C. 
Faber, Rev. Charles Faber, and Rev. 
Mr. Streit. Dr. Bachman entered upon 
the pastoral duties of his new charge 
amid gloomy and discouraging surround- 
ings in the temporal condition of the 
congregation, but brought to the work a 
fervent spirit of Christian zeal and the 
robust energy of mental character, which 
always characterized him; and he had 
the pleasure, during his long pas- 
torate, of seeing his church rapidly built 
up in numbers and efficiency, two sister 
churches of the same denomination es- 
tablished in the community, and a Lu- 
theran Synod, a Theological Seminary, 
and a flourishing Lutheran College es- 
tablished in the state. He stood amid 
the revolution of the changing years, 
and saw the brethren who welcomed 
hiin upon his arrival in Charleston, and 
were his companions in the early history 
of the Lutheran Church in Charleston, 
falling by death on every side, until at 
last, at the close of his eventful life, he 
was the one connecting link between 
the past and present, and surrounded 
only by the children of his former 
friends, down to the fourth generation, 
whom he had come to look upon as the 
children of his heart as well as the mem- 
bers of his spiritual flock. 

In 1835, Dr. Bachman, then in his 
forty-fifth year, received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity. In the autumn of 

7 



1837, the devoted pastor's health again 
broke down under . the arduous labors 
which devolved upon him, and which 
included the preaching of three sermons 
every Sunday, sometimes in English 
and sometimes in German; and his con- 
gregation feeling a profound interest in 
the preservation of his life and the re- 
storation of his enfeebled health, unani- 
mously requested him to take a respite 
from his labors. He accordingly left 
his home and people in 1838, believing, 
as he said, that he had looked upon the 
land of his nativity for the last time, 
and that he was destined to breathe his 
last among strangers in a foreign land. 
He was absent eight months, during 
which time he traversed nearly the 
whole of Europe, and received on all 
hands such cordial welcome, apprecia- 
tion and hospitality, such manifestations 
of respect, admiration and fraternal re- 
gard as his eminent scholastic and scien- 
tific attainments, his sturdy piety, and 
his pure and blameless life commanded. 
He returned in January, 1839, his health 
considerably improved, but still feeble, 
for which reason an assistant minister 
was employed by the congregation, who 
relieved the pastor of a large portion of 
his work until his health was announced 
once more restored. 

To Dr. Bachman is due much of the 
credit of reorganizing and re-establishing 
the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in 
Georgia. In the winter of 1823-24 he 
went to Savannah, where he was instru- 
mental in infusing new life into the Lu- 
therans of that city. There were at that 
time the remnants of two Lutheran con- 
gregations in the entire state of Georgia. 
The church at Savannah had been burnt 
down in 1797; the congregation at 
Charleston had contributed $500 toward 
rebuilding it, but nothing was done to- 
ward keeping up the congregation. It 
had no pastor and gradually became dis- 



50 



AMEBIGAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHlES. 



organized. The small building wliich 
had been erected was occnpied as a Sun- 
day school by another denomination. 
Dr. Bachman's visit was not a moment 
too soon; a few more years of neglect, 
says Dr. Bernheim in his history of the 
Lutheran Church, would haA^e extin- 
guished the name of Lutheranism in 
Savannah. By means of his well direct- 
ed and energetic labors, a congregation 
was at once organized, and in about a 
month's time was tiirned over to the 
pastoral care of the Kev. S. A. Mealy, 
who had been raised up in the Luther- 
an Church at Charleston, and whose 
theological training had been received 
from Dr. Bachman. From that time 
the Lutheran Church in Savannah con- 
tinued to prosper, under the efficient 
labors of a succession of devoted pastors. 
Having completed his good work in 
Savannah, he now turned his attention 
to the church at Ebenezer, the aged pas- 
tor of which was fast sinking into the 
grave. By his judicious labors, a son of 
Dr. Bergmann, who had taken a license 
to preach the gospel under the auspices 
of the Presbyterian Church, was induced 
to rejoin the Lutheran Church, and be- 
ing subsequently ordained at the newly 
organized Synod of South Carolina, 
which met in Lexington district, on the 
18th of November, 1824, returned to 
Ebenezer and became the esteemed pas- 
tor of the Church in which his aged 
father, now dead, had labored so zealous- 
ly and so faithfully. 

Dr. Bachman was married January 
23, 1816, to Miss Harriet Martin, who 
died in 1838. In 1848 he married 
Miss Maria Martin, a sister of his 
first wife, who died in December, 
1863. He has had fourteen children, of 
whom five died young, four died grown, 
and five are now alive. His two eldest 
daughters married the two only sons of 
Audubon, the naturalist. They died, 



one without issue, the other (Mrs. John 
Audubon) left two daughters, of whom 
one is now living in West Chester coun- 
ty, New York (Mrs. Delancy Williams), 
with three children. The other, Harriet 
Audubon, is now living with her aged 
grandmother (wife of the naturalist), in 
Louisville, Kentucky. 

Dr. Bachman took no part in politics. 
He abhorred from his very soul that 
hybrid in professional life, "a political 
parson." But he was an ardent lover of 
his country, and at no time indifferent to 
her welfare. He took the most active 
interest in the political events which pre- 
ceded the late war. A friend happened 
to be with Dr. Bachman on the fast day 
appointed by Gov. Gist, soon after the 
election of President Lincoln in 1860. 
The conversation was about Dr. Darwin's 
"Origin of Species," then but recently 
published. Dr. Bachman mentioned 
that thirty years before he had met the 
young Charles Darwin in England, just 
after his return from a cruise on H. M. 
Ship "Beagle," and there Darwin had 
told him that he had foresworn science, 
and thenceforth was going to give him- 
self to the service of the church, and 
he would not rest satisfied until he 
should be made a bishop. While giving 
these reminiscences, the venerable doc- 
tor brightened up with the reflection of 
the glow of youth that illumined his 
mind as he was retracing the incidents of 
earlier years. All at once he broke 
off abruptly, and, with countenance over- 
cast with gloom, said: "My mind is not 
upon these things. I have this day done 
the saddest act of mylife;Ihavepreached 
a sermon against the Union, and uphold- 
ing the secession movement of our peo- 
ple. My father fought in the Revolu- 
tionary War. I was taught from earliest 
childhood to venerate my country's flag." 
Then walking to the window, and point- 
ing to the United States flag on the Ar- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



51 



senal building, he said: "Many and 
many a time have I looked npon that 
flag with pride. It grieves me that I 
can do so no more. I love the Union, 
but I miist ,^o with my people." Tears 
were in the old man's eyes as he said 
this. And faithfully and nobly did he 
redeem his promise of going with his 
people. Soon after the commencement 
of the war he organized a society for the 
relief of wounded soldiers, and until 
near the close of the war he was unwear- 
ied in his efforts to collect funds, pro- 
visions, clothing, etc., for this purpose. 
Although seventy-five years old then, he 
spared not himself or his waning strength, 
but made many fatiguing journeys to 
Virginia to carry comfort and suc- 
cor to those who needed his ministra- 
tions. It is needless to say that his ef- 
forts were crowned with the greatest 
success. 

After the evacuation of Charleston, 
and the abandonment of the sea coast of 
South Carolina became certain, Dr. 
Bachman accepted the invitation of a 
friend in the northern part of the state, 
and sought shelter under the hospitable 
roof of General Cash, near Cheraw. 
But the hope of safety proved fallacious. 
Chesterfield county, as is well known, 
was visited by Sherman's host. Dr. 
Bachman, doubtless mistaken for the 
owner of the house, was beaten by the 
brutal soldiery, because he would not re- 
veal "where the treasure was hid." It 
is the opinion of many that this beating- 
was the cause of the disease which soon 
after befell him. 

The close of the war found him a 
mere wreck of his former self. In com- 
mon with nearly all his fellow-citizens he 
lost the greater part of his property; his 
library, a large collection of valuable 
works on natural science, theology and 
general literature, the laborious collec- 
tion of over three score years, fell a prey 



to the flames when Columbia was burned. 
He was prostrated with paralysis several 
years ago, and his life despaired of by 
his friends ; but thanks to an iron consti- 
tution, he rallied again and again. He 
preached but rarely, but continued more 
or less to attend to his duties until about 
January, 1869, when the Kev. W. W. 
H . . . . assistant pastor, was engaged. 
From this date, with but one or two ex- 
ceptions, he ceased from the church 
ministrations. Mr. Honour officiated 
imtil February, 1872, when the Eev. Mr. 
Dosh took charge of the church. Dr. 
Bachman, however, generally partici- 
pated in any important public occasion, 
as, for instance, in the laying of the cor- 
ner stone of the German church on King 
street, and again at the consecration of 
the church five years afterwards. 

Dr. Bachman was first of all, and 
above all things, a pious, devoted Chris- 
tian pastor, and it was this field which 
commanded the most earnest efforts of 
his active mind and occupied the first 
place in his great heart. But he was al ■ 
so eminent as a savant and an author, 
and in these capacities his name will 
live as long as the literature of the Eng- 
lish language retains a history. He 
was an ardent devotee of nature, never 
more at home than when out of doors. 
He loved nature in all her forms, and 
was fond of field sports, fishing, boating, 
and indeed of all healthy and manly ex- 
ercises. Gardening was one of his favor- 
ite recreations, and he took a pride in 
its. pursuit. It was this love of nature, 
doubtless, which early gave a bent to 
his studies; and to become a naturalist 
soon came to be his great ambition. It 
is not necessary to state that he never 
allowed his scientific tastes or pursuits 
to interfere in any manner with the du- 
ties of his sacred calling, but all his leis- 
ure, and that time which others give to 
the social amenities, was devoted by him 



52 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



to the study of nature. In forming an 
estimate of his acquirements and the 
vast labor achieved by him, it must be 
borne in mind that in him was exhibited 
one of the finest specimens of German in- 
dustry. Of a strong frame, habitually 
in robust health, at least during the 
former half of his life, and possessed of 
a rare buoyancy of spirit, he could work 
with great rapidity, while his well-train- 
ed mind, sound judgment, and retentive 



memory still further facilitated his self 

imposed tasks. Nor was he an amateur ! his strictly scientific publications. 

in science. He was thorough in all he i had passed his three-score years 



England, France, Germany, Holland, 
Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, tes- 
tified their appreciation of his services 
by their letters, and with many he main- 
tained a correspondence to his latest 
years. The great Alexander Yon Hum- 
boldt was one of his warmest friends, 
and when, in 1850, he published his 
treatise on the ''Unity of the Human 
Race," he dedicated it to his friend, the 
greatest of German physicists. The 
work just named was among the last of 

He 
dis- 



undertook, and shunned no labor to claimed any further ambition in the re- 
make himself master of his subject, public of letters, and expressed a deter- 
With this view, he studied anatomy mination to devote the remainder of his 
carefully, dissecting every animal he | life to his pastoral duties. But the 



studied or described. Comparative an- 
atomy was his favorite subject, and in 
this he achieved great results. Botany, 
mineralogy, and geology at different 
times claimed more or less of his atten- 



question of the unity or plurality of ori- 
gin of the human race having become 
one of the controveisies of the day, and 
from its nature, inferentially at least, 
partaking somewhat of a theological 



tion, but the study of animal nature was | character, Dr. Bachman was drawn into 
his preference, and zoology came to be | the arena, and once in, he bent all the 
his specialty. Not to mention the in- | energies of his well-stored mind to the 



numerable monograms touching upon 
questions in his branch, he published 
jointly with Audubon, "The Quadrupeds 



demonstration of the truth of his side 

of the controversy — the unity of origin. 

Although a great devotee of science, 



of North America," to this day the finest this study was, as we have stated, second 



ary with Dr. Bachman, and whenever 
modern science seemed to clash with 
revelation, as has happened very fre- 
quently in the controversies during the 
present century, as new discoveries have 
been made, from time to time, in geolo- 
gy, chronology or ethology. Dr. Bach- 
man arrayed himself on the side of re- 
ligious orthodoxy, and in every conflict 
proved a tower of strength. 

Besides these works, most of which 
are far more scientific than theological, 
and altogether polemical or combative, 
Dr. Bachman furnished from time to 
was elected to membership in almost | time a great number of essays, reviews, 
every scientific association on the habit- ' sermons, editorials, and articles in the 
ual globe. ^The magnates of science in j various periodicals of the day. From 



work upon the subject that has appeared 
in this country. Mr. Audubon furnished 
the designs and Mr. Bachman the text. 
He also gave Mr. Audubon great assist- 
ance in his celebrated work on ''The 
Birds of North America." These labors 
introduced him to the entire world of 
science, and he everywhere found most 
gratifying recognition. Honors came 
pouring in thick and fast. He received 
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from 
Berlin in 1838, and that of Doctor of 
Laws from the South Carolina College 
at Columbia about the same time. He 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



53 



1835 to 1840, he wrote a great deal for the 
editorial columns of the Southern Agricul- 
tural Journal. At another time he de- 
livered and published a sermon against 
duelling; and besides all these works 
which have seen the light, he had sever- 
al scientific works, which wxre nearly 
ready for publication, destroyed at the 
burning of Columbia in February, 
1865. 

Dr. Bachman was pastor of St. John's 
Lutheran Church, at Charleston, all his 
life. He was truly a great Lutheran 
leader, and the most prominent Lutheran 
in all that region of the South. He was 
a natural-born scientist, and in his ow^n 
special department he doubtless had no 
equal in America. Dr. Bachman died 
at his residence, in Charleston, in Feb- 
ruary, 1874, in the 85th year of his age. 

For further information about this in- 
teresting man the reader is referred to a 
volume containing the Letters and Me- 
moirs of His Life, 436 pp., published by 
Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., Char- 
leston, S. C. (1888). 

His published works are : The Quad- 



rupeds of America, six vols. ; The Doc- 
trine of the Unity of the Human Kace; 
A Notice of Nott and Glidden's Types 
of Mankind; An Examination of Agas- 
siz's Natural Provinces of the Animal 
World; An Examination of the Charac- 
teristics of Genera and Species; Cata- 
logue of the Phsenogamous Plants and 
Ferns of South Carolina; Experiments 
on the Habits of Vultures; Monograph 
of the Genus Sciurus; The Changes in 
the Colors of Feathers in Birds and of 
Hair in Animals; The Introduction and 
Propagation of Fresh Water Fish ; Con- 
troversy with Dr. Morton on Hybridity; 
Funeral Discourse of Rev. J.G. Schwartz; 
Horticultural Address; Sermon on the 
Doctrines and Discipline of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church; Temperance 
Address; Agricultural Survey of South 
Carolina; Synodical Discourse on the 
Ministry; Discourse, Forty- third Anni- 
versary of his Ministry in Charleston; 
Christian Ministry; Luther and the 
Beformation; An Inquiry. He has also 
contributed numerous articles to various 
journals and periodicals. — Morris. 



EEV. JOHN BADING. 



Rev. John Bading, pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran St John's Church 
of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, 
at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was born No- 
vember 24, 1824, in Rixdorf, near Berlin, 
Prussia. His classical and theological 
education was received in the Mission 
Seminary at Berlin and Hermansburg, 
Hanover. He was sent to this country 
by the Evangelical Society of Langen- 
bere:, Barmen, and Elberfeld, and 
was ordained to the gospel ministry on 
October 6, 1853. whereupon he emi- 
grated to America, arriving here in July 
of that year. His first charge was at 



Calumet, Michigan, where he remained 
sixteen months, after which he accepted 
a charge at Theresa, Dodge county, AVis- 
consin. Having served this charge very 
successfully for five and a half years, he 
was called to Watertown, Wisconsin, 
where he labored from 1860 to October, 
1868, when he was called to his present 
charge at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He 
has been pastor at this place for about 
tweniy-two years. 

Mr. Bading was married January 22, 
1854, to Miss Dorothea Ehlers, of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. They have had nine children, 
four of whom died; those remaining 



54 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



are living in Milwaukee. Dorothea 
is the wife of Eev. E. Notz, Pro- 
fessor in the Evangelical Lutheran Sem- 
inary at Milwaukee. 

In 1860 Eev. Bading was elected pres- 
ident of the Synod of Wisconsin and 
other states, and was re-elected in 1862. 
In 1863 he was sent to Europe as agent 
for the Northwestern University, at 



Watertown, Wisconsin. Since 1867 he 
has been president of his synod. He is 
also president of the board of trustees 
of the Northwestern University at 
Watertown, and of the Theological Sem- 
inary at Milwaukee. Eev. Bading is a 
vigorous worker, a competent official, 
and a leader in our American Lutheran 
Church. — History of Milwaukee. 



EEV. JOHN CHEISTOPHEE BAKEE, D.D. 



John Christopher Baker was born in 
Philadelphia, May 7th, 1792, and in 1802 
he was placed by his guardian at Nazar- 
eth Hall, a seminary of the Moravian 
church, where he remained five years. 

In the year 1807 he was received as a 
member of Zion's church, Philadelphia, 
by Eev. John F. Schmidt. On leaving 
the seminary at Nazareth, in 1807, he 
soon after repaired to Lebanon, Pa., 
for the purpose of pursuing his theologi- 
cal studies under the direction of Eev. 
Dr. Lochman 

In the year 1811 he was set apart to 
the work of the ministry by the Synod 
of Pennsylvania, with which body he 
remained connected until his death. 
He immediately received a call as an as- 
sistant minister of the German Luther- 
an congregations of Philadelphia, which 
he accepted, and at once entered upon 
. the duties of his appointment, 

In the following year he accepted a 
unanimous call to the pastoral charge of 
the church in Germantown. 

Almost at the very commencement of 
his career the English language was in- 
troduced into the services of the sanc- 
tuary, and, although the measure at first 
encountered opposition, its adoption was 
fraught with important advantages to 

the interests of the church In the 

year 1818, under his auspices, the large 



new church edifice was erected, which 
still stands as a monument of the zeal 

and activity of the pastor His re- 

markable faithfulness with respect to 
pastoral visiting, for which he was al- 
ways distinguished, had its beginning 
here. Starting at the Eising-Sun vil- 
lage, his visits and labors included Nice- 
town, Germantown, Chestnut -Hill, Bar- 
ren-Hill, Manayunk, Eoxborough and 
Frankfort. Although it was no easy 
task to perform all this, yet, to say that 
he personally called upon every person 
in the long range, who belonged to or 
visited his churches, and that not only 
once or occasionally, but frequently and 
regularly, is stating only the simple 
truth, without any exaggeration. An 
amusing incident in reference to the 
Doctor at this period of his ministry is 
remembered, in which there was a dis- 
play of more physical courage than many 
of his friends supposed he possessed. 
The great turnpike road leading from 
Germantown to Philadelphia was infest- 
ed by robbers, who made it their busi- 
ness to stop and plunder market- wagons 
at the hill just below the village, which 
was, at the time, a dark, deep and nar- 
row defile. One evening he reached^ the 
spot on his way to fill a preaching ap- 
pointment at Nicetown, and fouud; the 
road blocked up by eight or nine farmers' 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



55 



vehicles, the drivers of which were 
afraid to venture into the dangerous 
part of the road, lest an attack should be 
made upon them, and were eagerly wait- 
ing for some one to take the lead. This 
was finally done by the subject of our 
narrative driving in advance in his gig, 
followed by the courageous crowd. They ; 
all passed on without any hostile en- 
counter 

In January, 1828, as successor to 
the Rev. Dr. Endress, he assumed i 
the pastoral care of the church at Lan- 
caster. Here he labored with unwearied 
assiduity for twenty-five years. He in- 
troduced into his church the Sunday 
School system, which was yet a compar- 
atively new thing in our country. For 
many "years he served as President of 
the Board of Trustees of Franklin Col- 
lege, and as a Director of the Public 
Schools. He was fond of examining 
the children, and threw into the work 
his whole soul. His visitations to the 
schools were frequent and systematic. 
He set apart one day every week to this 
business, and always entered the school- 
room so kindly with the familiar smile 
of a father, that he was ever a welcome 
and grateful visitor to both teachers and 
pupils. "I was ofteu amused when a 
visitor at his house," says one who was 
intimate in the family, "to see little boys 
and girls come in for the purpose of hav- 
ing the Doctor write an excuse for the 
previous day's absence, or for permission 
to come home before school hours were 
over; these requests were never refused, 
but attended to on the spot; no matter 
who was present, or in what he was en- 
gaged, whether at his meal, or just 
ready to leave the house, the little fellows 
were never put off." 

vSo heavy and incessant were the 
drafts that had been made upon Dr. 
Baker, that his physical constitution, 
naturally vigorous, began at length to 



yield. His health became impaired un- 
der the pressure of his manifold duties, 
and he concluded that it was advisable 
to resign the large field of labor that 
had long claimed his unwearied atten- 
tion. He accordingly preached his val- 
edictory discourse, January 30th, 1853, 
and removed to Philadelphia; but as he 
could not endure being idle, he was will- 
ing to take charge of a small Mission 
church in the northern part of the city. 

He died in May, 1859, aged sixty-eight 
years. His dying testimony was all of 
the most satisfactory and consolatory 
character. His children, whom he ten- 
derly loved, and by whose presence and 
attentions he was soothed, he fervently 
commended "to the care and covenant- 
keeping of his Heavenly Father," and 
earnestly urged them to "abound in love 
and glory to God." On one occasion 
when asked if he was comfortable, he 
replied, "I might be more so," but add- 
ed, "We count them happy that endure." 
The afternoon previous to his death, 
when apparently much distressed by dif- 
ficulty of breathing, one of his children 
remarked, "Jesus said. My grace is suf- 
ficient for thee!" With a smile, he re- 
plied: "Yes! Oh! I hope"— but he 
could say no more 

In looking at Dr. Baker's character, 
the first thing that strikes us is the ear- 
nestness and enthusiastic ardor with 
which he took hold of every subject that 
engaged his attention. He was scrupu- 
lously conscientious in fulfilling every 
known obligation, and labored with in- 
defatigable zeal, untiring activity and 
self-sacrificing industry, constantly illus- 
trating in his life the Savior's motto, "I 
must work while it is day; the night 
Cometh when no man can work!" He 
was emphatically a working man, bat- 
tling on in the good cause to which he 
had consecrated his powers year after 
year, through good and through evil re- 



56 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



port, in season and out of season, emi- 
nently stri^dng to be useful to his fellow 
men. Bishop Reink, of the Moravian 
Church, who was, for a time, his col- 
league at Lancaster, once attempted to 
remonstrate with him in reference to his 
course, but without effect. "It was the 
Doctor's custom," says the bishop, "to 
preach three times every Sabbath. I, 
therefore, took the liberty one day of 
reasoning with him on the propriety and 
necessity of diminishing these excessive 
labors, inasmuch as they would, if con- 
tinued, break down his constitution be- 
fore the time. But in reply he became 
quite warm and animated, and, hastily 
rising from his seat, pacing up and 
down the room, and throwing his long 
arms lustily around him, exclaimed, "No, 
I tell you, my dear brother, I must work 
while it is called to-day ! I must spend 
and be spent in the cause of my blessed 

Master!" 

Nothing could deter him from a mis- 
sion of love and piety. Indisposition 
never interfered with the performance 
of any pastoral obligation. Physical in- 
firmities were never presented as a plea 
for the neglect of duty. He was known I 
to drive miles in storms, through rain | 
and snow, to hold a meeting for prayer | 
or to attend to the ordinary services of 
the Lord's Day, when no one of all the 
congregation, not even the sexton, ven- 
tured out of doors. He had no sympa- 
thy with those who found it too hot or 
too cold or too stormy to attend church. 
He could go to preach, why not they to 
listen? He would notice those who 
were absent from the exercises of the 
sanctuary and invariably called on them 
the following day, and inquired into the 
cause of their absence. The marriages 
he solemnized, the baptisms and funeral 
services he performed, are, perhaps, 
without a parallel in the history of any 
pastor. The Doctor also took a deep in- 



terest in the religious instruction of the 
children of the church, and, in addition 
to three services on the Lord's Day, 
whilst settled at Lancaster, he also at- 
tended the Sunday School. He also 
had a Bible class, composed of the 
teachers and older scholars, which he 
met weekly, and imparted careful in- 
struction in the lesson for the succeed- 
ing Sabbath. In addition, during the 
week, two evenings were generally 
spent in lecturing, and sometimes, when 
he had classes of catechumens, which 
were formed regularly twice every year, 
four evenings were devoted to pub- 
lic services for the benefit of his 
people. The work never seemed to him 

irksome As a preacher Dr. Baker 

was plain, practical and edifying. He 
adhered closely to the text, and present- 
ed a simple exposition of God's word, a 
clear and full exhibition of the way of 
life. "Under his impressive and per- 
suasive appeals," says one who often 
heard him preach, "I have often seen 
the entire audience melted into tears." 
He never introduced anything flippant 
or irrelevant into the pulpit. In his 
preparations for the pulpit he was very 
laborious, particularly at that period of 
his ministry when he was in the habit 
of committing his sermons to memory. 
His texts were usually selected on Sun- 
day night, after his return from the 
church, and the preparation was pro- 
tracted till the close of the week; so 
that, in connection with the toil to 
which be submitted, he was often heard 
to say, ''I have no pleasure of my life." 
He was familiar with the best German 
and English writers in theology, and 
was regarded as well read in the sub- 
stantial literature of the day. The Bi- 
ble was, however, the book which he 
carefully and faithfully studied. He also 
had some skill as a musician. He play- 
ed very creditably upon the piano. He 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



57 



often played dnefcs with his daughters, 
and one of them received her entire mu- 
sical instruction from him. He seldom 
wrote for the press. The only discourse 
he ever furnished for publication is a 
sermon on the death of Rev. Dr. Fred- 



erick D. Schaeffer. The Doctorate of 
Divinity was conferred upon him by La- 
fayette College in 1837 He was a 

leading member of the Synod of Penn- 
sylvania, and his power was felt among 
the members in private and on the floor 
in Synod. — Morris. 




REY. DR. BANSEMER. 



R3V. Dr. Bansemer was ordained in 
1842 by the South Carolina Synod. He 
served as pastor in Barnwell, S. C, Wal- 
halla, S. C, Augusta and Savannah, Ga., 
and lastly at Jacksonville, Fla. The 
title of D. D. was given him in 1882, by 
North Carolina College, whose Presi- 
dent he had been for a few years, begin- 
ning with 1868. 

He died at Jacksonville, Fla., Sunday, 
February 3, 1889. On Tuesday, Febru- 
ary 5, he was buried, Rev. W. S. Bow- 
man, D. D., of Savannah, Ga., and Rev. 
F. AV. E. Peschau, of Wilmington, N. C, 



officiating. The church was draped in 
emblems of mourning. 

He was a fine scholar. He labored in 
Jacksonville from November, 1877, until 
the time of his death. Daring the sum- 
mer of 1880 he remained faitlifally at 
his post in all the scourge of yellow 
fever, until he himself became sick. He 
was a German by birth, and preached 
both English and German acceptably. 
He was never married. He was a good 
man, and did a good work, and we can 
but say ^^ Requiescat in pace." — Workman. 




REV. JOSEPH H. BARCLAY, D. D. 



Dr. Barclay was born in Baltimore, 
Md., April 1st, 1834. His parents were 
Hugh and Elizabeth Barclay. His fa- 
tlu^r was the son of an English 'squire, 
residing in Ireland, and a descendant of 
tlie old English family of Barclays. 
His mother was a native of Ireland, and 
of Scotch-Irish extraction. Dr. Bar- 
clay's father emigrated to America and 
settled in Baltimore over seventy years 
ago. Owing to financial misfortune and 
ill-health, he was prevented from giving 
his son the liberal education he himself 
possessed, but he aided him in laying 
its foundation. Although deprived of 

8 



college privileges, the subject of this 
sketch was able, through self-discipline, 
to enter and pass the examination of the 
graduating class of 1856, entering a 
course preparatory to the miristry in 
the Lutheran Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His mother 
was a most devoted Christian, and to 
her influence he attributes his conver- 
sion and entrance into the ministiy. 
His first charge was at Williamsport, 
Md., where he remained but sixteen 
months, owing to the malarial climate 
and his impaired health, resulting from 
typhoid fever. He subsequently settled 



58 



AMEKICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



for six years at Red Hook, N. Y., near 
the Hudson Eiver, after which he re- 
moved to Easton, Pa., where, although 
beginning with but eighteen members 
and twenty-three Sunday-school schol- 
ars, he was instrumental, within two 
, years, in securing an elegant church ed- 
ifice, and during his five years' ministry 
there the membership of the church 
was increased to 275, and the Sunday- 
school to 300. In 1872 he went to Bal- 
timore, his former home, as the succes- 
sor of the celebrated pulpit orator, Eev. 
Dr. McCron. The church on Lexington 
street having been entirely destroyed by 
fire in 1873, Dr. Barclay inaugurated 
and gave directions to the undertaking 
which resulted in the erection of the 
magnificent marble structure on the cor- 
ner of Fremont and Lanvale streets, 
erected at a cost of $150,000. It is 
(1879) the most elegant house of wor- 
ship of the Lutheran denomination in 
this country, and contains one of the 
finest organs in the city of Baltimore. 
Its buautiful memorial windows are a 
very attractive feature and afford an in- 
teresting study to the visitor. Notwith- 
standing the discouragements resulting 
from the general depression of business 
throughout the country, most of the 
debt incurred in the erection of this 
church has been liquidated, and the 
work is in a very prosperous condition. 
As a result of his five years' labor in 
Baltimore, Dr. Barclay has seen the 
membership of his church more than 
doubled in numerical strength, and that 
of the Sunday-school more than trebled. 
His present congregation (1879) is the 
largest of any church of his denomina- 
tion in the city of Baltimore, or state of 
Maryland, and embraces many of the 



most prominent business men of Balti- 
more, as also a number distinguished 
for literary culture. He has always 
been an earnest and continuous worker 
in the Sunday-school. His manner of 
preaching is illustrative and analytical, 
his thoughts being clearly and briefly 
expressed, and his delivery earnest and 
impressive. 

While pastor of the church at Easton, 
Pa., he made an extended tour through 
Europe, Egypt and Palestine, and his 
notes of travel have been embodied in 
several interesting lectures, which have 
been well received in various cities. 
His title of Doctor of Divinity was con- 
ferred upon him by Roanoke College, of 
Virginia. He has occupied positions on 
the Board of Foreign Missions, and was 
for some time president of the Chil- 
dren's Foreign Missionary Society, 
which he originated, and which is the 
only society of the kind in the Chris- 
tian Church. It embraces over 700 
schools, and has for its object the sup- 
port of missionaries in India, and the 
care and Christian culture of heathen 
children. Thus far the society has been 
eminently successful. During his min- 
istry Dr. Barclay has been instrumental 
in building five church edifices, and 
his labors have generally been at- 
tended with the most gratifying 
results. He married, April 27, 1856, 
Miss Martha Jenison, daughter of Josh- 
ua Jenison, of York, Pa. She died Sep- 
tember 15, 1877. Five children were 
the fruits of this union, all of whom 
are living. On January 9, 1879, Dr. 
Barclay married Miss Louisa B. Super, 
daughter of Mr. Frederick Super of 
Baltimore. — Biog. Cycl. of Md. 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



59 




REV. SAMUEL BACON BARNITZ. 



Rev. Samuel Bacon Barnitz, West- 
ern Secretary of the Board of Home 
Missions of the General Synod, Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church, was born in 
York, Pennsylvania, May 12th, 1838. 
In 1858 he entered Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, but on account of ill health was 
obliged to give up a full college course. 
In 1859, by a unanimous vote of the fac- 
ulty, he was admitted to the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, Penn., and 
completed the full seminary course. 

In the early part ot 1862 he assisted 
the Rev. George G. Butler, D. D., in 
the hospitals in and around Washing- 
ton, D. C, ministering to the sick 
and wounded soldiers of the Union 
army. In June, 1863, Mr. Barnitz was 
called to a Southern Mission at Wheel- 
ing, W. Va. *'His labors in this city 
were varied, and continued for a score 
of years, during which time he succeed- 
ed in building up a flourishing church, 
the largest Sunday-school in the state of 
West Virginia, and established a home 
for orphans and destitute children, set- 
ting on foot also, plans for the founding 
of a Protestant hospital." From 1862 to 



the close of the Civil war, Mr. Barnitz 
was secretary of the West Virginia 
branch of the United States Commission, 
giving much thought to the improve- 
ment of the condition of soldiers in the 
field and hospitals. In the city of 
Wheeling and surroundings, his influ- 
ence was wide and effective, and his 
character and ability acknowledged by 
Christians of all denominations, so that 
his departure from Wheeling was an 
occasion of very great and general re- 
gret. He has been called to many posi- 
tions of trust and responsibility, both in 
and out of his own church. For twenty 
years Mr. Barnitz was a member of the 
International Sunday-school Executive 
Committee, and took a leading part in 
the formation of the committee for In- 
ternational Bible Lessons. He was al- 
so a member of the committee which 
prepared the Evangelical test for Young 
Men's Christian Associations. As a 
member of the Board of Publication, he 
was active in establishing the Augsburg 
Teacher and Sunday-school Lessons, and 
for a number of years edited the news 
department of the Teacher. When the 



60 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



paper for the junior and infants' depart- 
ments of the Sunday-schools was estab- 
lished, Mr. Barnitz became its editor. 
He is especially gifted in preaching 
to children, and has addressed greater 
audiences of children than any one min- 
ister of the Lutheran church. 

In September, 1881, Barnitz was call- 
ed to the position of Western Secretary 
of the Board of Home Missions, in 
which he has had marked success. At 
the time of entering upon this work, the 
General Synod had few missions west of 
Omaha, Neb. Nine years have witness- 
ed the extension of the same to the Pa- 
cific coast, and an improvement on the 



western territory which is quite marked. 
Mr. Barnitz has taken a vigorous part 
in the organization of the Board of Ed- 
ucation, and the establishmeat of Mid- 
land College at Atchison, Kan,, and was 
called to the presidency of the college, 
I but declined, believing that he wjis bet- 
ter adapted to Mission work than to that 
of a college presidency. He is "a man 
of undoubted ability, strong and posi- 
tive convictions, and fearlessness in 
maintaining them, a loving spirit, and a 
true friend to everyone." 

He is a constant contributor to the pa- 
pers and periodicals of the church and 
an indefatigable and intense worker. 



REY. PROF. EDWARD F. BARTHOLOMEW, D.D. 



Rev. Prof. Edward F. Bartholomew, 
D. D., son of William and Susan F. 
Bartholomew, was born near Sundbury, 
Penn., March 24, 1846. His parents 
were in humble circumstances. He is 
the youngest of a family of thirteen 
children, nine of whom are now living. 
The parental stock was noted for a more 
than ordinary longevity, some having 
reached the ripe old age of ninety-three 
years. His early years were passed on 
the farm until his father's death in 1861. 
During his boyhood he received the rud- 
iments of a common school education. 

The two years following his father's 
death he spent at different kinds of em- 
ployment, working sometimes on the 
farm and sometimes at the carpenter's 
trade with two elder brothers, but hav- 
ing no definite purpose. In the autumn 
of 1863 he began a course of study in 
Freeburg Academy, Freeburg, Penn., 
then under the charge of Prof. Daniel 
S. Boyer. This was an important step 
in his life, for here influences were 
brought to bear upon him which shaped 



his life in the direction of good. Two 
men especially, he holds in grateful re- 
membrance as being instruments in the 
hand of God to lead him in the right 
way. One of these was Professor Boy- 
er, a good man and an excellent teacher, 
who communicated his own earnest and 
enthusiastic spirit to his students. The 
other was Rev. C. G. Eilenmeyer, a 
godly and faithful pastor, who was far 
more concerned about the welfare of his 
flock than about worldly honors. He 
was a man of quiet, unostentatious life, 
always about his Father's business, pa- 
tiently and faithfully doing his daily 
duti.es, caring more for the approval of 
God than the applause of men. 

No mortal can rightly estimate the ex- 
tent and power of a Godly pastor's in- 
fluence upon the lives of those by whom 
he is surrounded. There are moments of 
crisis in the lives of all young people 
when everything depends on a word or 
a single act on the part of those who are 
leaders in a community. Such a crisis 
occurred in the experience of the sub- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



61 



ject of this sketch. It was at the be- 
giiiniug of his academic life; he had 
started on a venture, the issue of which 
he could not see; he had no means of 
his own, neither friends to aid or advise 
him; he was, moreover, just then pass- 
ing through a deep religious experience, 
the full significance of which he did not 
understand; for the first time in his life 
he was wrestling with the question as to 
what his mission on earth might be. 
But the way was dark and beset wdth 
apparently insuperable difficulties; the 
young man was thoroughly discouraged 
and on the point of despair; it was his 
purpose to quit school forever. In this 
frame of mind he came one day to his 
private tutor. Father Erlenmeyer, to re- 
cite his Latin lesson. After the lesson 
was recited, the young man tarried to 
tell his teacher how he felt and what 
conclusion he had arrived at. Father 
Erlenmeyer listened attentively to the 
dolt^ful story, and then fixing upon the 
youth his large, open eyes, from which 
beamed only love and solemn earnest- 
ness, he replied: "Where there is a will 
there is a way." The youth had often 
heard this familiar adage, but it had 
never touched his soul as on this oc- 
casion. It was as a message spoken 
from heaven, and made an impression 
never to Ije forgotten. It was a simple 
utterance that this godly pastor and 
faithful teacher spoke to the desponding 
young student, but it inspired confidence 
in his own gifts, trust in the grace of 
Gotl, and courage to do his present 
duty; it proved a gracious word of the 
Lord, a very talisman throughout his 
lor.g struggle with poverty afld hard- 
ship to prepare himself for the work of 
the Mastei-, as well as throughout his 
subsequent professional life. Father 
Erlenmeyer has long since gone to his 
reward, but the good he did by a single 
utterance lives and multiplies a thousand 



fold in the work of the pupil whom he 
influenced for good. His works do fol- 
low him. This incident is recorded 
here in the hope that it may prove a 
message from God to some other timid 
and desponding soul, as to the subject 
of this sketch. 

The years from 1863 to 1866 were 
marked by a variety of experiences in 
the life of the young student He con- 
tinued his studies in the aforesaid 
academy with great irregularity. He 
taught Several terms of public school 
during the winter season, and in sum- 
mer time he engaged in various kinds 
of employment, thus making his own 
way at school. In the fall and winter 
terms of 1865 he was appointed assistant 
teacher in Freeburg xlcademy, then 
under the charge of Prof. N. D. Van 
Dyke. This promotion was a most im- 
portant event, as it was the chief factor 
in shaping his subsequent career as 
teacher in the work of higher education. 
His success in this office was quite 
flattering, and greatly encouraged him. 
Duriiig this winter he also attended 
catechetical instruction under Father 
Erlenmeyer, by whom he was confirmed 
at Rowe's Church, near Selinsgrove, on 
the 24th of March, 1866, being the 
anniversary of his natural birth. Dur- 
ing this winter he also fully resolved to 
consecrate himself to the work of the 
Gospel ministry, and entered upon the 
work of preparation in solemn earnest- 
ness. This period from 1863 to 1866 
was doubtless the most important period 
in his life, inasmuch as it was the 
formative period in respect to both his 
personal character and his professional 
career. On Monday, April 16, 1868, he 
entered the Missionary Institute at 
Selinsgrove, Penn., under the principal- 
ship of Rev. P. Born. In this school 
he continued his prej^aration for college 
with but slight interruption till the 



62 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



close of the spring term of 1868. Du - 
ing the summer of this year he worked 
for the American Tract Society as col- 
porteur in Berks County. The experi- 
ence gained in this vocation proved of 
great value in the years to come. In 
the fall of 1868 he entered the Sopho- 
more class of Pennsylvania College at 
Gettysburg, Pa., under the presidency 
of Dr. Valentine. From this institution 
he graduated in June, 1871, having re- 
ceived the second honor in his class, 
and the Latin Salutatory as an addition- 
al mark of proficiency in his college 
work. In the autumn of the same year 
he received an appointment as principal 
in a Presbyterian Academy located at 
Clark City, Mo. In the following 
spring he returned to Pennsylvania, 
visiting on his way Niagara Falls and 
his friend and classmate Eobert Kline, 
at Union Seminary, New York City. 
On the 11th of July, 1872, he was 
married to Kate L., daughter of Henry 
and Catherine Fasold, of PI am Creek 
Valley, near Sunbury, Pa. A few days 
later he started with his bride for 
Missouri. Early in the fall of 1872 he 
resigned his position in Clark City 
Academy to accept the principalship of 
the High School at Kohoka, Mo. Here 
he labored till the spring of 1874, when 
he accepted a call to the chair of 
Natural and Physical Sciences in 
Carthage College, Carthage, 111., which 
position he held till 1883. Having in 
the meantime pursued a course of theo- 
logical studies privately, he was ordained 
to the Gospel ministry in the Synod of 
Central Illinois, then in session at 
Washington, 111. From this time on he 
performed the duties of both teacher 
and preacher. Together with his col- 
leagues of the college he supplied the 
Lutheran pulpit of Carthage. At dif- 
ferent times he also served the West 
Point and Macomb pastorates as pastor. 



In the summer of 1883 he resigned his 
chair in Carthage College, and on the 
first of August started on a trip to the 
Sandwich Islands, by way of San Fran- 
cisco, in the interest of the estate of his 
brother-in-law. Prof. Philip M. Fasold, 
who had recently died at Kilama, on 
the Island of Kani. This long and 
eventful trip was successfully made, and 
he returned to his home in the early 
part of the following October. Soon 
after his return he accepted a call to 
the chair of English Literature at Mt. 
Morris College, Mt. Morris, 111., and in 
May of the following year he was called 
to the presidency of Carthage College. 
He. accepted this call, and immediately 
entered upon the duties of this re- 
sponsible position. This institution 
had recently met with a series of great 
misfortunes, which now seriously 
threatened its very existence. In the 
darkest days in the history of the col- 
lege which he had served so long as 
professor, and which he loved so well, 
at a time when enemies plotted for its 
destructien and friends deserted it, a 
time when there seemed no hope of 
survival, this call came to him as a call 
direct from God. Obedient to the voice 
of Providence and trusting in the 
guidance of God, he undertook the mis- 
sion of saving the college from dissolu- 
tion and the Lutheran Church in the 
West from disgj-ace. By hard work, 
by struggles, self-denials, and trials, of 
which the world will never know any- 
thing, and by the manifest blessing of 
God, the college was saved and started 
on a new career of usefulness. For 
three long, toilful, anxious years he 
continued at the post of duty, under 
circumstances most adverse and dis- 
heartening, never doubting the right- 
eousness of the cause and its ultimate 
triumph. In the summer of 1888, con- 
vinced that the college was now out of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



63 



clanger and could be safely left to other 
hands, and also having the conscious- 
ness that the specific mission for which 
he had been called to this work had 
been accomplished, he resigned the 
presidency to accept a call to the chair 
of English Literature and Philosophy 
in Augustana College, Rock Island, 111. 
The Board of Trustees, having been 
notified of his resignation, assembled 
in special session, and, after having 
adopted highly complimentary resolu- 



tions concerning Prof. Bartholomew's 
work in Carthage College, accepted his 
resignation; and as a further mark of 
their appreciation of his services con- 
ferred on him the honorary title of 
D. I). Thus ends his career in Carthage 
College, which he served as professor 
and president for fourteen years. In 
September, 1888, he entered upon the 
duties of his new field of labor in 
Augustana College, where he still 
remains. 




HENRY LEWIS BAUGHER, Sr., D.D. 



Henry Louis Baugher was born in 
Abbottstown, Adams County, Pa., in 
1804. His preparation for college life 
he received at the Gettysburg Academy, 
then under the oare of Rev. Dr. Mc- 
Conaughy. He was graduated at 
Dickinson College in 1826, and entered 
the Theological Seminary at Princeton 
the same year. Subsequently, he be- 
came a student in the Seminary at Get- 
tysburg. He was licensed to preach by 
the West Pennsylvania Synod in 1828. 
In 1829 he joined the Synod of Mary- 
land and Virginia, and soon after be- 
came pastor of the church at Boonsboro, 
which was the only pastoral charge he 
ever had, except his connection with the 
college church at Gettysburg for sever- 
al years. 

Hf^ was called to Gettysburg in April, 
1851, as classical teacher in the place of 
Rev. D. Jacobs, deceased, in the Gettys- 
burg Gymnasium. 

When Pennsylvania College was char- 
tered, in 1882, Mr. Baugher was elected 
to the chair of Greek and Belles Lettres. 
This position he filled \mtil the fall of 
1850, when he was elected to the Presi- 
dency. He held this office nearly eight- 



een years. He died just as the senior 
year closed, April 14th, 1868. He was 
confined to his chamber only about a 
week, but his health had been declining 
for a year or two before. 

His strong will continued to the last, 
and he thought he would recover his 
health, even on the morning of the day 
on which he died. When told of the 
opinion of the physicians, he replied: 
"The Lord's will be done." 

Mr. Baugher received the degree of 
D. D. from Dickinson college in 1848, to 
which his name was proposed by a per- 
son who he never suspected would ren- 
der such a service to him. 

One of my correspondents writes: 
"Dr. Baugher was a good man, and want- 
ed to do good. He was very much in- 
terested in the college, and earnestly 
labored to advance its welfare. If his 
prejudices had been less strong, and his 
character less impulsive, he would, no 
doubt, have been more useful and 
more generally beloved by those who 
were brought in contact with him. He 
labored faithfully, and I often think of 
him now as resting. If he were now 
living, he would worry over matters 



64 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



which, after all, are of very little im- 
portance." 

Dr. Baugher was a general reader, 
but his favorite reading, as it should be 
with all divines, was his Greek Testa- 
ment. Homer was also read for recrea- 
tion. His daily habit was, an hour be- 
fore breakfast in private prayer and med- 
itation, and nearly an hour with his 
Greek Testament. After breakfast, 
study or college work all day. 

After his graduation, he intended to 
study law with Frank Key, of Washing- 
ton, but he began to think that if he did 
that it might endanger his spiritual 
welfare. His mother had made it a con- 
stant prayer that God would direct her 
youngest son to the ministry, and her 
prayer was heard. 

He was a diligent writer of sermons, 
and one of his sons tells me that "he had 
stacks of them." 

Dr. Baugher was a severe and exem- 
plary moralist. He never sanctioned 
among clergymen and Christian people 
what many regarded as innocent amuse- 
ments, such as chess or chequers, and I 
doubt whether he would now sanction 
croquet, which has since become a popu- 
lar clerical amusement. 

He was a puritanic observer of what 
he called the Sabbath, and severely tem- 
perate in all things. 

He was regarded by some as stern, or 
what is called ''abrupt," and there is no 
doubt that he was an unsparing critic. 
Hence, he was not liked by some who did 
not intimately know him. He was, per- 
haps, a little too free in expressing his sen- 
timents; he never disguised his opinion 
on any subject; he despised duplicity of 
every kind; and, on all measures and 
subjects, you could easily find out what 
he thought, if you wanted to know. 

When he was elected President of 
the college, I was appointed to go to his 
house and inform him, and to receive 



his answer. He scarcely gave me time 
to announce my message before he 
abruptly replied: "I will not aeeept it.'' 
He had taken no time to deliberate, and 
I knew his manner too well to believe 
that this would be his final determina- 
tion. He subsequently accepted the 
call, and presided over the college for 
nearly eighteen years with distinguished 
success. 

He had administrative talent of the 
first class. As a disciplinarian he was 
stern, yet kindly considerate of the in- 
firmities and temptations of youns: men. 

He never aimed at authorship of the 
highest character, but his published 
sermons, baccalaureate addresses, Re- 
view and Ohserver articles, are forcibly 
written and display an uncommon share 
of solid, good sense, without any rhetor- 
ical flourishes of style or affectation of 
what some call fine writing. 

His Presbyterian training influenced 
the character of his theology, although 
he was in no proper sense a Calvin ist. 

In the pulpit he was instructive, solid, 
evangelical, and yet plain, and some- 
times rising to impressive earnestness. 
He continued all his life to be a close 
reader of his sermons and this detracted 
somewhat from his freedom of speech 
and the natural impulses of his disposi- 
tion. If he had always preached as he 
spoke on the floor of the Synod or of 
other deliberati\re bodies, he would have 
been one of our most impressive pulpit 
orators. 

Dr. Baugher had a vein of satire in 
his mental composition which, if culti- 
vated and exercised, would have acquired 
him. reputation as a writer, as well as 
more enemies than he had. It is known 
to very few of us that he was the writer 
of an article in The Lutheran, entitled 
"The Lion Hunter," which gave serious 
offense in Gettysburg, and which was 
severely denounced by such amiable 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



65 



men even as Dr. Krantli; but nobody 
knew that the author was one of their 
own residents, and who, with a grim sat- 
isfaction, heard himself and his piece 
fiercely abused. He had projected a 
series ot similar articles, but he conclu- 
ded to abandon the idea of publishing 
them. 

Dr. Baugher's hospitality was un- 
bounded, and thouu:h he had the name 



of being stern and too outspoken in his 
views of men and things, yet he had a 
kind and forgiving heart. His'conversa- 
tion among his friends was interesting 
and instructive, and his manner among 
strangers bland and courteous. 

He died regretted by a large circle of 
friends, and in his death the church and 
the college sustained an irreparable 
loss. 



:©. 




REV. HENRY LEWIS BAUGHER, Jr., D.D. 



Henry Lewis Baugher, D. D., son of 
Henry I-. Baugher, D. D., second presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania College, and Clara 
Mary (Brooks), and great-grandson of 
Rev. John George Baugher, one of the 
first Lutheran ministers who came to 
this country from Germany. He was 
educated at Gettysburg in college and 
Theological Seminary, with a supple- 
mented course at Andover (Mass. ) The- 
ological Seminary. 
9 



Dr. Baugher was ordained by the 
West Pennsylvania Synod and was asso- 
ciate pastor in the Wheeling, W. Va., 
Mission until the summer of 1861. In 
this time he was called as instructor, by 
Augustana College, then located at Pax- 
ton, 111. Declining this for the pastor- 
ate, he became pastor of the Church of 
the Holy Trinity, at Norristown, Pa., 
in connection with the Pennsylvania 
Ministerium. He resigned this charge 



66 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



in the snminer of 1867, and went on a six 
months' tour to Europe. On his return 
he was called, in the spring of '68, to the 
Ebenezer Church, in Indianapolis, 
Ind., in connection with the Olive 
Branch Synod. Shortly after he accept- 
ed a call from Pennsylvania College to 
the Pearson Professorship of the Greek 
Language and Literature, and entered 
on his duties at Gettysburg in January, 
1869. In 1880 he resigned his position 
and accepted a call to the Immanuel 
Church in Omaha, in connection with 
the Synod of Nebraska. He continued 
here only a year and returned again to 
his residence at Gettysburg. During 
the winter of 1883 he temporarily filled 
the Greek chair at Harvard University 
at Washington, D. C, and at a special 
meeting of its board of trustees the 
chair of Political Economy and the 
German Language was created, Dr. 
Bagley unanimously elected to it and 
urged to accept. But meanwhile the 
trustees of Pennsylvania College re-elect- 
ed him to its Greek department. He 
accepted this, in which place he still con- 
tinues. 



From 1869 to 1873 he supplied the 
chair of New Testament Exegesis in the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 
and during the year 1883-4 supplied the 
chair of Systematic Theology in the 
same institution. 

Since 1874 he prepared the Comments 
and Lesson Leaves in the Augsburg 
series of Bible Lessons, based on the 
"International Sunday School Lessons," 
and has been editor of "The Augsburg 
Sunday School Teacher" since 1875, 
these periodicals belonging to and issued 
by the Lutheran Publication Society." 
He was made a member of the Inter- 
national Sunday School Committee by 
the convention at Atlanta, Ga., in 1878, 
and has served on this committee two 
periods of seven years each. 

In 1880 Pennsylvania College con- 
ferred on him the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. In 1872 he was married to 
Miss Ida Smith, of York, Pa. Dr. 
Baugher's pen has been constantly used 
for the interests of the Church in the 
newspapers, the Evangelical Eeview, the 
Lutheran Quarterly, and the periodicals 
edited by him. 




EEV. WILLIAM M. BAUM, D.D. 



On the old turnpike between Philadel- 
phia and Beading, about eight miles 
south of the latter city, is a village put 
down on the maps as Exeter, but famil- 
iarly known to this day as Baumistown, 
after its founder, Dr. John C. Baram. 

After some years of successful prac- 
tice as a physician in that locality, Dr. 
Baum removed to Beading where he es- 
tal)lislied himself for life. Three of his 
sons entered the medical profession. 
Dr. Charles Baum lived and died in 
Roadhig. Dr. William J. C. Baum re- 
moved to Louisville, Ky., where he ended 



his days. Dr. John E. Baum began his 
medical career in Oley, about ten miles 
east of Beading, where he continued for 
about two years, when he removed to 
Earlville, but little more than two miles 
distant, where he remained for several 
years when he finally purchased a farm 
and settled permanently in Amity. 

These three points are within a radius 
of about two miles, making it but a sin- 
gle community within which his entire 
professional life was passed. 

During the family residence in Earl- 
ville, January 25, 1825, the subject of 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



67 



this memoir was born. Both father and 
mother were members of the Lutheran 
church and were noted for their strict 
integrity and earnest personal piety. 
They were the devoted friends and par- 
ishioners of Eev. Conrad Miller, who 
was for many years their only and be- 
loved pastor and from him their son re- 
ceived the middle letter of his name, 
having been baptized William Miller 
Baum. 

The lessons and example of Christian 
parents, supplemented by beautiful influ- 
ences in the Church and school, and 
quickened by the work of the Holy Spir- 
it, resulted in an early acceptance of the 
service of Christ and the ministry as a 
profession. Preparation for college was 
made in the neighborhood schools and 
Reading Academy. Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, Gettysburg, Pa., was entered in 
1842, and passing through the entire 
course, graduation was reached in 1846. 
During this period, whilst yet a Fresh- 
man, Mr. Baum was received into mem- 
bership in the College Church by con- 
firmation, administered by the pastor. 
Rev. H. L. Baugher, D.D. 

The Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg was entered immediately after 
graduation in College, and the prescribed 
course pursued, which was followed by 
entrance into the ministry of the Luther- 
an churchj being licensed to preach the 
Gospel and administer the Sacraments 
by the Synod of West Pennsylvania, in 
session at East Berlin, Adams Co., Pa., 
in September, 1838. Upon leaving the 
Theological Seminary, Mr. Baum had 
accepted an appointment from the Trus- 
tees of Pennsylvania College, as tutor 
in his Alma Mater, but during a visit to 
a friend and relative in Middletown, 
Dauphin Co., Pa., he was asked to occu- 
py the vacant pulpit of the old St. Pe- 
ter's Church of that i^lace, and was im- 
mediately invited to become its pastor. 



This could not be accepted in conse- 
quence of the engagement in Pennsyl- 
vania College. The Church council, 
however, addressed an earnest appeal to 
the authorities of the college asking 
for the release of Mr. Baum, which was 
granted, whereupon he accepted their 
call and entered upon his first pastoral 
charge in November, 1848. In this pas- 
torate he continued for four years, dur- 
ing which time the old and venerable 
edifice was remodeled and the member- 
ship doubled. In the year 1851, Mr. 
Baum was married to Miss Maria L. 
Croll, of Middleton. 

In November, 1852, Mr. Baum accept- 
ed a call to become pastor of St. Peter's, 
Barren Hill, Montgomery Co., Pa., and 
remained until April, 1858. During this 
time he made an effort, which was en- 
tirely successful, for the liquidation of a 
troublesome encumbrance against the 
congregation. Various improvements 
and additions to the church property 
were consummated during this time. 
The charge was lifted to a good degree 
of financial and numerical prosperity. 

From Barren Hill, Mr. Baum removed 
to Winchester, Va., April, 1858, where 
he labored with enthusiasm and much 
encouragement until the outbreak of the 
Civil War, in 1861. Declining to adopt 
the policy of Secession from the Nation- 
al Government, removal from Winches- 
ter became a reluctant necessity. Not- 
withstanding diversity of views upon 
state questions, there continues to this 
day the most cordial and intimate rela- 
tion between the surviving members of 
the church and their former pastor. 

With Jan. 1st, 1862, Mr. Baum com- 
menced his ministry in York, Pa., as 
pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church. 
Notwithstanding the distractions and de- 
pletions of the Civil War then in 
progress, the congregation increased 
in numbers and strengthened 



m 



68 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



purpose, so as to resolve upon the re- 
moval of the existing church building 
and the reconstruction of it upon an en- 
larged and improved design. This work, 
involving large expenditure of effort and 
money,' resulted most happily and advan- 
tageously for the congregation and has 
given it a deserved prominence among 
its sister churches. St Paul's has stead- 
ily advanced in numbers and influence 
and gives promise of increasing activity 
and usefulness. 

Mr. Baum remained in charge of St, 
Paul's until March, 1871. He then fol- 
lowed Rev. E. W. Hutter, D.D., as pas- 
tor of St. Matthew's, Philadelphia, Pa. 
The church was at that time located on 
New Street, below Fourth, and failed in 
many respects to meet the needs 
of the congregation. Movements were 
at once inaugurated looking to an early 
removal to a more eligible location. Af- 
ter considerable search, purchase was 
made of the lot on the northwest corner 
of Broad and Mi Vernon streets, 100 by 
150 feet, for $47,000. Work thereon 
was commenced immediately and a chap- 
el of marble, fifty by eighty-seven feet, 
and a parsonage of brick and sandstone 
trimmings were ready for dedication 
and occupation in April, 1876. The 
completion of the main edifice was not 
undertaken until 1889, and is only now 
(July, 1890) approaching completion. 
It will be a structure 75 by 100 feet, of 
imposing design and elaborate finish. 
The funds necessary for its erection has 
been subscribed and are being paid with 
unusual liberality and spirit by the con- 
gregation. Honorable mention of the 
Ladies' Guild is due, from which a con- 
tribution of ten thousand dollars is in 
waiting to be paid whenever needed. 
When completed the property of St. 
Matthew's will rank with the very best 
of the churches of Philadelphia. Not- 
withstanding the outlay of so princely a 



sum upon its own congregational ap- 
pointments, St. Matthew's has stood 
abreast with the strongest and most lib- 
eral of its sister churches in the work of 
general benevolence and Christian char- 
ity. 

Having removed to Philadelphia in 
1874, Mr. Baum is now well advanced in 
the seventeenth year of his pastorship 
of St. Matthew's. The most cordial re- 
lations exist between pastor and church 
and entire peace and harmony prevail 
throughout the membership. The out- 
look for the future, with a gracious 
Providence, is promising and cheering. 

Mr. Baum has been ever deeply con- 
cerned and closely identified with the 
Literary Institutions and General Boards 
of the General Synod with which body 
he has remained in ecclesiastical fellow- 
ship. For many years he has been a 
Trustee of Pennsylvania College and a 
director of the Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg. Two of his sons have fol- 
lowed their father into the ministry of 
the Lutheran Church. 

Rev. J. CroU Baum labored very zeal- 
ously and successfully at Trenton, N. J., 
and Canajoharie, N. Y., until failing 
health compelled retirement. He died 
in Philadelphia, Oct. 28, 1886. 

Rev. W. M. Baum, Jr., occupied the 
pulpit of the Central ( Lutheran ) Church 
at Phoenixville, Pa., until the resigna- 
tion of his brother at Canajoharie, when 
he was asked to follow him and has 
since been in faithful service in that 
church. 

Mr. Baum has another son, Charles 
Baum, M. D., graduate of Pennsylvania 
College and of the Medical Department 
of the University of Philadelphia. He 
has been in the practice of medicine in 
Philadelphia for some years, being also 
intimately connected with the staff of the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, but is at present 
absent in Europe upon a professional 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



69 



tour, being the private physician of a 
lady of large fortune who is traveling 
for her health and recreation. 

A younger son is a sophomore in 



Pennsylvania College, and still another 
is in course of preparation for college. 
Three daughters still remain at home to 
complete the family circle. 




KEV. PEOF. J. A. BAUMAN. 



Kev. Prof. J. A. Bauman was born at 
South Easton, Pa., on the 21st of Sep- 
tember, 1847. His parents were John 
Martin Bauman and Martha, born Kuns- 
man. They were both members of the 
Lutheran Church, his mother being es- 
pecially devout and faithful in her at- 
tendance upon divine worship. Prof. 
Bauman was educated up to his seven- 
teenth year in the public schools, first four 
school years at Bittersville, Pa., the rest 
of them at Applebachsville, Pa. Dur- 
ing the time of his public school attend- 
ance he lived with an uncle and aunt, 
Tobias Sterner and his wife, Sarah Ann. 
He then taught school for five winters 
and thereby obtained money enough to 
carry him through the preparatory 
course. While at college and at the 
Seminary he received financial aid from 
the Pennsylvania Ministerium. He 
graduated with first honors from Muh- 
lenberg College in 1873, and from the 
Philadelphia Seminary in 1876. In 
1876 he was married to Miss Irene E. 
Smith, who died April 19, 1877. He was 
a^'ain married in 1884 to Miss Lizzie 



Kiefer. Prof. Bauman was ordained in 
June, 1876, by the Pennsylvania Minis- 
terium, of which body he is a member. 
Immediately after his ordination he la- 
bored in Westmoreland county for a lit- 
tle over one year, having charge of the 
congregations, and preaching in both 
German and English. After the death 
of his first wife he accepted a call to the 
vice-principalship of the Keystone State 
Normal School, Kutztown, Pa., in which 
capacity and that of Professor of Math- 
ematics he served four years. He then 
accepted a call to Gustavus Adolphus 
College, at St. Peter, Minnesota, a Swe- 
dish-English institution, where he taught 
English Beading, Ehetoric and Litera- 
ture, German and Latin for four years. 
He was then called to the Professorship 
of the Natural and Applied Sciences, at 
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., 
which position he still holds. In preach- 
ing Prof. Bauman makes his subject 
clear and enforces its lessons with ear- 
nestness; in teaching it is his constant 
effort to get the student to do his own 
thinking. 




REV. WILLIAM BEATES. 



Bev. Wm. Beates was born in Phila- 
delphia, June 14, 1777, whilst the city 
was in possession of the British. In af- 
ter life he often spoke with deep inter- 
est of the thrilling scenes which trans- 



pired during the days of his childhood, 
of the alieniations and bitterness among 
neighbors, and of the zeal and earnest- 
ness with which even the boys would re- 
spectively espouse the interest of the 



70 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



two parties. Long after peace was de- 
clared, England still had her warm advo- 
cates in this "land of the free and home 
of the brave." He vividly remembered 
how a Tory, in the vicinity of his father's 
residence, would take him by the hair, 
and, as he attempted to escape his firm 
grasp, would pull out large bunches, be- 
cause the patriotic lad, in the buoyancy 
of his spirits and in bold defiance, would 
lustily cry : "Hurrah for General Wash- 
ington!" "Hurrah for the Continental : 
Congress!" He had very distinct recol- 
lections of the appearance of Washing- 
ton, whose residence in Philadelphia 
was, for a season, on Market street, 
above Fifth, just opposite the house of 
his father. He frequently saw him as 
he daily rode out on his gray war horse 
with bright hoofs, polished with shoe 
blacking, as was the fashion in those 
days. 

He was a youth of steady, industrious 
habits, free from vicious tendencies, al- 
though indifferent and careless on the 
subject of religion. He was reared un- 
der Christian influences, and regularly 
attended the services of the sanctuary in 
the German churches, then under the 
pastoral care of Drs. Helmuth and 
Schmidt. In his sixteenth year his at- 
tention to the truth was arrested and a 
concern for the salvation of his soul 
awakened under circumstances very pe- 
culiar. He was returning from Zion's 
Church, where Dr. Helmuth had deliver- 
ed a most solemn discourse on the mir- 
aculous restoration of the paralytic. He 
had listened with earnest attention, as 
was his custom, to the eloquent preach- 
er; yet the sermon seemed to have made 
no deeper impression than on previous 
occasions. But as he was in the act of 
crossing Arch street homeward, he im- 
agined that he heard a voice, in the most 
emphatic tones, saying to him: "You 
shall never enter that church asrain as 



you now are." The words continued to 
ring in his ears — he could not divest his 
mind of the impression. It was in the 
year 1793, when yellow fever was so 
fearfully raging in Philadelphia, and 
thousands were the daily victims of its 
ruthless ravages. No one left home 
without carrying with him camphor, am- 
monia, or some disinfectant, as a safe- 
guard from the dreaded pestilence. He 
had with him, on this occasion, a sponge 
saturated with lavender, which he im- 
mediately applied to his nostrils, and 
with great trepidation were his steps ac- 
celerated. As he reached the Market 
House he sought shelter beneath its 
roof; but, just as his home was in sight 
he encountered a hearse. A cold shud- 
der passed over his frame; the whole at- 
mosphere seemed impregnated with 
death. Breathless, he rushed into the 
house, and soon the little family, uncon- 
scious of what was agitating his youth- 
ful breast, were gathered round the table 
where was spread the simple but sub- 
stantial meal. It had not for him, how- 
ever, on this occasion, the usual zest; his 
appetite had gone. He longed for soli- 
tude; butwhither couldhe flee? "Hell," 
he says, "seemed to be getting fast hold 
of me, and I was filled with indescribable 
misery." He retired to the shop — it 
was Sunday — that he might be alone. 
In his mental distress, he thought he 
again heard the voice, which had pre- 
viously addressed him, saying: "Look 
within!" "The wages of sin is death!" 
"These you are now reaping!" His eyes 
are partially opened. He is awakened 
to a sense of his danger and his guilt. 
He now realizes, as he never before had, 
his true spiritual condition. He begins 
to feel how odious a thing sin is, and 
how ruinous are its consequences. The 
scriptural injunction, "Seek the Lord," 
appeared to sound in his ears, as if utter- 
ed by a human voice. The prompt in- 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



71 



quiry was: "How?" The reply came: 
"By prayer." "I immediately fell upon 
my knees," lie says, "and commenced 
with the only prayer I knew, 'Our 
Father;' but ere I had finished my 
tongue seemed loosened, my lips were 
unsealed, and for full an hour I con- 
tinued in earnest supplication at the 
mercy-seat, pleading with God for the 
forgiveness of my sins." His supplica- 
tions were not long unanswered. He 
thought he heard the same voice saying: 
"Thy sins are forgiven thee!" He now 
enjoyed peace of mind — that peace 
which passeth knowledge. He hastened 
in the afternoon to God's house, with de- 
vout gratitude, "no longer a child of 
hell," to use his own language, "but an 
heir of heaven." His spiritual enjoy- 
ment, however, was not unalloyed. Sor- 
row was sometimes mingled with his cup 
of happiness. He had his difficulties, 
his trials, and his fears. 

Dr. Helmuth, some time after, on be- 
coming acquainted with the change that 
had taken place in the young man's re- 
ligious views, urged him to unite in the 
exercises of the "Mosheim Society," an 
association connected with the church, 
designed to proniote the mental and 
spiritual improvement of its members. 
The theological students connected with 
the seminary belonged to this Society. 
The exercises consisted of singing and 
prayer, and the reading and. exposition 
of the Scriptures, and the discussion of 
questions on religious topics. Commit- 
tees were appointed at these meetings to 
assist in the Sunday Schools of the 
church in the city and vicinity. He 
was also a teacher in the church Sunday 
School, and frequently opened and closed 
the services with a prayer. On one of 
these occasions his pastor, being present, 
for the first time suggested to him the 
subject of the Christian ministry. 
"William," said he, "you must preach 



the Gospel." "I? No! If the Lord 
needs workmen, He has many more wor- 
thy to do His work. I cannot." "You 
do not know," answered Dr. Helmuth; 
"the Lord chooses His workmen, and 
He knows best." "True," says the young 
man; "but how could I preach? In one 
half hour I could tell all I know, and 
what then?" "William," replied the ven- 
erable doctor, "your head is now like 
an apothecary shop, upside down; all 
that is required to be done is to set the 
materials in order." 

A noted infidel happened to visit his 
father, and, turning to the young man, 
very much to the surprise of the family, 
said: "William, you must preach the 
Gospel. ' ' Personal friends were earnest- 
ly directing his attention to the subject; 
but, modest in reference to his own abil- 
ities, his timid spirit shrank from the re- 
sponsibilities of the office. Whilst his 
mind was thus deeply exercised as to 
duty, and earnestly engaged in medita- 
tion and prayer, he took up Bogatsky, 
and as he opened the book, the first word 
that met his eye was Predige ( Preach. ) 
"I then felt," said he, "W^oe is unto me, 
if I preach not the Gospel." Prostrate 
upon my knees, I prayed: "Take away 
my spirit, O God, rather than that I should 
enter upon the work without Thy Spir- 
it." He was slow to believe that the 
Lord wanted him to labor as a minister 
in His vineyard. He dreamed that he 
was accosted by his pastor in the follow- 
ing language: "William, why do you 
not call to see me? Is it because you 
fear I will urge you to study for the 
ministry? Are you afraid to suffer for 
Christ's sake?" "I am not afraid to suf- 
fer," was the reply; "but I have no time 
to come, except on Saturday." "Well, 
then," said the good man, "come at that 
time." He met the pastor in the course 
of a few days, and what struck 
him as most remarkable was, that 



72 



AMEBICAK LUTHEBAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



this identical conversation occurred. 

On tlie morning of May 12tli, 1807, 
in the thirtietli year o£ his age, as a 
theological student, Mr. Beates entered 
the study of Dr. Helmuth. Under his 
instructions and those of his colleague. 
Dr. Schmidt, he continued his studies 
for three years. 

He was licensed by the Synod of 
Pennsylvania, and on the 8th of July, 
1810, preached his introductory discourse 
in the Warwick Pastorate. His labors 
were arduous during these twenty-six 
years, and his success was very great. 
As his health, however, suffered from 
constant exposure to all kinds of weath- 
er, for his congregations were distant 
and his members scattered, he felt the 
importance and necessity of rest. He 
accordingly resigned his position and re- 
moved to Lancaster, preaching occasion- 
ally, and performing other religious 
services, when an opportunity offered. 
At a subsequent period he was prevailed 
upon to take charge of Zion's (German 
Lutheran) Church in Lancaster, which 
was in a distracted and languishing con- 
dition. With his accustomed zeal and 
energy he took hold of the enterprise, 
refusing all compensation for his ser- 
vices, yet stipulating with the congrega- 
tion that they regularly raise the prom- 
ised amount of salary and appropriate it 
to the liquidation of the church debt. 
He was their pastor for fifteen years, but 
in 1853 the increasing infirmities of age 
constrained him to retire from the active 
duties of the ministry, to resign to other 
hands the work in which he had been so 
long engaged. His visitations to the 
sick and infirm he continued so long as 
he was able until within a few months of 
his death. He frequently spoke of his 
approaching change with satisfaction 
and delight, and referred to the eternal 
world as a place of activity. ''Heaven I 
look upon," he said, "as a High School. 



The schools on earth are only primary. 
In that very thing in which we most ex- 
cel here below will we advance with the 
greatest rapidity in the world above." 

He embraced every opportunity which 
occurred to preach the truths of the Gos- 
pel to his children and to all who ap- 
proached him. "In view of death," he 
remarked, "I have three things to say to 
my family: Serve the Lord; be liberal 
to the Church; be kind to the poor." 
His son Henry observed: "Father, 
you have been serving the Lord all your 
life, at least for seventy-five years: do 
you feel that you merit anything for all 
these years of service?" "No!" was his 
emphatic reply, "I have nothing in the 
way of merit; I depend entirely upon the 
merits of Christ." He added: "Here I 
am, aged and helpless, and though I had 
untold wealth, it would avail nothing in 
the hour of eternity. What a miserable 
creature I would be now if it were not 
for religion, true religion." 

"I never saw him," says Dr. Muhlen- 
berg, "without being more and more 
deeply impressed with the thought that 
he was a good man, an Israelite, indeed, 
in wbom'there was no guile." 

His sermons were also eminently 
scriptural, and the truth was always pre- 
sented with great originality and force. 
His fidelity no one could doubt. On a 
certain occasion, as he descended from 
the pulpit, he was accosted by one of 
the church officers who was apprehen- 
sive that the discourse just preached was 
entirely too pointed and would give of- 
fense. "Did I utter anything," said the 
preacher, "not contained in the Bible?" 
"No, I cannot say that you did," was the 
reply. "When I came hither I found 
that Bible," said Mr. Beates, pointing 
to it in the pulpit, "and I presumed 
that you wanted me to preach from it. 
According to your own admission I con- 
fined myself to its teachings. Then why 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



73 



find fault with me?" This response, if 
it did not entirely satisfy, completely 
silenced the fault-finder. In the pulpit 
his manner was exceedingly natural. 

On a certain occasion an individual 
came to him, apparently in the deepest 
distress, perplexed in reference to some 
mystery in the Bible. He at first sup- 
posed that he was concerned with regard 
to the salvation of his soul, and he re- 
joiced in the opportunity of directing an 
awakened sinner to the Saviour. But 
how great his disappointment on learn- 
ing that the man's solicitude was occa- 
sioned by the difiicult question, "Where 
did Cain obtain his wife?" "Sir," said 
the reverend father, without being in 
the least rufiled by the inquiry, "Sir, go 
home and sleep a night, return to me 
to-morrow morning, and bring with you 
some proof that it will be of any benefit 
to you to have the question answered 
and I will answer it for you." The next 
day the man returned, when Mr. Beates 
exhorted him to repent of his sins and 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be 
converted. He engaged with him in 
earnest and importunate prayer, and 
soon found him rejoicing in Christ. 

Beferring one day to his pastoral la- 
bors, he said, "I discriminate between 
the rich and the poor, but it is always 
in favor of the latter." Ministerial 
brethren often sought his counsel and 
direction. To a young man in the tide 
of his popularity, caressed and admired, 
who had just been called to one of our 
most prominent churches, he said, "To- 
day it is 'Hosanna,' to-morrow it will be 
'Crucify him'." 

We once heard him speak, among other 
trials connected with his ministry, of a 
suit brought against him, when seventy- 
eight years of age, to recover, in accord- 
ance with a legislative act of 1729-30, 
the penalty of =£50 for marrying a minor 
without the consent of his parents. Al- 
10 



though it was clearly shown in the trial 
that there was no intention on his part 
to violate the law or do the plaintiff any 
injury, that the defendant had taken 
every means in his power to ascer- 
tain the age of the parties and was as- 
sured that all was right; also that there 
was a trap laid, a pre-concerted arrange- 
ment betw^een the father and the son to 
induce the minister to perform the cere- 
mony, so that the £50, just the sum 
'of money required by the father 
for the completion of a dwelling 
then in process of erection, might be se- 
cured, the Court imposed the fine, al- 
leging that the publications of the bans 
was necessary, a law regarded as obse- 
lete, of which Mr. Beates had never 
heard during a ministry of nearly half a 
century. There was no redress and he 
had to submit. In speaking of the in- 
justice done him in this case, said he, 
"The figure of Justice which surmounts 
the steeple of the Court House has a 
pair of scales in her hand to show justice 
is to be administered in the court room 
below, while there is a rod (lightning- 
rod) behind." "This," he continued, 
"should be reversed. The rod should 
be placed in the hand and the scales in 
the rear." 

He had an aversion for controversy, 
and carefully avoided all discussions 
conducted in a spirit of recrimination 
and unfriendly criticism. "I hold," said 
he, "to neither party in the Church. I 
am no party man. I will not share in 
the family quarrel. My time is near- 
ly out. My mind is fixed. I am 
going where we shall know all these 
things. Some things I know, others I 
do not know. The Lord's Supper is a 
mystery. Why the bread and wine are 
called the body and blood of Christ I 
do not know. But I believe, else I make 
Christ a liar. But I do not believe 
that I eat his carnal body, the body that 



74 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



hung upon the tree." On another occa- 
sion he said, "That Christ is present in 
the Sacrament I have na doubt. My 
God has said so and that is sufficient. 
How belongs to him. To receive him 
belongs to me. I have enough to do 
with my hows. How 1 live, how I love, 
how I fight, how I partake of the Supper, 
and if I am not careful my how (wie) will 
be turned into woe. The Saviour is 
present at my Communion, He is with 
me in the Supper, the manner belongs 
to Him." He added: "Many a so-call- 
ed doctor disputes and disputes and 
reaps no comfort from the Sacrament, 
whilst the honest trusting tradesman, 
who labors from Monday morning till 
Saturday nis:ht, reads, believes, partakes 
and is blessed. No one who attempts 
to go behind the simple words of 
Christ can give any satisfactory expla- 
nation." 

A prominent trait in his character 
was the exemplification of the apostol- 
ic command, "Follow peace with all 
men." "If individuals, he said, "would 
only turn their ire against Satan and 
the old Adam they might fight as much 
as they pleased." Some of his parishion- 
ers were very anxious to know what his 
political sentiments were. One of them 
approached him one day and inquired 
what his politics might he, as he sub- 
scribed for the newspapers of both par- 
ties?" "Oh," he replied, "I am a Lu- 
theran." They never could tell whether 
he was Whig or Democrat. 

He possessed a fund of rich quaint 



humor which would spring forth in 
spontaneous expressions. He loved a 
little pleasantry and often made a play-, 
ful or witty remark. Even during his 
last days this natural vein of humor 
would manifest itself. Speaking of his 
death, he looked up at those who were 
present, with that twinkle of the eye 
which was peculiar to him, and said, 
''After I have gone it will be asked: Of 
what did he die?" To which it may be 
truly answered: "He died of hardness of 
heart," alluding to the disease (ossifica- 
tion of the heart) from which he was 
suffering. Some years ago, when a gen- 
eral interest prevailed in almost every 
community on the temperance question, 
and individuals were disposed to sign 
the pledge of total abstinence, his neigh- 
bor. Bishop Bowman, called to see him, 
and inquired, "If he too, had joined the 
society?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "many 
years ago. When I was a youth I was 
confirmed, and then I promised to re- 
nounce the Devil and all his works." 
His friend was amused with the novelty 
of his reply, but agreed with him that 
he was a member of the temperance so- 
ciety. Some one connected with his 
congregation once sent him a verbal 
message expressing his dissatisfaction 
and displeasure with something he had 
presented in one of his discourses. 
"Give him my compliments," said Mr. 
Beates, "and tell him I am not at all 
satisfied with myself, and, . therefore, I 
cannot censure him for being dissatisfied 
with me." 



:©: 



KEY. HENEY ALBEET BECKEE. 



Eev. Henry Albert Becker, son of 
Eev. r. C. Becker and Mary Everett, 
was born April 30th, 1841, in Mahoning 
county, O He prepared for college in 



the Lordstown Academy, and graduated 
at the Capital University, Columbus, O., 
in 1864. He finished his theological 
course at the Capital University in 1866, 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



75 



and was ordained by the Joint Synod of 
Ohio in June, 1866. His first charge 
was at St. Paris, O., 1866-67, for 
eight months. Second at Thornville, 
Perry county, O., 1867-77, and his third 
one was St. Mark's congregation. Dele- 
ware, O., 1877-84 He was editor of the 
Lutheran Child's Paper for nearly ten 
years, contributed articles to the Luther- 



an Standard, and wrote many poems and 
hymns. He married Mary Louise Hoff- 
man, Sept, 4, 1866, at Pittsburg, Pa., 
who, with five sons and a daughter, sur- 
vive him. He died Aug. 21, 1884, of 
cancer of the stomach, aged 43 years, 
3 months, 21 days, and was buried at 
Delaware, Ohio. 




REV. G. F. BEHRINGER. 



The Rev. G. F. Behringer was born 
in New York City in 1846, where he re- 
ceived his first education in the public 
schools. Later on he attended Pennsyl- 
vania College, in Gettysburg, and com- 
pleted his studies at Cornell University. 
He belonged to the first class of 1869, 
and was the first one to receive his di- 
ploma as Bachelor of Arts. A class- 
mate of his among eight, was Ex-Gover- 
nor Foraker, of Ohio. Mr. Behringer 
first received a position as Assistant 
Professor in the department of lan- 
guages in Cornell University. He only 
remained there one year, when he left 
for Germany, where he studied Theolo- 
gy in Leipsic, Halle, Turbingen, and in 
Genf, Switzerland, for one term. When 
he returned to America he received a 
call to Howard University in Washing- 
ton, also in the department of languages. 
A year later he went West, and was pas- 
tor for seven years in Indianapolis, Ind,, 
and Des Moines, Iowa. In the fall of 
1881 he was called upon to become pas- 
tor of the old St. Paul's congregation, in 
Brooklyn, where he remained until he 



accepted a call from Grace Church, 
Brooklyn, N. Y., in May, 1883. In the 
fall of 1884 he received a call as Profess- 
or from Carthage College, Illinois, but 
declined to accept it, not wishing to 
leave his congregation. 

Pastor Behringer has done a great 
deal of literary work. He was for some 
time with the publishing house of Funk 
& Wagnalls, on Dey street. New York, 
and was the literary editor of the firm. 
As such he translated into the English 
language "The Life of Martin Luther," 
by Dr. Rein, and "The Life of UlricZwin- 
gli," by John Grob. But his main work 
consisted in the revising and supervis- 
ing of the edition of Meyer's "Commen- 
tary on the New Testament." He still 
does some work occasionally for the 
above-named firm, and he has for sever- 
al years past had charge of the foreign 
department of one of the leading Eng- 
lish Lutheran Church papers in the 
United States. Pastor Behringer is the 
owner of a very valuable library con- 
taining 1,500 choice volumes in the Eng- 
lish, French and German languages. 




76 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. EDMUND BELFOUE, D.D. 



Eev. Edmund Belfour, D. D., was born 
in Alstead, a suburb of Copenhagen, 
Denmark, Aug. 9, 1833, His father, 
who was well educated, came to this 
country in 1839, and the family followed 
two years later in the sailing vessel, ''Is- 
abella," which made the voyage to New 
York in nine weeks. Here the family 
settled. 

The boy, Edmund, was the youngest 
of deyen children, and, at the end of one 
year's residence in New York, he began 
to work in order to aid in supporting 
the family. It"^was]not until hisjsixteenth 
year that he] entered school, beginning 
at the very foundation. He expected to 
learn the machinist's trade, but his pas- 
tor, Eev. Dr. C. Martin, who confirmed 
him, urged him to study for the minis- 
try. By studying day and night, he 
succeeded, at the end of nine months, in 
passing the examination for admission 
to the College of the City of New York. 
He completed his course in the summer 
of 1854, and received medals for profi- 
ciency in moral science and oratory. 
In the fall of the same year he entered 
the Lutheran Theological Seminary at 



Gettysburg, Pa. In the spring of 1857 
he became the pastor of St. Paul's Lu- 
theran Church in Schoharie, New York, 
and the associated Lutheran Church at 
Central Bridge, and served the parish 
successfully for eleven years. At the 
end of that time he became pastor of St. 
John's Lutheran Church in Easton, Pa., 
where he labored happily for nearly six 
years, when he was asked by the Gener- 
al Council to go to Chicago to organize 
English Lutheran churchc^s. He enter- 
ed on this work February 1, 1874, and 
succeeded in founding two congrega- 
tions. Trinity on the North Side and 
Wicker Park on the West Side. But 
the climate bringing on a serious sick- 
ness, he accepted a call to the pa&torate 
of the First English Lutheran Church 
in Pittsburg, and began his labors there 
Feb. 1, 1880, having now held the posi- 
tion for ten years. 

During his ministry the congregation 
built its magnificent church and chapel 
on Grant street. 

Dr. Belfour's ministry has been mark- 
ed by persevering, conservative, and suc- 
cessful labors, and has been singularly 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



77 



peaceful and happy. In his library are 
found books in eight or nine different 
languages. Twelve years ago he trans- 
lated from the Danish language "Pon- 



toppidan's Explanation of Luther's Cat- 
echism," which is now in its eleventh 
edition. 




EEV. EZRA KELLER BELL, A. M. 



Ezra Keller Bell, A.M., was born in 
Washington Co., Md., in 1853. He en- 
tered Wittenberg College in 1873, gradu- 
ating in 1877, and from the Theo- 
logical Seminary in 1879. Mr. Bell was 
pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 
West Liberty, Ohio, two years, St. Paul's 
at Findlay three years, and became pas- 
tor of the First English Lutheran 



Church in Cincinnati in October, 1884. 
At this place he succeeded in building 
up a strong congregation and one of the 
most benevolent in the Synod. He be- 
came editor of the Lutheran Evangelist Jan- 
uary 1st, 1890, performing the duties of 
editor in connection with the work of his 
pastorate in Cincinnati. * 




REY. ANDREW BERG. 



Rev. Andrew Berg was born in Mun- 
denbeiu, on the left bank of the Rhein, 
in the Palatinate, on the 30th day of No- 
vember, 1810. As the place was at that 
time under the dominion of France, he, 
though of German parentage, was a born 
subject of France. In his early infancy 
he w^as consecrated to God in Holy Bap- 
tism, and, having been born on St. An- 
drew's day, received the name of An- 
drew. At his baptism his parents sol- 
emnly vowed that, if possible, their first 
born should be brought up to enter the 
ministry of Christ. But they both died 
before their son was quite four years old, 
and hence could not, upon their part, 
carry out their devout intention. 

In the notes Father Berg left, there 
is no further reference to his early years. 
He informs us that, September, 1832, he 
reached this country, landing in the city 
of Baltimore, Md. He soon after found 
his way to York, Pa., and obtained em- 



ployment with a Mr. Philip Ruppert' 
three miles northwest of York. After 
spending a few months here, he proceed- 
ed to Mechanicsburg, Cumberland coun- 
ty, Pa., where he secured a situation 
with Mr. John T. Williams, with whom 
he remained until December, 1836, work- 
ing at the trade of coverlet-weaving. 

His residence in Mechanicsburg 
proved the turning-point in Father 
Berg's life. Here he not only found a 
home in a Christian family, but also a 
true church home, and enjoyed the faith- 
ful pastoral care of a very devout and 
earnest minister of Christ, in the person 
of Rev. Emanuel Keller, who was at that 
time pastor of the Lutheran churches 
composing the Mechanicsburg charge. 
It was during his residence here that his 
attention was directed to the work of the 
ministry, and the way opened for his 
preparation for this, his life work, and 
the happy accomplishment of the vows 



78 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



his sainted parents had taken in his ear- 
ly infancy. , 

The AVest Pennsylvania Synod of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church held its 
annual meeting in Mechanicsburg in the 
autumn of 1836, and Father Berg says: 
"I attended the meetings of that synod 
regularly, being a member of the Luther- 
an Church. The missionary and edu- 
cational meeting of the synod was held 
in the old union meeting house in Me- 
chanicsburg, and was addressed by a 
Rev. Mr. Yeager, who plead so earnest- 
ly for young men to consecrate them- 
selves to God, go to the institutions at 
Gettysburg and prepare themselves for 
t^e work of the gospel ministry, that Mr. 
Berg, then about 26 years of age, says 
he "was much affected and seriously 
impressed." He promptly opened his 
heart to Rev. A. Deininger, who was 
then a guest at the house of Mr. Wil- 
liams, and stated that, if he could see 
his way clear, he would, even at his 
present age, prepare himself for the 
work of the ministry. The result was 
that, after sustaining a satisfactory ex- 
amination by Revs. Drs. S. S. Schmuck- 
er, C. P. Krauth and H. L. Baugher, he 
was prevailed upon to proceed to Gettys- 
burg and enter upon a course of study in 
the iDstitutions there, in preparation of 
the work of the ministry. He says, in 
entering upon his studies, he had the 
promise of the preachers that they 
would provide for his support, but com- 
plains that these prooiises were not very 
well kept for a time, until tlie Education 
Society advanced him 1500.00 to defray 
his student expenses. 

After many trials and much bodily 
affliction, he presented himself at the 
meeting of the West Pennsylvania Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod, held in 1842, in 
Bloom field. Perry county. Pa., and, sus- 
taining a satisfactory exandnation, was 
licensed to the gospel ministry. He had 



spent six years as a student of the insti- 
tutions of Getttysburg, which, counting 
two years for the course there pursued, 
in the Theological Seminary, left him 
four years for his collegiate studies. 
Although he did not pursue his college 
studies to graduation, he yet enjoyed 
the advantages of a quite thorough educa- 
tion, had a well cultivated mind, and was 
able to minister with equal acceptance 
in both the German and English lan- 
guages. 

After his licensure he was employed 
from October, 1842, until July, 1843, as 
a missionary upon the territory now em- 
braced in Duncannon and Liverpool 
charges in Perry county. During his 
labors in this field, he organized the Lu- 
theran congregation in Pottersburg, 
near Duncannon; collected money for 
building a church there; laid the corner- 
stone of it, and afterwards dedicated it 
to the worship of God. 

In the summer of 1843, he followed a 
unanimous call to the Shrewsbury pas- 
torate in York county. Pa., which then 
embraced five congregations. This pas- 
torate Father Berg served, with much 
self-sacrificing fidelity and great success, 
for over thirty years. A brother who 
was familiar with the field when Fa- 
ther Berg went there says, that it was al- 
most a heathen wilderness, and that he 
accomplishejl a wonderful work for God 
and the church there. He was instru- 
mental in building four new brick 
churches in his pastorate proper; in or- 
ganizing two new congregations, one at 
Glen Rock and another at New Free- 
dom, and having new churches built at 
these points, which afterwards entered 
into the formation of other pastorates 
He procured charters for four of his 
congregations, secured the lot in Shrews- 
bury upon which the present new church 
edifice stands, brought about the pur- 
chase of the cemetery grounds at 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



79 



Shrewsbury, laid them out, had them , 
fenced in, planted the trees, and so' fi- 
nanciered the business that before he 
left between two and three acres ad- 
ditional ground had been added to the 
cemetery, and when he left over $500.00 
remained in its treasury. He was also 
instrumental in obtaining a legacy of 
13,000 for the church. The best days of 
Father Berg's ministry were, of course, 
spent in Shrewsbury, and it was here 
that he reaped his greatest success and 
exerted his widest influence. It was 
some twenty-eight years ago that we 
first met him, and the impression he 
then made was that he was a man of 
a strong, positive character, and of an 
earnest, untiring spirit in the prosecu- 
tion of his sacred calling. He ardently 
loved the church of his Fathers, and was 
ever firm in confessing, teaching and 
maintaining her pure faith, too firm and 
positive in this, for some with whom 
his earlier ministerial years were asso- 
ciated. 

In 1873 Father Berg accepted a call to 
the German Lutheran church at Cham- 
bersburg, where he remained but one 
year and seven months. He resigned 
this congregation because of its opposi- 
tion to English preaching, for want of 
which the younger portion of the con- 
gregation were continually leaving the 
church of their parents. 

From Chambersburg he removed to 
Sunbury, Northumberland county. Pa., 
and took charge of the Treverton Mis- 
sion. This brought him into connection 



with the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 
with which he was in hearty sympathy 
and by. the members of which he was 
held in the highest esteem. 

Leaving Sunbury on account of the 
malarial fevers, from which his family 
had suffered much during the two years 
and a half of his ministry in that field, 
he followed a call to Zion's Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in Mechanicsburg, 
Lancaster county. Pa., in the year 1877, 
and served this congregation in connec- 
tion with another at Voganville, some 
six miles distant, until his death. 

Father Berg literally died with the 
harness on. On the Sunday previous to 
his very sudden death, on Wednesday 
night, he had filled his regular appoint- 
ments, preaching three times, and died 
thus in the very midst of his labors. He 
had spent over forty-two years in the 
ministry of our beloved church, about 
thirty-two years in the West Pennsyl- 
vania Synod, to many of the members 
of which he was very warmly attached, 
and the last ten years of his life in 
connection with the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania. 

Bev. Andr61v Berg died at Mechanics- 
burg, Lancaster county, Pa., on the 6th 
of February, 1884, in the 74th year of 
his age. - 

Father Berg was married soon after 
he entered the ministry, to Miss Eliza 
A. Williams, of Mechanicsburg, Cum- 
berland county. Pa., who, with six chil- 
dren, three sons and three daughters, 
survive him.—H. 




BEY. KNUT E. BERG. 



Prof. K. E. Berg was born in Vo3, in 
the diocese of Bergen, Norway, May 27, 
1838. His parents were EUef Styrksen, 
and his wife Guri, born Nilson, who 



died in 1846. He was confirmed May 
1st, 1853, whereupon he, together' with a 
number of other young men, entered a 
a school in Vassevangen with a view to 



80 



AMEKICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 




REV. KNUT E. BERG. 



teaching. After his graduation he fol- 
lowed teaching for about a year and a 
half, when, in 1857, he emigrated with 
his parents to America. He immediate- 
ly obtained a position as parochial 
school teacher at Liberty Prairie, Wis- 
consin, where he soon won for himself 
the love and high esteem of all, both by 
his lovable traits of character and his 
rare eloquence, which later gave him 
such well-deserved fame. 

During the winter of 1858-59 he at- 
tended English school, and in an un- 
commonly short time he mastered the 
English language, so that he could speak 
and write it with considerable ease and 
fluency. Later he attended an English 
high school at Madison, Wisconsin, and 
also a high school at Evansville, Wis- 
consin. During the summer of 1860 he 
taught English school at Liberty Prai- 
rie, Wisconsin, and in the fall of the same 
year he entered Concordia College at 
St Louis, Mo., where he, with his char- 
acteristic assiduity, prosecuted his 
studies until May, 1861, when the war 
broke out and the school was temporari- 
ly closed. In the fall of 1861 he entered 
the school which the Norwegian Synod 
opened temporarily in the vicinity of 



LaCrosse, Wis., but owing to poor health 
he was obliged to leave at the end of the 
first term. The following years he was 
engaged in teaching, partly English and 
partly Norwegian, besides employing 
his spare moments for mental self-im- 
provement. On the 1st of September, 
1864, he again entered the college of the 
Norwegian Synod, which had then been 
permanently located at Decorah, Iowa. 
His health again failed and he was again 
obliged to quit school. As soon as his 
health had sufficiently improved he 
again resumed his studies, and he now 
took a course in law under Judge Bur- 
dick of Decorah, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1869. In the meantime he 
received a call to accept a professorship 
in the Norwegian Lutheran College at 
Decorah, where he entered upon his la- 
bors on the 1st of September, 1869. 

As a public speaker, both in English 
and Norwegian, Prof. Berg's talent was 
far beyond the ordinary. It was gener- 
ally admitted by competent judges, that 
few, even of the leading purely English 
orators in the state could compete with 
him in point of oratorical powers. 

In 1872 he was elected by an over- 
whelming majority to the state legisla- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



81 



ture of Iowa, where lie served on a num- 
ber of important committees. In 1870 
he began the edition and publication of a 
periodical called "For Hjemmet." In 
1873 his health became so impaired that 
he was neither able to attend the extra 
session of the legislature, nor properly 
attend to his many duties at the college, 
wherefore he tendered the synodical 
church council his resignation as col- 
lege professor and took a trip to Nor- 



way, hoping by this rest and change of 
climate to improve his health. At the 
synodical meeting at Minneapolis, Minn., 
in 1875, his resignation was accepted, the 
synod also passing a resolution to con- 
tinue the payment of his salary during 
his vacation. The sad news, was, how- 
ever, soon received to the effect that 
Prof. Knut Ellefsen Berg had died at 
Eide, Hardanger, Norway, on the 18th 
of June, 1875. 



EEV. JACOB BEKGEK. 



Eev. Jacob Berger, a son of Henry 
and Sarah Berger, was born in Waterloo, 
Albany County, N. Y., in the year 1799. 
His father was a farmer, and was a 
member of the Lutheran Church, while 
his mother was connected with the Ee- 
f ormed Dutch Church. They were both 
exemplary Christians, and were instru- 
mental in early giving to the mind of 
their son a serious direction. In his 
boyhood he is represented as having 
been cheerful and pleasant, but never 
inclined to frivolity. He received the 
rudiments of his education at a district 
school, and evinced at this early period 
at once a great fondness for reading and 
a great love of music. At the age of 
about sixteen he was deeply exercised in 
regard to the salvation of his soul. He 
called upon a minister in the neighbor- 
hood, and gave him an account of his 
feelings, in the hope of receiving profit- 
able instruction and counsel. But the 
minister seems to have very imperfectly 
appreciated the case, and the young man 
went away, with no light upon his path 
and with his distress not at all abated. 
Shortly after, however, he found the joy 
and peace in believing, and this was al- 
most immediately followed by the pur- 
11 



pose to devote himself to the ministry of 
the Gospel. 

When he was in his seventeenth year, 
he took charge of a school in Middle- 
burg, Schoharie County, and was very 
successfully employed in that capacity 
for two winters, spending the summer 
months of each year on the farm. In 
his twentieth year he became a student 
of the Hartwick Seminary, then under 
the care of the Eev. Dr. Hazelius. 
Some time during his connection with 
this institution, he made a public profes- 
sion of religion, and united with the 
Lutheran Church. He also now oc- 
casionally exercised his gift in preach- 
ing. In 1822 he left the Hartwick Sem- 
inary, and entered the junior class in 
Union College. He ranked high as a 
scholar during his whole course, and 
graduated at the Commencement in 
1824. The year preceding, however, he 
had suffered from a severe attack of 
fever; and, in consequence of premature- 
ly returning to his studies, his mind 
temporarily lost its balance, and, in the 
spring of 1824, he was taken to his 
father's house in positive mental de- 
rangement. It was not long, however, 
before the malady yielded to skillful 



82 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



treatment, and he was restored not only 
to sanity, but to Ms accustomed cheer- 
fulness. 

In the spring of 1825 he commenced 
the study of theology, under the direc- 
tion of the Rev. Dr. Wackerhagen; but, 
after remaining with him a while, he 
went to complete his studies under the 
Rev. Dr. Quitman, by whom he was 
proposed as a candidate for licensure at 
a meeting of the New York Ministerium, 
held at Rhinebeck, in 1825. The next 
year he was ordained at the convention 
of the Ministerium, held at Cobleskill. 

Mr. Berger commenced his ministerial 
labors at Ghent, N. Y. The next year 
a church was organized by him at 
Yalatie. Whilst attending to these two 
congregations, he also became an assist- 
ant to the Rev. F. J. G. Uhl; and thus 
Churchtown was added to his charge. 
He remained in this field of labor until 
his death, though he had not charge of 
the three congregations during the 
whole period. He labored, especially 
during his latter years, with great zeal 
and fidelity, and religion was revived 
and large numbers added to the congre- 
gations in connection with his ministra- 



tions. While engaged in a series of 
meetings at Churchtown, designed for 
the spiritual improvement of his people, 
he was attacked with the same fearful 
malady by which he had been visited 
during the last year of his course at 
college. This was succeeded by typhoid 
fever, which terminated his active and 
useful life on the 11th of March, 1842, 
in the forty-fourth year of his life. In 
accordance with his request, his re- 
mains were deposited in the grave-yard 
at Churchtown, in the midst of the tears 
and lamentations of his bereaved people 
and a bereaved community. 

Mr. Berger published a sermon in the 
Lutheran Pulpit on the doctrine of the 
Resurrection. 

He was married to Katherino, 
daughter of the Hon. John J. Miller, 
of Columbia County, N. Y. They had 
four children — one son and three 
daughters. The son has been graduated 
at Williams College and at the Theo- 
logical Seminary of New York. One 
of the daughters is married to the Rev. 
Thomas Street, pastor of a Presbyterian 
church in York, Pa. Mrs. Berger still 
(1862) survives. 




REV. CHRISTOPHER F. BERGMAN. 



Christopher F. Bergman was born at 
Ebenezer, Ga., January 7, 1793. He 
was the only son of the Rev. John E. 
Bergman, an eminent Lutheran clergy- 
man, and was educated exclusively under 
the care and direction of his learned and 
venerable father. The vigilant atten- 
tion that was bestowed upon his spirit- 
ual interests was rewarded by his early 
embracing Christianity in its divine 
power, and making a public profession 
of his faith in Christ. Some years, 
however, elapsed after this before he 



had formed a definite purpose to devote 
himself to the Christian ministry; and 
even when he had reached this point, 
his tendencies were for some time rather 
toward the Presbyterian than the Luth- 
eran Church, owing to a pretty strong 
sympathy with the distinctive features 
of Calvinism. His mind, however, re- 
ceived a different direction, chiefly in 
consequence of a conversation with the 
Rev. Dr. Bachman, of Charleston — a 
most gratifying circumstance not only 
to his father, who was then about closing 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



83 



his earthly career, but to his father's 
congregation, who were earnestly de- 
sirous that he should become his suc- 
cessor in the pastoral office. 

In accordance with this wish, in which 
his venerable father heartily concurred, 
Mr. Bergman proceeded to make the re- 
quisite preparation for settling over the 
people among whom nearly his whole 
life had been passed. At the meeting 
of the Synod of South Carolina and the 
adjacent states, held in the autumn of 
1824, he applied for license to preach, 
and was, accordingly, solemnly set apart 
for the work of the ministry, and con- 
stituted pastor of the church which his 
father had served so long and so well. 
He addressed himself to his work with 
great zeal and alacrity, making it mani- 
fest to all that the salvation of the souls 
committed to him was the all-engrossing 
concern of his life. He labored in 
season and out of season, making the 
most of every day and every hour, as if 
it had already been revealed to him how 
brief his career was to be. It was not 
long before it was found that consump- 
tion was preying upon his system, and 
was gradually working its way to the 
seat of life. All that the best medical 
skill and the most devoted affection 
could do to prevent the disease from 
having a fatal termination, was done, 
but to no purpose. He died on the 26th 
of March, 1832, in the fortieth year of 
his age, and after having been the honor- 
ed and beloved pastor of his father's 
charge for a period of little less than 
eight years. His dying scene was a 
most edifying example of the all-sustain- 
ing power of Christian faith. Not a 
cloud passed over his mind during the 
whole process of making the final 
change. "I can look at the grave with- 
out any dread," said he. Being asked 
if he had any doubts of his acceptance 



with God, he replied: "None! Blessed 
be the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, I have no doubts." To 
one who inquired whether, if it were the 
Divine will, he would not wish to be 
spared a little longer to his family and 
his congregation, he said: "If it is the 
Divine will, I had rather go now. I 
feel that for me to depart and be with 
Christ is far better. I think I can truly 
say that for me to live is Christ, to die 
is gain." On the day preceding his 
death he was visited by several members 
of his congregation, all of whom he 
recognized, addressing to each a few 
words of affectionate exhortation, and 
closing with a most impressive farewell. 
To a brother in the ministry, who re- 
marked: "Now is the time to test the 
full value of the religion you have so 
long professed, and which you have so 
faithfully preached," he replied: "O, 
Death, where is thy sting? O, Grave, 
where is thy victory? Thanks be to 
God who has given me the victory 
through my Lord Jesus Christ." He 
then dwelt for some time on the expres- 
sion: "faithfully preached," and at 
length he exclaimed: "Not unto me, O 
Lord, not unto me, but unto Thy name 
be all the praise. We have this treasure 
in earthen vessels, that the excellency 
of the power might be of God 'and not 
of us." Just before he died, he desired 
this brother to pray with him, and he 
distinctly, though feebly, repeated every 
word, and concluded the prayer with 
Amen. While the silver cord was in 
the act of being loosed, he uttered the 
words : 

"Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 

And let me languish into life." 

An appropriate and highly pathetic 
discourse was delivered on the occasion 
of his death, by the Rev. S. A Mealy, of 
Savannah, Ga., from 1 Thess. 4: 13, 14. 



84 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



EEY. JOHN ERNEST BERGMAN. 



John Ernest Bergman was a native of 
Peritscli, in Saxony. He entered the 
University at Leipsic in 1776, where, in 
cine time, he was gradnated with dis- 
tinguished honor. He was ordained by 
the Evangelical Seniors of the Lutheran 
Chnrch, in the Dnchy of Angsbnrg, on 
the 19th of Jnly, 1783. Dnring the 
Bevolntionary War, the Salzburgers, 
who had settled in Georgia, and who 
were eminently faithful to the American 
cause, had been subjected to great de- 
privations and sufferings, and had seen 
their beautiful place of worship at 
Ebenezer converted, at one time, into 
a hospital for the sick, and at another 
into a stable for the horses of the 
British soldiers. Finding themselves, 
at the close of the war, without a pastor, 
as well as in otherwise depressed cir- 
cumstances, they applied to Rev. Dr. 
Welsperger, of London, to procure some 
faithful minister from Germany, to 
come and break unto them the bread of 
life. The result of the application was 
that Mr. Bergman was selected as 
a suitable person for the mission, 
and he consented to undertake it. 
It is not known what field of labor 
he had occupied in Germany; but, as 
soon as he could make the necessary 
arrangements after his appointment, he 
took his departure from his native land 
and reached this country in the spring 
of 1785. 

On his arrival in the field of labor to 
which he was destined, he found things 
wearing a most unpromising aspect. 
The flock had been so long without a 
shepherd that many had wandered away, 
while many others had become indiffer- 
ent and cared little whether the Gospel 
was preached to them or not. In ad- 



dition to this, the duties to which he 
was called had formerly put in re- 
quisition two ministers instead of one; 
but, owing to the embarrassed state of 
the finances of the church, it had become 
impossible to sustain more than one. 
But, notwithstanding all that seemed 
untoward in his prospects, he addressed 
himself to his work with great energy 
and in full reliance on the Lord, his 
strength. By arranging his labors sys- 
tematically he was enabled, in a short 
time to supply not only Ebenezer and 
the vicinity, but also Savannah, with the 
regular preaching of the Gospel. Under 
his well directed and vigorous manage- 
ment the secular condition of the com- 
munity rapidly improved, the population 
assumed a more permanent character, 
and the church gradually rose into a 
more prosperous state. He kept up a 
regular course of catechetical instruction 
in the several churches to which be 
ministered, and labored in other ways 
to promote the spiritual interests of the 
young. 

Mr. Bergman's ministry was instru- 
mental of accomplishing great good, 
though it seems to have been em- 
barrassed by some adverse circumstances, 
and to have been attended by at least 
the ordinary amount of trial. In the 
year 1819 he was greatly afflicted by the 
death of a married daughter, who, how- 
ever, was a devoted Christian, and part- 
ed with her friends in full confidence 
that she was passing from earth to 
heaven. But he was not many years 
behind her in entering into rest. He 
held on his uniform course of labor un- 
til the time of his departure had almost 
come. He died with the peace of Heaven 
in full possession, on the 25tli of Febru- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



85 



ary, 1824, after having spent thirty-six 
years of unremitting toil in his Master's 
work. His remains repose in the cem- 
etery at Ebenezer. 

Mr. Bergman's physical constitution 
was by no means vigorous, but he had a 
degree of energy and perseverance rare- 
ly exceeded. His mind was richly en- 
dowed and well trained, and his desire 
for acquiring knowledge amounted to a 
passion. History, Philosophy, and Na- 
tural Science engaged his attention, and 
his manuscripts show that his attain- 
ments in each were more than respect- 
able. He was deeply versed in Theology, 
and was thoroughly acquainted with the 
Hebrew, Arabic, and, it is believed, some 
other Oriental languages. As a preach- 
er, if he did not rise to a high degree of 
eloquence, he was sure to command the 
attention and respect of his hearers. 
He had a truly catholic spirit, which 
heartily embraced all the disciples of 
Christ, irrespective of denomination. 
With Bishop As bury of the Methodist 
Church, and Dr. Furman of the Baptist, 
he was in relations of great intimacy. 
His hospitality scarcely knew a limit; 
his house was the home of almost every 
clergyman — no matter of what com- 
munion — who had occasion to go into 
that neighborhood. He was, in most 
respects, an admirable specimen of a 
man, a Christian, and a minister. 

The point at which Mr. Bergman 
seems to have been most deficient, was 
the practical dealing with men and 
things. He was averse to mingling 
much in general society, and thereby 
lost many opportunities for doing good. 
His usefiduess is said to have been not 
a little abridged by the course which he 
took in respect to preaching in the 
English language. The interests of the 
congregations, both at Ebenezer and 
Savannah, manifestly demanded that a 
portion of the services should be per- 



formed in English. Many of the mem- 
bers of his churches, being satisfied of 
the importance of the measure,urged upon 
him the necessity of qualifying himself 
to preach in English; but the idea was 
little less than revolting to him. His 
friend. Bishop Asbury, in a letter ad- 
dresssed to him in 1803, says: "I think, 
as you are not advanced in age, if you 
wish to be extensively useful, you ought, 
by all means, to learn to preach, as well 
as to write, English. By close applica- 
tion, and a little assistance, you could 
soon gain a good accent and pronun- 
ciation. In learning to preach English, 
you will open a door to preach to thou- 
sands in this country — besides, you will 
get good, as well as do good." But the 
German pastor could not be persuaded, 
by this or any other reasoning, to change 
his course; and by this pertinacity he 
greatly retarded the progress of Luther- 
anism in that region. 

The tide of immigration from Ger- 
many had been diverted from the South 
to other sections of the country; the 
rising generation, mingling, as they did 
continually, with those who used the 
English language only, came gradually 
to lose their own vernacular, and were 
little profited by German preaching. 
And in the same proportion they lost 
their interest in the services of their 
own Church, and, as a consequence, with- 
drew and connected with other religious 
societies. The Baptists, Methodists, and 
other denominations profited largely by 
this honest mistake of an excellent man, 
and it is said that, even to this day, 
among the most valuable members of 
these churches may be recognized many 
of the descendants of the Saltzburgers. 

In 1792 Mr. Bergman was married to 
Catharine Herb, of Savannah, which 
proved a most happy union. She had 
more executive talent than her husband, 
and she was allowed to use it in manag- 



86 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



ing the financial 



concerns of the house- 
hold. They had four children, only one 
of whom, his eldest son, who became a 



clergyman, survived him.- 
tory of the Saltzburgers. 



StrobeVs His- 




REV. HANS HANSON BERGSLAND. 



Hans Hanson Bergsland was born in 
Fillmore Co., Minn., January 23, 1858. 
His father emigrated from Thelemarken, 
Norway, in the spring of 1846, being 
one of the first to leave that district of 
Norway for America. After a tedious 
journey of more than sixteen weeks he 
reached Winnebago Co., 111., where he 
remained for the brief period of one 
year only. He then moved to Waupaca 
Co., Wis., where he settled down as a 
farmer. While here he married Miss 
Anna Qverbo, who had left his home 
district in Norway only a few years sub- 
sequent to his departure. After a ten 
years' stay in Waupaca he moved west- 
ward with his family and settled in Fill- 
more Co., Minn., where he still resides. 

Here, in a frontier cottage, Hans was 
born. He was the fourth of nine chil- 
dren, four of whom died while young 
The remaining five were brought up by 
a firm and earnest father and a tender 
and loving mother. They both endeav- 
ored to lead Christian lives, and sought 



early to lead their children to the Lord. 
They were among the founders of the 
first Norwegian Lutheran congregation 
of that place. 

In a log hut, 14x16, and in the wild 
prairie, was kept the district school of 
that time, which, by the way, but poorly 
answered the demands of the time and 
place. This Hans first visited when 
eleven years old. His later attendance 
was very irregular, owing chiefly to 
the fact that the school was kept al- 
most wholly during the cold winter 
months when the roads were often im- 
passable for children. 

He was confirmed when fifteen years 
old, and after this his parents were re- 
peatedly encouraged by friends to send 
him ojff to some higher institution of 
learning. Nothing, however, was done 
in this direction for some time, owing 
partly to his own indifference regarding 
schools (his desires being to learn the 
carpenter's trade, which, at an early age, 
he began practicing in connection with 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



87 



his farming) and partly to his parents' 
wish that he might frequent Hanges 
Synod's Seminary, which was now being 
spoken of and planned. 

When this school was opened in the 
fall of 1879, it was decided to send Hans 
thither, he having also in the meantime 
become more desirous of acquiring a 
better education; but unexpected hin- 
drances prevented his going before the 
opening of the second term, Jan. 2d, 
1880, when he became a student in the 
preparatory department. 

After a three years' course here, he 
was, by recommendation of Prof. A. 
Wenaas, admitted to the Theological 
Department of the same school, from 
which he graduated two years later, in 
the spring of 1885. 

Being desirous of qualifying himself 
for teaching, he decided to prosecute 
his studies further at the University of 
Christiania, Norway. 

Leaving home August 23d of the same 



year, he reached his destination about a 
month later. His intention was to take 
a three years' course at the University, 
but at the end of the second year he re- 
ceived a call from Hauge's Synod to fill 
a chair in its seminary as Professor in 
Theology. He had preferred continuing 
his course at the University, under the 
guidance of its able and beloved pro- 
fessors, but nevertheless decided to ac- 
cept the call, and returned to America 
in the fall of 1887. 

Soon after his return he entered upon 
his duties as theological professor at 
Hauge's Seminary, which position he 
still occupies. 

On the 28th day of December, 1887, 
he married Miss Anna L. Thompson, 
who was born and brought up in Fill- 
more Co., Minn. 

During the last two years, besides 
teaching in the seminary, he has also 
served as its principal. 




AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGBAPHIES. 




REV. GOTTHARDT D. BERNHEIM. 



Gotthardt Dellmann Bernlieim was 
born at Iserlolin, Westphalia, Prussia, 
Nov. 8, 1827. He graduated at the 
Lutheran Seminary of the South Caro- 
lina Synod, at Lexington, S. C, 1849.* 
He subsequently became successively 
pastor in Charleston, S. C, 1850; at 
Mount Pleasant, N. C, and financial 
secretary of North Carolina College, 
1858; at Charlotte, N. C, 1861; princi- 
pal of Female Seminary of the North 
Carolina Synod, Mount Pleasant, N. C, 
and pastor of Ebenezer Church in Row- 

* During the summer of 1849 and under the auspices 
of the Board of Directors of the Theological BemiuaiF 
at Lexington, 8. (L. he was for seven months engaged in 
collecting money for the endowment of a professorship 
at that institution. He solicited for this purpose $3,223 . 



an Co., N. C, 1866; pastor of St. Paul's 
Church, Wilmington, N. C, 1869; edit- 
or and proprietor oi At Home and Abroad, 
monthly, published at Wilmington and 
Charlotte, N. C, 1881; pastor of Grace 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Phillips- 
burg, N. J., 1883. 

Among the various literary works 
from his pen are: "The Success of 
God's Work," ( Wilmington, N. C, 1870 ) ; 
"Localities of the Reformation," (1877); 
"History of the German Settlements 
and of the Lutheran Church in North 
and South Carolina," (Philadelphia, 
1872); "The First Twenty Years of the 
History of St. Paul's Church, AVilming- 
ton, N. C." (Wilmington, 1819.)~Schaff. 




AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



89 



REY. PHILIP M. BIKLE, Ph.D. 



Philip Melanchthon Bikle, Ph. D., was 
born December 1st, 1844, in Smithsbnrg, 
Washington County, Md., about eight 
miles east of Hagerstown. He is of 
German parentage. After completing 
the course in the Smithsburg High 
School, under the well-known teacher, 
Mr, George Pearson, he entered the 
Preparatory Department of North Caro- 
lina College, Mt. Pleasant. N. C, in 
June, 1860, where his oldest brother, 
L. A. Bikle, D. D., was professor of 
Latin and Greek. In January, 1861, 
when the excitement just before the 
war was growing greater, at the sug- 
gestion of his brother, he returned to 
Maryland. He then taught a public 
school near his home, beginning before 
he was seventeen years old, and pursued 
his classical studies privately. His 
marked success as a teacher may have 
had some influence in leading him to 
make teaching his life-work. 

In the fall of 1862 he entered the 
Freshman class of Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, taking leading rank, and receiving 
at the close of the year, the Freshman 
prize of |30 for the best general scholar- 
ship. He graduated in 1866 with the 
Latin salutatory. 

From August, 1866, to July, 1867, he 
taught the Senior Male Department of 
the York County Academy, which at 
that time admitted both sexes, and was 
under the principalship of the veteran 
teacher, Prof. G. W. Ruby. In the 
fall of 1867 he entered the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, and pursued 
his studies there till July, 1869, when he 
accepted a call to the professorship of 
Latin and Greek in North Carolina 
College, of which his brother, Dr. L. A. 
Bikle, was then president. In August, 
1869, he was ordained as a Lutheran 
12 



minister by the North Carolina Synod. 

Before he had been in North Carolina 
eight months he received a call to the 
Yice Principalship of the Lutherville 
Female Seminary, near Baltimore. He 
accepted, and filled the position for 
three years, declining at the end of that 
time the principalship, having deter- 
mined to take a course of post-graduate 
study at Dartmouth College. Having 
taught the Physical Sciences at Luther- 
ville, he decided to devote special atten- 
tion to Physics and Astronomy, and 
selected Dartmouth on account of the 
eminence of Prof. Charles A. Young, 
who there filled that professorship. 

In the summer of 1874 he was unan- 
imously elected Professor of Physics 
and Astronomy in Pennsylvania College, 
his Alma Mater. He accepted and occu- 
pied that chair for seven years. During 
the collegiate year, 1880-81, he also 
gave instruction to the Freshman class 
in Latin; and, on the reorganization of 
the college faculty in 1881, was given 
sole charge of the Department of Latin, 
and now occupies that chair. 

He was Secretary of the Faculty from 
1877 to 1889.* In June, 1889, he was 
unanimously elected Dean of the college, 
after performing the duties of that of- 
fice for the eight preceding months. 

When the Pennsylvania College Monthly 
was established in 1876, Prof. Bikle was 
elected editor in chief, and he still holds 
that position. He has. made this maga- 
zine a model of its kind, and it is suc- 
cessful in every respect. 

In 1880, when Dr. J. A. Brown was 



* Dr. Bikle was secretary of theEv. Lutheran Synod 
of Maryland from 1874 to 1880, with the exception of 
one year. During the synodical year of 1888-89 he 
served as president of that body. From 1874 to 1876 he 
was secretary of the Lutheran Ministers' Insurance 
League. 



90 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



disabled by paralysis, tie became one of 
the editors of the Lutheran Quarterly, the 
leading Lutheran theological magazine 
in the United States, his colleagues be- 
img M. Yalentine, D. D., LL. D., and 
E. J. Wolf, D. D. He is now the sole 



editor of the Quarterly, and under his 
management its high standard is fully 
maintained. 

In 1884 Roanoke College conferred 
upon him the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy. 




KEY. PEOF. L. A. BIKLE, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
November 6th, 1834, in Mechanicstown, 
Md., and is a brother of Eev. Prof. Dr. 
Philip M. Bikle. Like quite a number 
of young men who entered the ministry 
and belonged to the generation which 
to-day holds and rules the world, Eev. 
Prof, Louis Albert Bikle learned a 
trade; and while working at his trade — 
cabinet-making — also attended school, 
thus learning both to work and to study. 
Having prepared himself for college at 
the Academy at Smithsburg, Md., he 
entered the Freshman class of Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, in 1853. 
Here he remained until he graduated, 
having the honor of delivering the 
Latin Salutatory in the Commencement 
exercises. He also studied theology in 
Gettysburg, and in 1858 entered the 
ministry. Being gifted as a teacher and 



highly educated, he was elected pro- 
fessor of Ancient Languages in North 
Carolina College, Mount Pleasant, N. 
C, and in this important capacity labor- 
ed in North Carolina from 1858 to 1861. 
The war having broken out and many 
colleges having been closed, he taught a 
classical school from 1861 to 1863, and 
then became a chaplain in the Con- 
federate army. He entered the Southern 
army November 13th, 1863, and remain- 
ed with it till the close of the war, going 
out of service April 9th, ] 865. He was 
chaplain of the twentieth regiment of 
North Carolina Infantry. At the close of 
the war he identified himself with the late 
lamented Eev. Prof. T. W. Dosh, D.D., 
and with him taught in an academy in 
Winchester, Ya. Here he taught 1865-6, 
when he was re-elected and recalled to a 
professorship in North Carolina College. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



91 



From 1866 to 1870 he labored as pro- 
fessor. Seeing his eminent qualifica- 
tions, recognizing his superiority and 
skill, , and impressed with his great 
learning, the Board of Trustees of North 
Carolina College elected him president 
of the college. He accepted the pres- 
idency, and ably served in this respons- 
ible position for five years. 

In 1875 St. James Church, of Con- 
cord, N. C, being vacant, elected Prof. 
Bikle as pastor, and he accepted and 
served this church for five years. In 
1880 he was again elected president 
of North Carolina College, which he 
served for several years, when he re- 
moved to Dallas, N. C, where he is now 
professor in Gaston College, a Lutheran 
institution, and where, besides teaching, 
he is serving several congregations. 
For many years, whilst residing in 
Cabarrus County, N. C, he was county 
examiner of public schools. In the year 
1874 he received the degree of D. D. 
from Franklin and Marshall College. 

For many years Dr. Bikle was a 
prominent figure in the North Carolina 
Synod, and was ever interested in her 



welfare, growth, and development. His 
scholarly attainments, prominent po- 
sitions, and affable manners always 
gave him a commanding influence. He 
is a highly cultured gentleman, an ex- 
cellent conversationalist, a superior 
scholar and gifted speaker, and makes 
friends wherever he goes. He has spent 
the strength and energy of his life in 
serving the Lutheran Church, and has 
in every way become identified with 
Lutheran interests. He has always la- 
bored with success. In every position, 
whether a professor, president, or pastor, 
he did a good work, and in his defense 
of the Lutheran Church against others 
he was a power. He is at present an 
honored member of the Tennessee 
Synod, a faithful pastor in its bounds, 
and a favorite teacher in one of its in- 
stitutions in connection with it. 

He has taught hundreds of young 
men and women of the Lutheran 
Church, many of whom, long after his 
death, will revere his memory, and who 
in life will honor him to the last. — A 
Friend. 




REV. D. F. BITTLE, D. D. 



The following sketch has been abridg- 
ed from Rev. Mr. Mann and others: 

Dr. Bittle was bom near Myersville, 
Maryland, possibly in 1811. Of his 
early years we have, at this writing, no 
intelligence. He was graduated from 
Pennsylvania College in the class of 
1835, and had as associates in the recita- 
tion-room such men as Dr. Ezra Keller 
and Dr. Theophilus Stork, of blessed 
memory. He studied theology at Get- 
tysburg, Pa., and on leaving the sem- 
inary was called to the oversight of a 
congregation in the vicinity of Staunton, 



Ya. Here he labored for eight or nine 
years with the indomitable energy and 
self-sacrificing zeal that characterized 
his subsequent life. His efforts were 
eminently successful. Other congrega- 
tions were organized and church build- 
ings erected in Augusta and Rockbridge 
counties, which remain monuments of 
his zeal and devotion to the cause of 
Christ and humanity. 

An ardent advocate of liberal edu- 
cation, he left no legitimate means un- 
tried to advance it, and interest all 
round about him in its benign and bless- 



92 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ed influence. It was the moral as well 
as the intellectual faculties that he al- 
was aimed to develop and enlarge. He 
sought to reach the heart through the 
head. Education Avith him was en- 
larged power and influence, and that in- 
creased power and influence was benefi- 
cial (tnly when properly directed, viz.: to 
the glory of God and the best interests 
of humanity. While preaching in 
Augusta county, Ya., he established the 
"Virginia Institute," a classical academy, 
in which quite a number of young men 
received their preparatory training, and 
subsequently entered the ministry. Out 
of it grew Roanoke College. Early in 
the year 1845 Eev. Bittle resigned his 
congregations in Virginia, and accepted 
a call to Middletown. 

In May, 1845, he entered upon the 
discharge of his duties as pastor of the 
Lutheran church in this place^ and re- 
signed in February, 1852. Here, as in 
Virginia, the church increased in num- 
bers and efiiciency. During his ministry 
here the parsonage, lecture room, and 
Mt. Tabor church were built. Here, 
too, he aroused a spirit of education, and 
succeeded in establishing a classical 
school in which a number of young men 
now in the Lutheran ministry received 
their elementary training. 

Notwithstanding the success that 
crowned his ministry here, he was char- 
acteristically modest, humble, and un- 
obtrusive. Recording the results of his 
abundant labors, as an item of church 
history, he simply says in the briefest 
space and in the most humble spirit — 
"The success of my labors will be deter- 
mined at the great Judgment Day. I 
am only afraid it has been but little." 

Leaving Middletown in February, 
1852, his family resided in Hagerstown, 
while he engaged in an agency in behalf 
of female education. Successful in the 
collection of the requisite amount of 



funds, the institution was located at 
Hagerstown. 

During all these busy years. Dr. 
Bittle found time for study; and his 
progress in scientific pursuits, and es- 
pecially in theological attainments, gain- 
ed for him honorable notice and com- 
mendation. It was possibly at the com- 
mencement of 1853 that the Trustees of 
Pennsylvania College conferred on him 
the honorary title of "DoctorDivinitatis." 

About this time the church in Vir- 
ginia was agitating the subject of the 
founding of a college. Dr. Bittle was 
urged to take the lead, and embark in 
the perilous enterprise. He consented 
to accept their call. The Institution 
was chartered with collegiate privileges^ 
under the title of "Roanoke College," by 
the Legislature of Virginia, in 1853. 
Its first session closed with thirfcy-seven 
students enrolled. Gradually it pushed 
its way into public favor. Its thirty- 
seven students have increased to nearly 
two hundred. Its library numbers 
14,000 volumes, and is one of the most 
valuable in the state. Its cabinet of 
minerals and relics bids fair to rival 
anything of the kind in the South. It 
has already graduated about one hundred 
and forty young men, nearly all of them 
occupying positions of honor and in- 
fluence in the different professions and 
pursuits of life. A large per centum 
of its graduates, nearly one-third, are 
engaged in the active work of the min- 
istry. Roanoke College draws her pa- 
tronage from seventeen states in the 
Union. In point of patronage Roanoke 
College is now the fourth institution of 
its kind in Virginia. 

The Conservative and Monitor, of Salem, 
speaks of him in his official character as 
follows: 

As a President he was no marinet, least 
of all a tyrant, frequently, from humility 
and lowly-mindedness, failing to exercise 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



93 



even necessary authority. His was a 
gentle ruling, full of allowances for the 
frailties of "boy nature," and ever ready 
to try the chances of reform. The secret 
of his great influence over his student- 
realm was the strong appreciation every 
one felt of his earnest interest in his 
temporal and spiritual welfare, which, 
without relaxation, followed the student 
in all his ways. 

As an instructor he loved his work, 
was happy in his lecture room, patiently 
labored to bring his own and the 
thoughts of his text-book home to the 
humblest conception. Any manifesta- 
tion of interest in the subject taught, 
real or feigned, quickly won his atten- 
tion, and in his estimation, like charity, 
"covered a multitude of faults." 

He loved books. In his visits to the 
large cities he found out, as by instinct, 
the obscure stalls where old ones were 
for sale, and bore them as prizes to his 
own or the college shelves. During his 
sojourn he often substituted a rare book 
for a needed meal when the alternative 
was presented. The splendid library 
which he collected for the College is a 
monument both to his fine appreciation 
and tireless activity. 

Physically Dr. Bittle had an iron con- 
stitution, built up by labor on the farm. 
A feebler body could not have sustained 
his labors nor afforded a basis for his 
will. Though sixty-five years of age at 
his death, a stranger, judging by his ap- 
pearance alone, would have pronounced 
him ten or fifteen years younger. 

As a scholar he was a man of exten- 
sive and varied learning. His attain- 
ments were remarkable, when his active 
life is considered. His mind was not 
quick to apprehend, but firmly retained 
its acquisitions, and by the diligent use 
of moments he attained his eminence in 
scholarship. He was well acquainted 
with geology and botany. Many of the 



rarest specimens of the splendid cabinet 
of the college were found by him. He 
was familiar with history. In addition 
to the ancient languages taught in the 
ordinary college course, he read Hebrew 
and the more popular modern languages. 
He was a fine metaphysician. He had 
investigated for himself all the great 
metaphysical questions, and while he 
could give a ready answer as to what 
others said, he was equally ready 
with his own opinions. His specialty 
was logic. He had a taste for antiqui- 
ties, and was never more interesting 
than when discussing such things as the 
origin of man. His researches were di- 
rected to almost every department of 
literature and science, and, in the wide 
range of discussion encouraged in his 
class-room, we have never known one 
subject to arise with which he did not 
seem to be acquainted. 

As a teacher he was successful. He 
laid the foundation and directed future 
study. His pupils generally have pur- 
sued metaphysical studies, as far as 
their opportunities allowed. Those who 
have prosecuted their course at the Uni- 
versity of Virginia have all taken high 
rank in the school of Moral Philosophy. 

He could not be regarded as a pro- 
found theologian. He did not seem to 
have worked thoroughly out any system. 
His judgments were often profound, but 
very frequently were not in harmony. 
We have heard him preach that which 
was ccmsistent only with strict Calvinism ; 
then again that which was Arminianism. 

As a preacher he was plain, simple, 
practical and earnest. He was not a 
finished orator; but there was a sim- 
plicity and earnestness in all his ser- 
mons such as are found in few men, and 
"the people heard him gladly." His il- 
lustrations were always drawn from the 
Bible, and he was eminently a Biblical 
preacher. His language was that of 



94 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



every-day life, and often grammatically 
incorrect. He eschewed the flowers of 
rhetoric. 

His arrangements often neglected all 
homiletical rules, and yet there was in 
every sermon a connection that gave it 
unity. His manner was to preach from 
short notes, mere heads. He rarely 
ever attempted to preach from manu- 
script, and then he always appeared to 
great disadvantas:e. He rarely ever 
wrote in full a discourse. He was a 
ready man. At Synod he said he was 
the "gap" preacher; when nobody else 
would preach, he was appointed. He 
was always willing. 

One who was intimately associated 
with him said to us a few years ago: 
"The longer and better I know Dr. Bit- 
tie the more I admire the simplicity 
and deep moral earnestness of his char- 
acter." He loved the Lutheran church, 
and he worked for Eoanoke College only 
as a means of advancing the interests of 
the Church. We fully believe that if 
the relation of the college to the Lu- 
theran church had been broken off he 
would have become indifferent to the 
destiny of the institution. He lived for 
Eoanoke College, and loved and labored 
for it, because he loved the Church 
which it was seeking to serve. He 
maintained an unblemished character in 



that section where he lived for almost a 
quarter of a century. The purity of his 
motive and his integrity were never 
called in question. He was above 
reproach. 

He had a vein of humor that sur- 
prised and delighted. He relished an 
anecdote, and could relate it with effect. 
His sense of the ludicrous was quick 
and keen, and when a fit time had come 
to open its stores he was exceedingly 
amusing. He was always happy in his 
farewell addresses to his students, and 
never more so than at the last com- 
mencement. But his mirth was never 
ill-timed, nor his wit low. He seemed 
to find nothing laughable in the profane 
or indecent. 

It was his unconquerable energy that 
distinguished him. He worked, and he 
pitied and condemned those who would 
not. He had succeeded because he won 
success by hard blows, and he thought 
that every man could. He met difficul- 
ties and surmounted them by bravely 
marching forward. He had no patience 
with men who whined about little ob- 
stacles. He would have men encounter 
seeming impossibilities, and by dint of 
effort and prayer remove them. He be- 
lieved that men should make opportuni- 
ties, not wait for them. 




EEY. J. BJAENASON. 



Eev. J. Bjarnason, President of the 
Church Society of Iceland, was born 
November 15th, 1845, on the Gaard 
"Thvotta" in Iceland, a place on the 
southeast coast, and well known in the 
Icelandic church history. It was at 
this place the famous Chief Sidu-Hallr 
lived toward the close of the tenth cen- 



tury, who was among the first Iceland- 
ers that embraced Christianity, receiv- 
ing in baptism the name Olaf Tryz- 
gvason. 

Pastor Bjarnason's parents were Bjar- 
ni Svrinsson, — who two years later be- 
came pastor of the parish known as 
Kalfafell, — and his wife Eosa, daughter 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



95 



of Brynjulf, and a sister of Eev. Dr. G. 

Brynjnlfsson, author of "Periculum 
Runologicum," an important work per- 
taining to the runes of the ancient 
Norsemen. His father died in 1889, 
and his mother died in 1856. 

In 1861 he entered the Latin school 
in Eeikjavik, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1865. He then studied theology 
at the Theological Institute at Reikjavik, 
whence he was graduated in 1869 Hav- 
ing finished his theological course, he 
was ordained the same year to the holy 
office of the ministry, serving for a while 
as assistant pastor in his father's parish. 

In 1870 he moved to Reikjavik, where 
he was married the same year to Miss 
Laura Gudjohnsen, the oldest daughter 
of P. Gudjohnsen, organist at the Reik- 
javik Dom. Church and music teacher at 
the Latin school of that place. While 
at Reikjavik Pastor Bjarnason was en- 
gaged in teaching at the Latin school 
until the year 1873, when he with his 
wife emigrated to North America. For 
a term of two years after his arrival in 
America Mr. Bjarnason served as pro- 
fessor at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. 
In 1875 he worked for some time, to- 
gether with Prof. R. B. Anderson of the 
Wisconsin State University, on the 
translation of a couple Icelandic "Sagas", 
and later as assistant editor of the Skan- 
dinnven, published in Chicago. 111. Early 
in the year 1876 he assumed the editor- 
ship of the Norwegian weekly paper 
called Budstikken, published in Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota. During the course 



of this year he received a very urgent 
call from a number of Icelanders, who 
had arrived the previous year, and set- 
tled on the west side of Lake Winnipeg, 
about one hundred miles north of the 
city of Winnipeg, forming what they 
called the New Iceland Colony. He ac- 
cepted this call and labored as their 
pastor until 1880, when he with his wife 
returned to Iceland, where he took 
charge of a parish at Seydisfjord. He 
again received a call from America to 
take charge of an Icelandic church at 
Winnipeg, which he finally concluded 
to accept, and accordingly left Iceland 
again in 1884. This congregation, 
which Pastor Bjarnason still serves, 
numbers about 1,200 souls. In 1885 was 
organized the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church Society of Iceland, consisting 
of Icelandic Lutheran congregations in 
Manitoba and North Dakota, of which 
Pastor Bjarnason was made the first 
president, and which position he still 
holds. Besides his pastoral work, he 
also edits the leeJandie Lutheran Monthly, 
which is the official organ of the church 
society, and of which the first number 
was published in December, 1885. 

In 1889 Pastor Bjarnason and his wife 
made a visit back to Iceland in the in- 
terest of their church society. They 
have had five adopted children, of whom 
two have died. At the present date 
(August, 1890,) the Icelandic Church 
Society numbers about 6,000 souls, with 
five ordained pastors, and twenty-three 
congregations. 



^^^: 



96 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



EEV. EEIC BJOEE. 



Eov. Bjork was from Westmania, or 
Westmanland, in Sweden. He spent 
some time in the house of Provost Dr. 
Jesper Soedberg, serving as tntor for 
the sons of his brother, Assessor Schon- 
strom. When Eev. Andrew Endman 
of Gestricia had been appointed by the 
Consistory to the office of Missionary 
among the American Swedes, it was 
left to him to select for himself a fellow- 
laborer in his office, and for this Dr. 
Soedberg proposed Mr. Eric Bjork, 
who was accordingly chosen, and or- 
dained at Upsala along with Mr. Jonas 
Auren, of Wermeland, who was also to 
accompany Messrs. Eudman and Bjork 
on their missionary tour to the Western 
world. As a donation from King 
Charles XL to the "Swedish congrega- 
tions in Pennsylvania in America" they 
brought with them a supply of books, 
among which were five hundred copies 
of Luther's Catechism, translated into 
the American Virginian language, up- 
on which, as also upon the Bibles, 
Postils, and Church Books, the King's 
name (initials) was stamped in gilt let- 
ters. Each having received from the 
king four hundred dollars copper-mynt, 
and one hundred dollars silver-mynt for 
traveling expenses, they went on ship- 
board at Dalaron, on the 4th of August, 
1696. At the Scagen, a cape forming 
the North Point of Jutland, in the 
North Sea, they were in danger of being 
driven ashore by a violent wind. The 
ship also struck several times on the 
Onion, at the mouth of the Channel, 
Skager Eack, but without serious in- 
jury. On the 10th of October they ar- 
rived in London. On the 4th of Febru- 
ary, 1697, they left London and went to 
sea with a convoy, for fear of the enemy 



during the prevailing war. They were 
ten weeks at sea before they obtained 
sight of land in America, where they 
first landed in Virginia, and then went 
up to Maryland, whither the ship was 
bound. Then, after the Governor of 
Maryland, Francis Nicholson, Esq., had 
hospitably entertained them for two 
weeks, and made them a donation of 
twenty rix-dollars for their traveling 
expenses, they continued their journey 
on a yacht to Elk Eiver, and there they 
landed on mid-summer's day (June 
24th). Some Swedes dwelt in that 
place, who welcomed their countrymen 
most heartily, and immediately sent 
word to their brethren in Pennsylvania, 
who came without delay, and with tears 
of joy conducted their much-longed-for 
countrymen overland to their homes. 

Their first act was to collect the con- 
gregations together, and show their 
passport, the brief and commission 
from the king and archbishop. That 
was done first at Wicacoa, in the church, 
on the 30th of June, and next at Tran- 
hook, on the 8th of July, 1697. It is 
usual for congregations to choose their 
teachers, but here the teachers chose 
their congregations. The agreement 
was as follows: As the Eev. Eudman 
had been first called and chosen, so he 
was to have the liberty first to name his 
congregation. He selected Wicacoa, 
and Mr. Bjork then took Tranhook. 
There was a wooden church at Tran- 
hook, (now called Cranehook, "trand" 
in Swedish meaning a crane) which had 
been in use since the year 1667. On 
the 28th of May, 1698, the building of 
a new church was commenced at Chris- 
tina, which was consecrated on Trinity 
Sunday, 1699, receiving the name of 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



97 



"Trinity Churcli." In the building of 
this church, which cost X800, the con- 
gregation fell in debt to the pastor, Mr. 
Bjork, X135, which he afterward made 
a donation to the church. The famous 
Pastor Bjork, who first gathered a 
church at Christina, had no sooner seen 
the church built, and the accounts of 
its cost put in order, then he devoted 
his thoughts to a suitable residence for 
the minister. The parsonage was be- 
gun on the 16th of October, 1701, and 
Mr. Bjork and his family moved into it 
on the 20th of January, 1710, although 
it did not reach its completion until 
1714 By a brief of August 12th, 1713, 
Pastor Bjork was appointed Provost of 
the Swedish Lutheran congregations in 
America. Immediately afterwards, un- 
der the date of the 28th of the same 
month, came a letter from the Bishop 
of Skara, Dr. Jesper Soedberg, with the 
information that His Majesty, King 
Charles XII., had been graciously 
pleased to favor Provost Bjork with a 



commission to the pastorate of Fahlun, 
dated at Tamerlash, near Adrianople, 
June 23d, 1713. On the 29th of June, 
1714, he went to sea with his wife, 
Christina, the daughter of Peter Stalcop, 
together with their five children — 
Tobias, Magdalen a, Catharina, Christi- 
na, and Maria. That was the first 
American family given back to Sweden. 
Provost Bjork published in English 
a tract with this title: "A little olive- 
leaf put into the mouth of that so-called 
'Noah's Dove,' and sent home again, to 
let her master know that the waters are 
abated from off the face of the ground, 
and that for the sake of Jesus Christ — 
whose servant to the end of my life I 
shall endeavor to be." This work, 
which was a refutation of Jonas Auren's 
Sabbatarian Almanac, " Noah's Dove,', 
was composed with a great deal of good 
sense, and accomplished a great deal of 
good among the people. — "History of New 
Sweden/' hy Israel Aurelius. 




PROF. J. H. BLEGEN. 



Prof. J. H. Blegen was born in Faa- 
borg's Parish, Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, 
on the 1st of October, 1851. Having 
reached his seventeenth year he emi- 
grated to America. By hard labor, to 
which he had not been accustomed, he 
brought upon himself a long and severe 
illness, which led him to more serious 
reflection and to seek the Lord. Having 
been awakened to a knowledge of his 
own sinful and lost condition by nature, 
and the superabundant grace of God in 
Christ Jesus', the ardent desire of giving 
himself soul and body to the Master's 
cause became stronger and stronger, un- 
13 



til he finally, in the fall of 1875, entered 
the preparatory department of Augs- 
burg Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
After five years of assiduous study he 
was graduated from the college depart- 
ment in the spring of 1880, whereupon 
he took a regular three years' course in 
the theological department of the same 
institution, from which he graduated in 
the spring of 1883. He was ordained 
to the gospel ministry the same year, 
having received and accepted a call 
from the Rochester and Wanamingo 
congregations in Minnesota. After hav- 
ing served these congregations for two 



98 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



years, he received a call from the Nor- 
wegian Danish Evangelical Lutheran 
Conference as college professor at Augs- 
burg Seminary, which position he has 



held since 1887. Besides his college 
work he has also served, since 1877, as 
secretary of the "Zion's Forening for 
Israel." 




PEOF. MAECUS O. BOOKMAN. 



Prof. Marcus Olaus Bockman was 
born at Langesund, Norway, January 
9th, 1849, his parents being Fredrik 
Bockman and Nicoline Mathilde Bodom. 
The days of his childhood were spent at 
Egersund, wliere his father was Eeceiver 
of Customs. From 1856 to 1863 he at- 
tended the common school and high 
school of that place. 

In the year 1864 he entered Aar's & 
Yoss's College at Christiania. While a 
student at this college the great change 
in his life was effected which deter- 
mined his future course. He was 
awakened from the sleep of sin. Days 
and nights of repentance and agony fol- 
lowed, but at last through the grace of 
God the Sun of Eighteousness shed His 
beams into his heart, and the love of 
Jesus Christ to lost and condemned sin- 



ners was revealed to him. Having ex- 
perienced the blessing of the forgiveness 
of sins, it became his earnest desire to 
proclaim to others the glad tidings of 
great joy. Having graduated "from the 
college in 1867, he immediately entered 
the University of Christiania. The fol- 
lowing year he passed the so-called ex- 
amen philosophieum, whereupon 'he com- 
menced to study for the ministry. He 
graduated with high honors from the 
theological department of the Univer- 
sity in 1874, and in 1875 he passed ex- 
amination in the practical department. 
The same year he was ordained a minis- 
ter of the gospel at Christiania, having 
received a call from a congregation of 
the Norwegian Synod in Goodhue Co., 
Minn., as assistant pastor of E5v. B. J. 
Muus. Immediately after the ordina- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



99 



tion he emigrated to this country, to- 
gether with his wife, Leonhardy Holby. 
After having worked as assistant pastor 
for some years, the field in which he 
had worked together with Rev. Mnus 
was divided, and he became the settled 
pastor of Gol and Moland congregations, 
Goodhue Co., Minn., where he remained 
uniil 1886. 

When the great controversy concern- 
ing election and conversion arose in the 
Norwegian Synod, Rev. Bockman took 
part with the anti-Missourians and be- 
came one of the leaders in opposing the 
Missourians. In the fall of 1886 the 
anti-Missourian faction established a 
theological seminary of their own at 
Northfield, Minn., and Mr. Bockman was 
called to fill one of the chairs at that 
seminary. While at Northfield his be- 
loved wife died, leaving six children. 
From 1887 to 1890 he was one of the 
editors of Lutherske Vidnesbyrd, the 
church paper of the anti-Missourian 
Brotherhood. In 1890 a union was ef- 
fected of the Norwegian Augustana 
Synod, the Norwegian Danish Confer- 
ence, and the anti-Missourian Brother- 
hood, resulting in the organization of 



the United Norwegian Lutheran Church 
in America, of which Rev. G. Hoyme 
was elected president and Rev. J. N. 
Kildal secretary. The three theological 
seminaries of these bodies were united 
into one, viz.: Augsburg Seminary, at 
Minneapolis, of which the well-known 
and scholarly Prof. G. Sverdrup was 
elected president. All the theological 
professors of the three former Synods 
were appointed professors at Augsburg 
Seminary, and at this institution Prof. 
Bockman is now working. 

Mr. Bockman is a very earnest, con- 
scientious and pious Christian. He is a 
bright, scholarly, and hard-working man, 
and one of the most powerful and elo- 
quent preachers in the Norwegian Lu- 
theran Church in this country. At 
annual conferences, and such like meet- 
ings, he very seldom participates in the 
discussions when practical questions are 
being discussed; but as soon as any 
question concerning faith or doctrine is 
taken up for consideration, Mr. Bockman 
is sure to add interest to the discussion 
by his able and clear remarks. New 
Testament exegesis is his favorite 
study. 




REV. JOHN M. BOLZIUS. 



Concerning the early life of John 
Martin Bolzius the notices that remain 
are few and meager. He was born on 
the 15th of December, 1703, and was 
ordained a preacher of the Gospel on 
the 11th of November, 1733. He is 
first brought to our notice as Deputy 
Superintendent of the Orphati' Hbu^e 
in Halle. - Whilst bc6u|:jy iii'g that ' iiHi 
pdttaiit ' 'Jjbsi^ion ' 'fe'6' ' \\h- 'feeffebtfed With 
the ' R^V". 'I^ael ^ Gh r^^stian' Groiialii', t6^ 'be- 

ccm^ affspiMtua3^'shwphwd^'6'f thb^-p^rs'^i- 



cuted Salzburgers, and to accompany 
them on their voyage to America. He 
assumed the relation of pastor to" these 
people, at Rotterdam, on the 27th of 
November, 1733, and proceeded with''' 
them on their journey to Ek^lati«ai 'atld-* 
thence to their ftiture ho'iii'e' in Gie^bl-gi^.'^' 
His connection with th6 Orphahi Hoii^fe^ 
&t' Halle, established ■ by ' th^l V^n^^to^^' 
Eraiicke, is in itself s^uktg a;ft^^iatf^' 
,to his learning and piety j '&hd 'hfs 's^tf--' 

y^cjikfetit hi^bty, ik'tiii^'yMom"Matfiiir 



100 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




BEV. JOHN M. BOLZIUS. 



which he sustained to the Salzbnrgers, 
shows the wisdom and foresight of those 
through whose agency he was appoint- 
ed to so responsible a position. 

Mr. Bolzius left Dover, England, with 
the first company of Salzburgers who 
came to this country on the 28th of De- 
cember, 1733, and after a perilous voy- 
age of 104 days arrived in Charleston, 
S. C, about the 1st of March, 1734. On 
the 11th of the same month he reached 
Savannah; and, as soon as the neces- 
sary arrangements could be made, pro- 
ceeded with the Salzburgers to their 
new home (about twenty-five miles 
above the city of Savannah), which, 
with pious gratitude, they called 



Ebenezer. It was now that he was 
made fully to realize the weighty re- 
sponsibilities which he had assumed as 
the pastor of an exiled people. 

Mr. Bolzius not only sustained the 
relation of pastor to the colonists, but, 
in connection with Mr. Gronau, had the 
immediate superintendence of the en- 
tire settlement at Ebenezer; and I doubt 
very much whether the affairs of any 
colony could have been more judicious- 
ly managed. He also frequently visit- 
ed Savannah, and preached to a small 
congregation of Salzburgers that had 
been established there. At times his 
duties were not only arduous, but dis- 
tressingly embarrassing; but he per- 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



101 



formed them with a conscientious faith- 
fulness worthy of all praise, and with a 
degree of success truly wonderful. In 
order to estimate the amount of care 
and labor that devolved upon him, it 
should be borne in mind that he was 
Hgent for the Trustees of the Colony, 
and a Missionary under the English 
Society for Propagating Christian 
Knowledge; while he retained a relation 
also to the Lutheran Church in 
Germany, having been required to sub- 
scribe to the Augsburg Confession, and 
to a code of regulations drawn up by 
the Rev. Samuel Urlsperger, of Augs- 
burg, Rev. F. M. Zeigenhagen, of 
London, and Rev. G. Augustus Francke, 
of Halle. It is evident that it must 
have required no common degree of 
Christian prudence and good judgment 
to meet the wishes of the benefactors of 
the colony in England, and their 
Christian friends and advisers in Ger- 
many; and, at the same time, to secure 
the confidence and afiPection of his 
people. But he fulfilled his trust to 
the satisfaction of all parties. 

Though Mr. Bolzius displayed much 
wisdom in his administration of the 
civil affairs of the Colony, it is chiefly 
as a minister of the Gospel that his 
character commends itself to our ad- 
miration. His spirit was eminently 
evangelical in both doctrine and spirit, 
as might have been expected from his 
intimate connection with those eminent- 
ly godly men at the Orphan House at 
Halle. And he was remarkably atten- 
tive to both the temporal and spiritual 
welfare of those placed under his super- 
intendence. In all cases of difficulty 
they found in him a wise and judicious 
counselor; amidst the distress and pri- 
vations incident to colonial life he ex- 
hibited an example of patient endurance 
and heroic self-denial, and withal a 
Christian sympathy which might well 



inspire his people with resignation un- 
der all their sufferings. In all the 
plans which the colonists adopted for 
the advancement of their temporal 
prosperity he felt a lively interest; but 
he labored always to impress them with 
the great idea that their first object in 
removing to America was the promotion 
of their spiritual, rather than their tem- 
poral, well-being; that as they were 
exiles for conscience sake, and had come 
into a country where they were free 
from the frown of the oppressor, they 
were bound to testify their gratitude to 
God by a corresponding growth in 
their spiritual life 

Mr. Bolzius sustained the pastoral 
relation to the church at Ebenezer 
thirty-two years. During this time he 
had the pleasure to see three Lutheran 
churches erected, and the town of 
Ebenezer rise to a place of considerable 
importance. The Colony became very 
prosperous, and it was his privilege to 
behold the entire settlement, after 
many years of serious embarrassment, 
enjoying all the comforts of civilized 
life, blessed with abundant harvests, 
contented with their lot, and every day 
increasing in virtue and true religion — 
an ample reward, truly, for all the 
sacrifices he had made, and the ar- 
duous and self-denying duties he had 
performed. 

On the 19th of November, 1765, it 
pleased the Master, whom he had served 
so long and well, to call him to his 
reward. For three years prior to his 
death, his health had been very pre- 
carious; but, though urged by his 
friends to allow himself some repose, 
he invariably refused, saying, — "I have 
soon to appear, with my hearers, before 
the judgment seat of Christ, and I do 
not wish one of them to accuse me of 
being the cause of his destruction." 
The testimony of his brethren is that 



102 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



he bore all his sufferings with extraor- 
dinary fortitude and meekness. During 
a visit which Mr. Lemke, his colleague, 
made to him, he said: "I cannot de- 
scribe how happy I am in my solitude, 
whilst I enjoy the presence of my 
Saviour and communion with Him 
Happy, oh, indescribably happy!" On 
a subsequent occasion he remarked to 
the same friend: "I acknowledge our 
Protestant Religion as a precious treas- 
ure to me in life and death. In myself 
I can discover naught but sin ; but God 
has granted me forgiveness for Christ's 
sake." In a letter to Senior Urlsperger 
he says: "I am hastening to my home. 
He who sees his wedding day is not 
concerned about trifles. It has pleased 
my heavenly Father to visit me for 
several months with disease and in- 
firmities, which, most probably, will end 
my life. I am in His hands and He 
does all things well, as my own ex- 
perience has taught me during my 
whole pilgrimage, but more especially 
during the thirty-two years of my pas- 
toral office among the Salzburgers. 
Dearest Redeemer, accept my humble 
thanks for all thy love and faithfulness." 
In a letter to Dr. Zeigenhagen, of 
London, he writes thus: "This will 
probably be my last letter to you. All 
that I can now do is to prepare myself, 
by the assistance of the Divine Spirit, 



for a happy exit out of this world. God 
be praised, I can say, — 'If we live, we 
live unto the Lord; if we die, we die 
unto the Lord.' How great is the hap- 
piness to possess this knowledge ! It is 
a faithful saying, 'I shall be happy for- 
ever. My eyes shall behold the source 
of all joy.' " Such was the frame of 
mind in which the venerable man en- 
tered into his rest. The day after 
his death (November 20th), his re- 
mains were buried in the cemetery 
connected with Jerusalem church, 
amidst the unfeigned lamentations 
of his parishioners, to whose best 
interests he had so long been devoted. 
It is painful to reflect that no monu- 
ment marks the place where the ashes 
of this venerable father repose; but 
whether this was in consequence of his 
own direction, or the neglect of those 
on whom the duty^should have devolved, 
I have never been able to ascertain. 

Little is known of the family of Mr. 
Bolzius. He had four children, two of 
whom died when quite young. Of the 
two that survived him, the elder, a son, 
was at the University of Halle at the 
time of his father's death, and I believe 
never returned to this country. Of tlie 
history of the daughter I have been un- 
able to discover any traces. — P. A. Strobel 
in Spr ague's Annals of the American Pulpit. 




EEV. PETER BORN, D.D. 



Peter Born, D.D., son of Peter Born, 
was born in Lycoming county. Pa., July 
3, 1820. His father was a farmer. He 
studied at Gettysburg, graduating at 
Pennsylvania College in 1848 and at 
the Theological Seminary in 1850. He 
was licensed by the East Pennsylvania 



Synod in 1850 and was ordained by it 
in 1851. He was married March 4, 1851, 
to Miss Sarah Hill, of Hughesville, Pa. 
He was 'pastor at Sunbury, Pa., from 
1851 to 1859. In 1859 he became prin- 
cipal of the classical department of Mis- 
sionary Institute at Selinsgrove, Pa. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



103 



He filled this position until 1881. Since 
this time he has held the positions of 
superintendent and of first professor of 
theology. He received his degree of 
D.D. from Wittenberg College in 1879. 
Dr. Born is about six feet in height, 
has a stroDg frame, and has always en- 
joyed good health. While in the col- 
legiate department his favorite branches 
were mental and moral science. As 
with his predecessor in the theological 
department. Prof. H. Zeigler, D. D., each 
additional year's experience has but 



deepened his conviction of the necessity, 
to a theological student, of thorough in- 
struction in the Word of God. The 
special aims of his department are to 
thoroughly equip the students with a 
working knowledge of the scriptures, 
practical homiletics and catechetics. 
Dr. Born has written much for the 
church periodicals. His "Rhadaman- 
thus" articles in the American Lutheran 
attracted a great deal of attention and 
are often referred to. 




PROF. GISLE BOTHNE, A. M. 



Prof. Gisle Bothne was born Septem- 
ber 7, 1860, in Fredrikshald, Norway. 
He attended the gymnasium at his na- 
tive place till he, in 1876, with his parents, 
emigrated to America, where his father 
had accepted a position as professor at 
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. In 1878 
the subject of this sketch graduated 
from Luther College, and in the follow- 
ing year from Northwestern University, 
Watertown, Wis. After having studied 



classical philology at Johns Hopkins 
University, he took, in the fall of 1880, 
charge of a school in Minneapolis, 
where he remained a few months. 
When Prof. J. D. Jacobson, of Luther 
College, was taken sick, Mr. Bothne was 
called to, at first temporarily, fill his 
place. Since January, 1881, he has 
been teaching at Luther College, with 
the exception of the year 1883-4, which 
he spent at Johns Hopkins University 



104 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



EEY. HENEY G. BO WEES. 



Henry Grove Bowers, son of William 
and Catherine ( Grove) Bowers, was born 
in Berkeley County, now West Virginia, 
Oct. 23d, 1816. His early life was spent 
on his father's farm. He was educated 
in the Classical Institute, near Middle- 
brook, Va., out of which Eoanoke Col- 
lege grew, in which institution he com- 
pleted his course of study, and was 
licensed in 1848 by the Synod of Yir- 
ginia, and ordained by the same body in 
1850. His first charge was in Botetourt 
County, W. Ya., from 1848-52; next at 
Smithfield, Ya., 1852-55; then at Clear 
Spring, Md., 1855-57; again in Jefferson, 
Md., 1858-78. In 1878 he removed to 
Smithsburg, where he lived in retire- 
ment until 1879, when he received a call 
to Meyersville, where he remained 



until 1882. B^e then became Principal 
of the Seminary at Burkittsville, and 
continued in that position until 1884, 
after which he lived a year in retire- 
ment. In 1885 he returned to Jefferson, 
Md., where he had a comfortable home. 
While at Burkittsville he preached at 
Fairview, a part of the Frederick charge, 
and after his return to Jefferson, he 
supplied the Mt. Zion congregation in 
connection with the Fairview charge, 
until the fall of 1886, when his min- 
isterial life ended, and after one year of 
retirement, he died suddenly in the 
Lutheran church at Williamsport, Md., 
during a session of Synod, on October 
8th, 1887, of paralysis, aged 70 years, 11 
months, and 16 days. His remains were 
laid to rest at Jefferson, Md. 




EEY. WILLIAM S. BOWMAN, D.D. 



William Spener Bowman was born in 
Powell's Fort valley, in the Massanuttin 
range of mountains, in Shenandoah 
County, Yirginia, on the third day of 
August, 1830. His parents were de- 
scended from Germans, who settled in 
the valley of Yirginia before the days of 
the Eevolutionary War, from whom that 
large body of Lutherans, that now oc- 
cupies this portion of Yirginia are de- 
scended. His paternal grandfather held 
the rank of major in the American 
army, and endured the extreme suffering 
of those encamped with Washington at 
Yalley Forge in the winter of 1777-78. 
His father was, all his life, a member of 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church; his 
mother was a devout and pious member 
of the German Eeformed Church. 



From these, like Timothy, he received 
in his earliest childhood his first lessons 
in the Holy Scriptures, so that as he 
grew in years he grew in the knowledge 
of Christ, and in grace; and in his boy- 
hood he was admitted by the rite of con- 
firmation to membership in the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church. 

He received a good English education 
from the common schools of his county. 
Having finished his course in these 
schools, he apprenticed himself to a 
cabinet-maker, and in due time became 
proficient in his trade. While engasred 
in this work, he became assured of his 
call to preach the Gospel. Feelinfi: 
"woe is me if I preach not the gospel," 
he laid aside his tools, and procuring an 
humble lodging began his theological 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



105 




KEY. WILLIAM S. BOWMAN, D. D. 



studies as a "home student." He pur- 
sued the study of the Languages and 
Theology under private tutors in the 
town of Harrisonburg, Ya. Having thus 
prepared himself, he appeared before 
the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Vir- 
ginia for examination and ordination. 
After serving a brief probationary term 
as a licentiate, he was ordained at 
Woodstock, Ya., on the 20th day of Oc- 
tober, 1856. He remained a member of 
the Yirginia Synod for five years in the 
Waynesboro charge, and three years in 
the charge near Madison C. H , Ya. 
He was then called by the South Caro- 
lina Synod to the charge of what was 
then known as the Morris Street Mission 
in the city of Charleston, S. C. He 
served this congregation during the civil 
war and patiently labored with his 
people during the days of the siege of 
that city. Directly after the close of 
the war he succeeded in founding 
Wentworth Street Lutheran Church in 
the same city. He remained pastor of 
14 



this church until about nine years ago 
when he accepted the charge of the 
Church of the Ascension in the city of 
Savannah, Ga. In his work in Charles- 
ton he was eminently successful, and the 
large pious and active Lutheran congre- 
gation, the result of his efficient labors, 
stands a monument to his efficient work. 
He served during this period with great 
zeal and efficiency as president of the 
Board of Trustees of Newberry College. 
Twice was he offered the presidency of 
that institution, but he declined both 
invitations, preferring to remain in the 
pastoral work. This college conferred 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon 
him about the year 1870. He looks 
back, with much pleasure, on his work 
in that city, and praises God that through 
his instrumentality the little mission 
church has developed into one so large 
and useful. 

On taking charge of the church in 
Savannah, he found the congregation 
heavily involved in debt and much dis- 



106 



AMERICAK LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



heartened. They seemed to have ex- 
hausted all their means, and there were 
$19,000 yet unpaid. Again and again 
they had to struggle to keep their church 
from under the sheriff's hammer. A 
man of less energy, executive ability, 
and faith would have failed. He in- 
spired new life into his people, enlisted 
the aid and sympathy of friends in the 
city, and laboring faithfully together 
they now have the pleasure of worship- 
ing in their beautiful church with no 
debt to cause anxiety or care. Having 
succeeded in this work, they have es- 
tablished a mission in the southern part 
of the city, which is now in a fair way 
to success. 

Dr. Bowman is what is styled a self- 
made man. By hard study he has ac- 
quired, unaided, a large fund of literary, 
scientific, and theological knowledge, 
and his success ought to inspire others 
who, like he, lack opportunities for 
training in their respective fields. 

He is a man of commanding appear- 
ance, about 6 feet 2 inches in height and 
weighing about 175 pounds. His voice, 
which is loud and strong, is not harsh. 



but smooth and round. He always 
seems at home in the pulpit, and is easy 
and graceful in his manner. He is al- 
ways careful to have something to say, 
and he says it well. His sermons are 
simple, plain, logical and evangelical, 
abounding in apt and beautiful illustra- 
tions. Th<=^ fact that pews are always in 
demand in his church shows the esteem 
in which he is held as a preacher. And 
while attractive and instructive in the 
pulpit he is no less efficient in his pas- 
toral work. His kind face, genial man- 
ner, and hearty salutation makes him at 
once the friend of both old and young. 
He enters with hearty sympathy into the 
sorrows and joys, success or failures of 
his people, and no one can offer to them 
such beautiful words of comfort and en- 
couragement. The great demand on his 
services outside of his regular pastoral 
work shows the high esteem in which he 
is held by all the community in which 
he lives. 

He is now about sixty years of age, 
but is still strong and vigorous, and 
promises many years of usefulness in 
the future. 




REV. C. K. A. BRANDT. 



Rev. Brandt was born in Roth am 
Sand, in Mittelfranken, Bayern, in the 
year 1819. As theological student he 
came to America in 1849, and received 
license ad interim from the president of 
the Pennsylvania Synod in December 
of the same year. His first charge was 
at Manayunk, Philadelphia, where he 
labored to the end of the year 1849. In 
1850 he went to New York to establish 
an immigrant mission under the auspices 
of the Pennsylvania Synod. While at 



New York he also preached Sunday af- 
ternoons in the Ev. Luth. St. Markus 
Church. Towards the close of 1851 he 
accepted calls from congregations in 
Clearfield and Jefferson counties. Mr. 
Brandt was ordained in 1853, when, on 
the 11th of December, he accepted a call 
to the Ev. Luth. Zion's Church, at 
Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa., and 
about Easter, 1855, he accepted a call to 
the First German Ev. Luth. Church at 
Allegheny City, Pa., which was connect- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



107 



ed with the Eastern district of the Ohio 
Synod. Mr. Brandt then became a 
member of that body. 

During his pastorate at Johnstown 
and Allegheny City, Mr. Brandt was 
also engaged in literary labors, and 
published in connection with his father 
"Homiletisches Huelfsbuch beim Ge- 
brauche der evangelischen und epistoli- 
schen Perikopen des ganzen Kirchen- 
jahres und der Passionsgeschichte Jesu 
Christi. Eine Blumenlese der klas- 
sischen evangelischen Predigtliteratur 
Deutschlands von Luther bis auf die 
neueste Zeit und in Dispositions- 
Magazin." This work has been publish- 
ed in Leipzig in seven handsome vol- 
umes. Among his other writings may 
be mentioned "Paulus oder Papst?" 



Philadelphia, Pa., 1856, pp. 242; "Stim- 
men der Kirche am Reformationsfeste," 
1863. When Mr. Brandt in 1872 be- 
came pastor of the church at Suspension 
Bridge, N. Y., he joined the New York 
Ministerium. He died about New 
Years, 1873. He left two works in manu- 
script form: "Handbuch zur homileti- 
schen Behandlung alttestamentlicher 
Texte im Anschlusz an das Kirchen- 
jahr," of which the three first volumes 
were ready for the press, and "Homile- 
tische Samenkoerner zu Sonn- und Fest- 
tagspredigten ueber f reie neutestament- 
liche Texte im Auschlusz an das Kir- 
chenjahr." This work was finished and 
was intended to make two large vol- 
umes. — Nicum's Hist. 




REV. NILS BRANDT. 



Nils Brandt was bom January 29th, 
1824, in Slidre, Valders, Norway, where 
his father and ancestors for generations 
were teachers and deacons of the parish. 
His father died when he was but eleven 



years old, but two of his brothers as- uated in 1849 with high honors 



sisted him to prepare for the ministry. 
After studying with the pastor of the 
parish for three and one-half years, and 
one-half year in Christiania, he entered 
the university there in 1844, and grad- 



108 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



While tutor in a clergyman's family 
near Stavanger, lie received a call to 
Rock River and Pine Lake churches, in 
Wisconsin; and, having been ordained 
by Bishop Arup at Christiania, reached 
Wisconsin in the fall of 1851, after an 
ocean voyage of eight weeks, and im- 
mediately visited the pioneer settlements 
in north-eastern Iowa and in Yernon 
County, Wis., as traveling missionary. 

On the first and second Sunday in 
Advent, 1851, he was installed in his 
parish by Rev. C. L. Clausen and Rev. 
H. A. Stub. During the three first 
summers he continued his missionary 
work in north-eastern Iowa and extend- 
ed it to eastern Minnesota and western 
Wisconsin. He traveled on foot a great 
deal of the time, preached in groves, 
barns, and log-huts, wherever people 
would meet to hear the gospel, baptized 
as much as twenty-five children in one 
day, confirmed married women with 
several children, shared the hardships 
and frugal fare of the sturdy Norwegian 
pioneers, and has left a memory, cherish- 
ed in these settlements now so pros- 
perous, as the first minister preaching 
to them the gospel in their mother 
tongue in their new fatherland. 

In 1856 he returned to Norway to re- 
cuperate, his health having suffered by 
fever and ague. While there he was 
married to Diderikke Ottesen, daughter 
of Provost Realf Ottesen, returning to 
his parish with her in the fall of 1856. 
At the request of the Norwegian Synod 
he, during the following year, accom- 
panying Rev. J. A. Ottesen, visited the 
theological seminaries and colleges at 
St. Louis, Mo., Ft. Wayne, Ind., Colum- 
bus, O., and Buffalo, N. Y. Their re- 



port induced the Synod to send its 
students, preparing for the ministry, to 
the theological seminary of the Missouri 
Synod at St. Louis, Mo., for a long time. 

In 1865 he was called as pastor of 
the congregation at Decorah, la., and 
tutor at Luther College. For seventeen 
years he remained in this field, grad- 
ually decreasing his work at the college 
as two more congregations called him as 
their pastor; For many years he was a 
member of the Church Council of the 
Synod; also for several years member of 
a hymn-book committee; since 1868 he 
had charge of the accounts and sub- 
scription department of the ofiicial paper 
of the Synod, and finally was treasurer 
of the missionary fund for several years. 

He resigned his pastorate at Decorah, 
la., in 1882, owing to overwork resulting 
in heart disease, and traveled in Nor- 
way, succeeding in partly regaining his 
health. Intending to remain there, he 
resigned his other charges and for 
several months had temporary charge of 
a parish in Norway. Returning to this 
country in 1883 he made his home with 
his son. Rev. O. E. Brandt, in Cleveland, 
O., until his faithful wife was taken 
away by death, January 21st, 1885. 
She was buried at Decorah, la., where 
the students of the college and other 
friends erected a monument over her 
grave in token of their appreciation of 
her motherly and self-denying care for 
them during all the years she lived 
there. 

Since then Rev. Brandt has lived with 
his eldest son, Rev. R. O. Brandt, at 
Brandt, S. D. His motto are the last 
words of his wife: Ps. 143, 2, "And 
enter not into judgment with thy 
servant." 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



109 




PROF. S. F. BRECKENRIDGE, Sc. D. 



Prof. Samuel F. Breckenridge was 
born near Lewistown, Mifflin County, 
Pa., December 1, 1833. His ancestors 
on his mother's side are of German, and 
on his father's side, of purely Scotch- 
Irish stock. The late H. M. Brecken- 
ridge, of Tarentum, Pa., on the occasion 
of visiting Scotland, traced the geneal- 
ogy of the family to a period beyond 
the time of John Knox, the great Scot- 
tish reformer. From his investigations 
it was found that one of the family, a 
Scotchman of the "clan camel," passed 
over from Scotland into Ireland, and set- 
tled near Londonderry, where the great- 
grandfather of Prof. Breckenridge was 
born, and whence he came in childhood, 
in company with his father, to this 
country, early in the last century. At 
the time of Braddock's defeat he was a 
wagoner of provisions on the frontier, 
and, with some others, he was captured 
by the Indians and brought into the 
neighborhood of where Coshocton, Ohio, 
now is, whence he afterwards made his 
escape, a lengthy account of which is 



given in the Pennsylvania Colonial 
Record. 

The grandfather of our subject, Sam- 
uel Breckenridge, was born at Half-way 
House, Chester County, Pa. He was an 
exact prototype of our subject, a man of 
medium height, chunky, blue eyes and 
light complexion, with well developed 
powers of both mind and body, very 
quick and active, fond of athletic sports 
and games. 

He was a man of very strong, though 
well controlled passions. He was also 
very jovial, and always enjoyed both 
hearing and telling a good joke. He 
was a member of the Presbyterian 
Church. He died near Brownsville, 1840. 
his wife, a woman remarkable for per- 
sonal appearance and beauty, lived up- 
ward of ninety years. She was also 
Scotch-Irish. 

John B, Breckenridge' s father, who 
was born in Franklin County, October 
30, 1806, and educated at Brownsville 
Academy and Washington College, is a 
Lutheran clergyman, retired from the 



110 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



active work o£ the ministry, and living 
at quite an advanced age at Eochester, 
near Pittsburg, Pa. 

His mother, who is also still living, is 
a daughter of Augustus C. Ehrenfeld, a 
German physician, who emigrated from 
Heilbronn early in this century, and 
practiced medicine in Philadelphia, Pa. 
Prof. Breckenridge is the second son of 
a family of twelve children, six of whom 
are still living. One brother met a sol- 
dier's death in behalf of the Union. 
When a boy the Professor was always 
fond of sport and fun, and by his daring 
and adventurous spirit he was led into 
many experiences, which did not prove 
to be the most pleasant to him. He was 
prepared for college mainly by his father, 
who was a teacher for some years of his 
life, and is a fine English and classical 
scholar. He always manifested a spirit 
of independence, which would not allow 
others to do for him that which he was 
able to do for himself. When fourteen 
years old he went from home to make 
his own way through life. The next 
seven years were spent working on the 
farm, teaching district schools, and 
clerking in a store. Being desirous of 
gaining a higher education, and having 
a small sum of money that he had saved 
from his earnings, he came West, and 
entered the Freshman class in Witten- 
berg College in 1854, with the purpose 
to prepare himself for the study of law; 
but after his conversion, which took 
place in his Junior year, he turned his 
thoughts towards the ministry of the 
Gospel, He took a full classical course, 
and was recognized as one of the most 
accurate thinkers of his class, and al- 
ways very fond of mathematics. As a 
student he was always sociable and fond 
of fun, but never neglected his studies, 
which he considered his first duty to at- 
tend to. His college course was some- 
what broken. In November of his Soph- 



omore year, being obliged to leave for 
want of means to continue his studies, 
he went to teach a district school in 
Preble County, Ohio, during the winter. 
But, having kept up his studies while 
out, he again joined his class in the 
spring, and remained until the end of 
the summer term. He then left college, 
and went to Pennsylvania, where he re- 
mained, working on the farm and teach- 
ing school, until the fall of 1857, when 
he returned to Ohio. During the win- 
ter of 1857-8 he taught school at South 
Charleston, Ohio. In the spring of 1858 
he went to Illinois to sell fruit trees, ac- 
companied by J. B. Helwig, a classmate, 
who was his most intimate companion. 
While on his trip he fell sick of the ty- 
phoid fever, and came near dying. In 
the fall he again returned to college, 
and finally graduated in 1860. He was 
a member of the Excelsior Literary So- 
ciety, and represented it as debater in 
its contest with the Philosophian Soci- 
ety in the spring of 1859. Upon his 
graduation he was called to teach in 
Mendota Female Seminary, Mendota, 
Ills. He took charge of the institution 
as principal, which position he occupied 
four years. The school was large and 
flourishing, numbering in attendance at 
one time 250 pupils. 

On the 27th of August, 1861, he was 
married to Mary A. Garver, of Pecato- 
nia, 111. She is a graduate of Mendota 
Female College. They have a family of 
two daughters and one son, all living. 
In August, 1865, he accepted the princi- 
palship of the academy at Leechburg, 
Pa., remaining there two years. Mean- 
while, in addition to his academy work, 
he served two country congregations in 
Westmoreland county, but after two 
years he resigned his position at the 
academy so as to give his whole atten- 
tion to the work of the ministry. In 
1869 he became pastor of the church at 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Ill 



Belief ontaine, 0„ where his ministry 
met with marked success. In June, 1872, 
he accepted a call to Plymouth, O., and 
remained there until November, 1874, 
when he succeeded Dr. S. A. Ort in the 
chair of mathematics and logic in Wit- 
tenberg College, which place he still oc- 
cupies. As a teacher he is thorough, 
vigorous, and exacting, and his methods 
in the classroom are peculiar to himself. 
In his dealing and intercourse with the 
students he has always shown a spirit of 
justice, and rewards them according to 
their work. He was delegate to the Gen- 
eral Synod at Wooster in 1873, at which 
time he gave a detailed report of its pro- 
ceedings. He was also a delegate when 
it met in Altoona. In church affairs 
and work he has always been active. He 
was licensed by the Synod of Illinois, 



1861, and ordained 1866, by the Pitts- 
burg Synod, then of the General Synod, 
now of the General Council. As a 
preacher he is clear and forcible. His 
principal strength and the secret of his 
success in this line lies in his ability to 
do personal hand to hand Christian work 
in laying the matter concerning the sal- 
vation of the soul clearly before the un- 
converted, so that those persuaded to ac- 
cept Jesus Christ as their Saviour 
through his influence have, in nearly all 
instances, continued in their Christian 
belief and hope. Those who know him 
best in his college life, and who have 
been most intimate with him in other as- 
sociations, esteem him as one of the 
truest and most conscientious of men. — 
History Witt. College. 




KEY. SAMUEL K. BROBST. 



Samuel K. Brobst was born Nov. 
16th, 1822, and licensed on the 4th of 
June, 1847, in Philadelphia, by the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania. Notwith- 
standing the fact that he prosecuted the 
work of the ministry until within a few 
months of his death, the labors of his 
life were mainly devoted to the dissem- 
ination of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
through the medium of the press. He 



accordingly began the work of publish- 
ing and editing more than a quarter of 
a century ago. 

In 1837 he went to Washington, in 
Western Pennsylvania, to learn a trade, 
where he received deep religious impres- 
sions under the ministry of Rev. Dr. 
Brown, the Presbyterian President of 
the college at that place. He did not 
like his trade and was anxious to devote 



112 



AMEEICAN LtJTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIEB. 



himself to study. A severe attack of 
sickness in 1841 compelled him to re- 
turn home; and in the fall he went to 
the Allentown Academy and also took 
private lessons in the German language. 
During the winter he taught school, and 
established Sunday Schools in his native 
valley. When he fully determined to 
study theology, he was at a loss to what 
seminary to go. He attended several 
schools, among them Marshall College 
at Lancaster, and Washington College 
in Western Pennsylvania; in this place 
he preached German to a small congre- 
gation, and gave private lessons in that 
language. He became an agent to the 
American Sunday School Union to labor 
among the Germans in Eastern Penn- 
sylvania, and rejected a splendid offer 
from that institution to become its Ger- 
man Secretary and Editor. 

He was licensed in 1847, but it was 
only during the last nine years of his 
life that he became a pastor. He never 
had robust health ; but for thirty years 
he served the church principally as 
editor of German periodicals. He was 
confined to his bed but a few days, and 
died December 23d, 1876, deplored by 
all who knew him. 

Realizing the value of Christian nur- 
ture, he first established the Jiigend 
Freund, a German Sunday School paper 
which has attained a wide circulation. 
Nineteen years ago he founded the 
Lutherische Zeitsehrift, which in due time 
became a good-sized weekly quarto, and 
attained a prominent position among its 
contemporaries. In 1868 he commenced 
the publication of his Theologische Monats- 
Hefte, a monthly theological journal, 
which, after six years, he was compelled 
to suspend for want of adequate support. 
He was likewise the publisher of the 
Lutheriseher Kalender. 

A Pennsylvania German by birth and 
of the sixth generation, he appreciated 



'the German language as a medium of 
I instruction and usefulness, and urged its 
study upon students, and its use in 
the preaching of the Gospel. He took 
a prominent part in the organization of 
the German Press Association of Penn- 
, sylvania, and presided over its annual 
deliberations, as president, from its 
I origin, fifteen years ago, until his death. 
I Apprehending the necessity of sem- 
' inaries of learning and their usefulness 
' to the Church, he agitated the subject 
of transforming the literary institution 
at Allentown into a denominational col- 
lege, and lived to see his expectations 
realized in the founding and success of 
Muhlenberg College. 

Nor were these the only agencies and 
instrumentalities through which he 
made himself felt in the Church. By 
his counsels in conference meetings, his 
speeches at synods, his efiiciency on ec- 
clesiastical committees and institutional 
boards, his visits to Sunday Schools and 
churches, his special addresses, and his 
occasional publications for children and 
adults, he exerted a marked and wide- 
spread influence on the German portion 
of the Lutheran Church, as well as upon 
the German population in America. 

His talents and acquirements, al- 
though not of the highest, were, never- 
theless, of a respectable character. He 
was endowed with more than an ordi- 
nary share of practical wisdom, which 
he constantly displayed in his publica- 
tions and periodicals. His genius en- 
abled him to form a true ideal of what a 
Sunday School paper or church period- 
ical, or theological journal ought to be, 
and by his literary skill and editorial 
tact, he succeeded in adapting them, in 
a very high degree, to the attainment of 
their respective ends. 

In the prosecution of the work of pub- 
lishing and editing, he also established 
a printing ofiice and book store, of which 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



113 



he took the entire management. He 
was enterprising in the projection of 
plans of usefulness, and energetic in 
their prosecution, i In a word, his pas- 
toral, editorial, and business life was 
characterized by constitutional industry, 
unwearied labor, indomitable energy, 
hopeful perseverance, and a self-sacri- 
ficing spirit. 

He was born, baptized, reared, and 
consecrated to the Lutheran church. 
He 'was devotedly attached to her doc- 
trines, usages, principles of govern- 
ment, and forms of worship. In the 
discussion of the confessional and prac- 
tical standpoints, which have agitated the 
Church in this country during the last 
twenty-five years, he took a prominent 
part, and while he was decided in his 
convictions, and candid in his utter- 
ances, he was, at the same time, court- 
eous and fair in dealing with his 
brethren who differed from him. He 
was a deplorer of ecclesiastical strife 
and division, a lover of peace, and an 
advocate of Lutheran union. While his 
constitutional temperament, as well as 
his Christian spirit, prompted him to 
avoid giving offence on the one hand. 



and led him to endeavor to please on 
the other, he, nevertheless, frequently 
failed to conciliate his opponents, and 
subjected himself to their criticisms. 
Some of the attacks thus made upon 
him by his contemporaries, were harsh 
and unjust, but in defending himself 
against them, he exhibited a commend- 
able degree of moderation and forbear- 
ance. Candor on the other hand, con- 
strains us to admit, that in his endeav- 
ors to become "all things to all men" in 
the church, according to the example of 
Paul, he sometimes erred and exposed 
himself to the charge of inconsistency, 
if not of vaccilation. On this account 
his influence as leader became more cir- 
cumscribed and the popularity of the 
Zeitschrift considerably diminished. But, 
notwithstanding all this. Pastor Brobst 
fulfilled his mission with such assiduity, 
sincerity, devotion, and fidelity, as to 
command the esteem and admiration of 
all who knew him, and exerted, notwith- 
standing his weakness and imperfec- 
tions, a healthy and extensive Christian 
influence in the families, the schools, 
and the congregations of the German 
Lutheran Church in America — Morris. 




15 



114 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 





REV. ABEL J. BROWN, D.D. 



Rev. Abel J. Brown, D. D., a minister 
of the Lutheran church, was born near 
Lincolnton, N. C, March 27, 1817. He 
is the son of Absolom and Elizabeth 
(Killian) Brown, and the first son and 
second child of a family of ten children. 
His paternal grandfather was an Eng- 
lishman, who came to this country when 
a boy, and was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war. His maternal grandfather 
was of German extraction, a native of 
Pennsylvania, but in early life came to 



years he held the office of magistrate, 
and was often solicited to run for higher 
offices, but always positively declined. 

Dr. Brown's primary education was 
received in a good country school. His 
academic studies, preparatory to enter- 
ing college, were prosecuted principally 
in the Male Academy, at Lincolnton, N. 
C, and his collegiate course was taken 
in Emory and Henry College, Ya., from 
which he was graduated with the degree 
of A. B., and which afterward conferred 



North Carolina, where he lived the bal- upon him the degree of A. M., not mere- 



ance of his days and died. Dr. Brown's 
parents and ancestors generally, so far 
as is known, belonged to the laboring 
classes, and were distinguished for their 
industry, their frugality and thrift, their 
m^oral integrity and religious worth. 
His mother was a woman of strong mind, 
of deep religious convictions, and emi- 
nently pious. His father was a man of 
superior native intellect, and of great 
firmness and decision of character. He 
was a farmer and mechanic and careful • 
ly trained up his children to manual 
labor, as well as "in the nurture and ad- 
monition of the Lord." He was a man 
of considerable prominence in the com- 
munity in which he lived. For many 



ly "in course," but because of his higher 
attainments in literature. 

After graduation the subject of this 
sketch engaged for a time in the busi- 
ness of teaching. He first took charge 
of Jefferson Male Academy, Blountville, 
Tenn., which he held for five or six years, 
when he accepted a professorship in 
Greenville College. At the end of two 
years he resigned his position in this in- 
stitution and took charge of the academic 
department of Jefferson Male Academy, 
which, in the meantime, had been re- 
built and enlarged, and had had the 
sphere of its operations and usefulness 
greatly enlarged and otherwise improved. 
He held this position till the outbreak of 



3 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



115 



our late civil war, since which, he has de- 
voted but little time to the business of 
teaching. During the time of which we 
have spoken he was offered a professorship 
in one college and the presidency of anoth- 
er, both of which he declined. He is 
regarded as an accomplished scholar and 
one of the best educators in the country. 
Quite a number of young men, who in 
after life made their mark in the learned 
professions, and in other departments of 
activity and usefulness, were educated 
by him. 

In 1836 Dr. Brown was ordained to 
the work of the ministry in the Lutheran 
Church, and devoted his time and studies 
for six years exclusively to this work. 
His work during this time was princi- 
pally in North Carolina, though he did 
a good deal of preaching in other states, 
and particularly in South Carolina. 
While engaged in teaching, he preached 
regularly in the places of his location. 
His services were, however, for the most 
part, rendered gratuitously. In 1858 he 
took charge of Immanuel and Baehler's 
Churches, Sullivan Co., Tenn., which he 
has ever since retained. 

As a writer Dr. Brown has quite a 
reputation, not confined to his own im- 
mediate section of the church and coun- 
try, but extending throughout the whole 



extent of the Church in the United 
States. He has contributed largely to 
the religious periodicals of the Church, 
and literary magazines, and in addition 
to this has published quite a number of 
sermons in separate form. 

In consideration of his literary and 
theological attainments, Roanoke Col- 
lege, in 1873, conferred upon him the de- 
gree of D. D. — History of Tenn. 

In former years Dr. Brown took a very 
prominent and active part in the contro- 
versies which then agitated the Southern 
Lutheran Church, and wrote much for 
the Lutheran Observer and the Lutheran 
Standard, besides publishing a couple of 
separate publications. In later years he 
has been a regular contributor to the 
Lutheran, to the Lutheran Home, and wrote 
one article for the Lutheran Quarterly. 

'Be is still actively engaged in the min- 
istry, and preaches every Sunday with 
as much ease as ever, though he is in 
his 74th year, and has been in the min- 
istry nearly fifty-four years. 

He was once president of the Southern 
Lutheran General Synod. He took a 
leading part in the formation of the 
United Synod of the Lutheran Church 
in the South, and was president of the 
Diet at which it was formed. 




REV. JAMES ALLEN BROWN, D.D. 



James Allen, the son of James and 
Ann Brown, was born in Drumore town- 
ship, Lancaster county, Pa., February 
19, 1821. Both parents were Quakers, 
and the early years of their five sons 
and two daughters were passed amid the 
duties and toils incident to the farmer's 
life. James Allen early evinced an un- 
usual desire for sludy. His days were 



given to work, and his evenings to read- 
ing. He derived every possible advant- 
age from the public school, applying 
himself with such earnestness that he 
soon exhibited the marked ability which 
distinguished him in later years. The 
library of his grandfather furnished him 
a good supply of such books as Locke's 
"Human Understanding," Milton's "Par- 



116 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




BEV. JAMES A. BEOWN, D. D. 



adise Lost," aud in this class of litera- 
ture he at once found delight. 

A desire for a college education early 
possessed his mind, but from this his 
falher sought to dissuade him. With no 
encouragement or financial aid from 
home, he resolved to secure the coveted 
good, depending upon his own earnings 
for support. With this end in view, he 
went to Lancaster where, unassisted, he 
secured for himself the position of as- 
sistant principal of the High School, 
which position he filled for some time. 
On the 31st of December, 1840, he pur- 
chased at Lancaster a copy of Yalpy's 
Greek Grammar, and resolved thorough- 
ly to master its principles that he might 
become proficient in the Greek language. 
One year earlier he had begun the study 
of Latin, and after spending some time 
at the Mount Joy Institute, and the 
Emaus lustitute at Middletown, Pa., 
both teaching and at the same time pros- 
ecuting his studies in the languages, he 
readily acquired such proficiency as to 
enable him on the 5th of November, 
1841, to pass the examinations and gain 
admission to the senior class in Penn- 
sylvania College at Gettysburg, Pa., 



graduating with the class in 1842. Dur- 
ing the years which preceded, his diary 
clearly evinces his earnest interest in re- 
ligion, and during his year at college he 
connected himself with the Presbyterian 
church at Gettysburg, being received by 
baptism, December 19, 1841. 

In the month of August following his 
graduation from college an incident 
took place which was providentially 
overruled to turn his mind to the Gospel 
ministry. He had gone to a church in 
the country to attend services. The 
preacher failed to arrive, and the meet- 
ing was conducted by several persons 
who had some zeal and less knowledge. 
Their speaking so disgusted him that 
he went away grieved that the cause of 
Christ should be so miserably advocated. 
Recording the event in his diary, he 
says: "I felt an ardent desire this even- 
ing to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. 
Many are living and dying in their 
sins, and know not the riches of the 
salvation provided by a gracious Re- 
deemer." 

From October 22, 1842, to April 6, 
1843, he had charge of a select school 
at Leitersburg, Md., diligently employ- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



117 



ing his time in reading and study, tlie 
records of which were made in his 
journal in Latin. While engaged dur- 
ing 1843 with Rev. Mr. Carter at New 
Windsor, Md., in teaching, he acquired 
such a mastery of Hebrew as enabled 
him to read portions of the Old Testa- 
ment in the original. In the spring of 
1844 he was elected principal of the 
Academy at Darlington, Md., which 
position he held until the 12th of Sep- 
tember, 1845. On the 19th of October, 
1845, Mr. Brown was licensed at the 
convention of the Maryland Synod in 
the city of Washington. The following 
Sunday he preached his first sermon in 
Luther Chapel, now known as the 
Monument Street Lutheran Church of 
Baltimore, Md. On the 6th of Novem- 
ber he received a letter announcing his 
election as pastor, which he soon accept- 
ed, and entered upon his duties. He 
continued to serve this congregation 
until February 4th, 1848, when he left 
Baltimore to take charge of Zion's 
Lutheran Church at York, Pa. Here, 
as at Baltimore, he prosecuted his work 
with his characteristic energy and suc- 
cess. After a pastorate of something 
more than one year, he resigned to ac- 
cept a call to St. Matthew's, of Reading, 
Pa. 

During his ministry at York, Pa., he 
was married, on the 12th of September, 
1848, to Miss Mary E. Hay, daughter of 
Dr. Jacob Hay, of York, who, at the 
present writing, with six daughters and 
three sons, survives him. 

The ministry of Dr. Brown, in Read- 
ing, continued for nearly ten years, be- 
ing characterized by earnestness among 
his people, and fearlessness in his at- 
tacks upon every form of error and evil. 
In February, 1859, he left Reading to 
assume the duties of Professor of Theol- 
ogy and Ancient Languages in Newber- 
ry College, located at Newberry, S. C, 



and in 1860 he was elected president of 
the college in place of Dr. Theophilns 
Stork, who had resigned. Upon the 
breaking out of the civil war, the strong 
Union sentiments entertained by Dr. 
Brown were known by those who favored 
secession, and led them to orgaui/e 
a body of "minute men," who were to 
call and interview the Doctor, and if he 
should declare himself unfavorable to 
secession, they were to expel him from 
the state. Being apprised by a personal 
friend of the dauger which threatened 
him, "At live o'clock of the same day, 
when all the professors and students had 
assembled in the college chapel for the 
customary evening prayers. Dr. Brown, 
very pale, but with a look of firm deter- 
mination, arose and told the audience 
of the notice he had received, and said 
that he then and there would anticipate 
an interview on the part of a committee. 
He then said he was born in the Union, 
reared in the Union, and hoped to die 
in the Union; that his sympathies were 
unequivocally with the Federal govern- 
ment, and that he proposed to resigu as 
president of the college, return to his 
native state, and, if necessary, join the 
ranks in defense of the Union. This 
soon spread through the town, and the 
effect on the people was electric. Mr. 
Johnston, chancellor of the State of 
South Carolina, and a firm friend of Dr. 
Brown, fearing violence from the excited 
populace, offered to take him quietly to 
a small station nine miles from New- 
berry, and to send his family by the 
next train. Dr. Brown declined the 
offer. He said he had come to South 
Carolina openly and without fear, and 
he proposed to leave with his family in 
the same manner. Fortunately he was 
able to do this without any hostile dem- 
onstrations from the people. This inci- 
dent is not only an interesting episode 
in Dr. Brown's life, but serves also to 



118 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



show his fidelity to his convictions and 
the fearlessness of his character." * 

Keturning to Pennsylvania, Dr. Brown 
was appointed Chaplain of the 87th 
regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. Af- 
ter a period of fifteen months he re- 
signed and accepted the chaplaincy of 
the United States Army Hospital, at 
York, Pa. After two years of faithful 
service in this capacity, he was, in 
August, 1864, elected Professor of Di- 
dactic Theology, and Chairman of the 
Paculty in the Theological Seminary of 
the General Synod at Gettysburg, Pa. 
The duties of this office he discharged 
with marked ability and universal satis- 
faction to all friends of the Institution 
until December 9, 1879, when he was 
suddenly stricken down with paralysis, 
which deprived him of the power of 
speech and the use of his right arm. 
His resignation was tendered in June, 
1880, but was not accepted by the Board 
of Directors until the summer of 1881. 

In the year 1871 Dr. Brown and Rev. 
M. Valentine, D.D., began as joint edi- 
tors the publication of the Lutheran 
Quarterly, and after five years, because 
of the retirement of Dr. Valentine, on 
account of ill-health, Dr. Brown became 
the sole editor. In the spring of 1880 
the interests of the Quarterly were trans- 
ferred to Drs. M. Valentine, E. J. Wolf 
and P. M. Bikle. 

In the month of September, 1881, he 
removed with his family to Lancaster, 
Pa., locating in the midst of his old 
friends, and being near his son, J. Hay 
Brown, and his son-in-law, Robert M. 
Agnew, who were both practicing law 
in that city. After settling in Lancas- 
ter, there was some slight improvement 
in his condition, and although he was 
able to get about alone, yet his speech 

* Lutheran Quarterly, vol. XIII., p. 426. 



was only partially restored, as was also 
the use of his right hand. 

In the spring of 1882, after one or 
two slight relapses of his disease, on the 
morning of the 19th of June, surround- 
ed by his entire family, he passed quiet- 
ly to his rest. 

He was a man not above the medium 
hei.^ht. yet commanding in appearance, 
serious and thoughtful in manner, un- 
flinching in duty — a man of deep relig- 
ious conviction and Christian fidelity. 

Throughout his entire life Dr. Brown 
was a diligent student, and was never 
content until he had made himself thor- 
ough master of whatever he undertook. 
As a teacher, both in his earlier and 
later years, he was greatly admired by 
his pupils for his ability, and many 
were drawn to him in an enduring 
friendship. Beginning with his years 
before he entered college, and ouly end- 
ing with the loss of the power of speech, 
he was always an earnest and efficient 
advocate of every measure calculated to 
promote the cause of temperance. As a 
preacher, he was clear, logical and con- 
vincing. He seldom read from manu- 
script, but generally spoke without 
notes, and his audiences always listened 
with interest and lasting benefit. 

As a debater he had few equals, and 
it was on the floors ol a deliberative 
body that his greatest powers were 
called into action, and shown forth most 
conspicuously. In taking the floor he 
was neither first nor frequent, but when 
he did rise to speak, he seldom left any- 
thing further to be said in the advocacy 
of the cause he presented. It was these 
endowments which qualified and distin- 
guished him as a leader in the General 
Synod during the agitations which at- 
tended and followed the formation of 
the General Council. He was at various 
times elected president of different dis- 
trict synods, and in 1866 of the Port 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



119 



Wayne Convention of the General Synod. 
In 1859 Pennsylvania College conferred 
on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, 
and during the meeting of the General 
Synod in Wooster, Ohio, in 1879, the 
University of Wooster honored him 
with the title of Doctor of Laws. 

As Dr. Brown was a strong debater, 
so he was also a logical and lucid writer. 
The following is a list of the published 
productions of his pen : The Duty, Spirit, 
and Keward of the Christian Ministry: 
Synodical Sermon, 1854 Inaugural 
Address before the Directors of the 
Theological Seminary of South Carolina, 
1859. The New Theology, its Abettors 
and Defenders, Gettysburg, 1857. The 
Christian Sabbath: Sermon, 1869. The 
Apostolic Fathers, Ev. Kev. IV. 36. Jus- 
tin Martyr, lb., VI. 151. Inaugural Ad- 
dress, as Professor, in Gettysburg, lb., 
XXI. 557. The Poetry of the Bible, lb., 
XVI. 283. The Keformation the Work 
of God, lb., XVI. 1. Hoi man Lecture 
on the First Article of Augsburg Con- 
fession, lb., XVIIL 517. The General 
Synod and its Assailants, lb., XVIIL 
120. Second Advent and the Creeds of 
Christendom, Bib. Sacr., 1867. The 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the 
United States, lb., 1868. Christian An- 
thropology, American Presbyterian Kev., 
1869.. The Keview, Quarterly, Eev. L 1. 
Book of Worship, lb., 146. Union in 
the Lutheran Church, lb., I. 241. Papal 
Infallibility, lb., I. 585. Dr. Krauth's 
Metaphysics of the Lord's Supper, lb., 



11. 80. Dr. Hodge on the Lutheran 
Doctrine of the Person of Chiist, lb., 
II. 255. Exposition of 1 Corinthians, 
XV. 22, lb., IL 448. The Ministerium, 
lb.. III. 93. Conversion of the World 
to Christ, lb., IIL 161. Exegesis of 
Tit. ii. 13, lb., IIL 285. Angelology, 
lb., 374. Augsburg Confession and Sec- 
ond Coming of Christ, lb., IV. 52. Mer- 
cersburg Theology, lb., IV. 251; 443. 
Did the Apostles Expect the Second 
Coming of Christ in Their Day? lb., 
IV. 321. The Pietistic Controversy, lb., 

IV. 278. Tyndall's Address, lb., V. 68. 
Gladstone on the Vatican Decrees, lb., 

V. 128. Religious Opinions of J. Stuart 
Mill, lb., V. 279. Dr. Dale's Inquiry 
into the Use of Baptizn, lb., V. 321. The 
General Synod, lb., V. 591. The Work 
of the Review, lb., 604. Exegesis of 
Hebrew xii, 10, lb , V. 564. A Question 
in Church Polity, lb., VL 81. Lutheran 
Church Polity, lb., VI. 397. Lutheran 
Church Polity, lb., VII. 119. The El- 
dership of the New Testament, lb., VII, 
161. Public Libraries in the United 
States, lb., VIL 285. General Synod, 
lb., VIL 325. Theses on the Galesburg 
Rule, by Charles P. Krauth, lb., VIL 
595. The Allentown Church Case, Eb., 

VIII. 1. Use and Abuse of Denomina- 
tionalism, lb., VIII. 101. A Question 
Concerning the Augsburg Confession, 
lb., VIIL 161. Reply to the Lutheran 
Monograph of Drs. Krauth and Jacobs, 
lb., VIIL 621. The General Synod, lb., 

IX. 4:64:.— Stairs Year Book. 




REV. JAMES ANDREW BROWN. 



Rev. James Andrew Brown was born 
in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1816. 
He graduated at Gettysburg College 
in 1839, and attended the seminary 



in 1840 as a fellow-student with Dr. 
Passavant and others. He was pastor 
for forty years in his native county. Of 
late he has lived upon his farm taking 



120 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



a regular interest in church affairs and 
being in active fellowship with the S. 
W. Virginia Synod. By special ap- 
pointment he is writing up "Historical 
Sketches of Deceased Ministers?." Mr. 
Brown has under his control a scholar- 
ship fund provided by himself and wife 
for the education of students in the 
Gettysburg seminary, which secures an 
income of $200 annually. Several of 
the brightest young men of the Southern 
Church have attended the seminary on 
this fund. "Uncle Jimmie," as he is 
generally called by his large circle of 



familiar friends, is a man of modest 
worth who does not claim to be one of 
our prominent divines. He says that 
he has "never been more than a humble 
country parson;" but under God he has 
done much good in the course of a 
ministerial service of 47 years. Next to 
"Father" Bhudy he is the oldest minis- 
ter in S. W. V. Synod, and is one of the 
patriarchs of the United Synod with 
Father Bothrock, Chaplain Balles, Drs. 
Muller and Campbell, and Father 
Margart. 




BEV. B. S. BBOWN. 



Bev. B. S. Brown was born in Bowan 
County, North Carolina, on the 19th of 
November, 1854. In 1875 he was grad- 
uated at Boanoke College, Virginia. 
The following three years he studied 
theology in the Evangelical Lutheran 
Theological Seminary at Salem, Va., 
graduating in the spring of 1878. After 
his course at the seminary, he accepted 
a call to the pastorate of a charge in the 
state of Mississippi, which he served 
for two years. In 1880 he resigned his 
charge in Mississippi to accept a call 
from a church at China Grove, N. C, 
at which place he labored successfully 
for six years. Then he removed to 



Hickory, N. C, where he served a 
charge for one year, when he was obliged 
to withdraw from the active ministry on 
account of poor health. After a year's 
rest, his health having improved, he 
again resumed the active work of the 
gospel ministry, accepting a call from 
the well-known old historic Lutheran 
church in Madison county, Va. In this 
church, which is connected with the 
Virginia Synod, he has labored for the 
two last years. Mr. Brown is a fre- 
quent contributor to the various period- 
icals of the Lutheran Church published 
in the South. 




BEV. PETEB BBUNNHOLTZ. 

Peter Brunnholtz was born at Nubul, which he had undertaken in Pennsyl- 



a village in the principality of Gluck- 
burg, in the Duchy of Schleswig. He 
was a candidate for the ministry when 
Muhlenberg sent back to Germany for 
aid in the grand missionary enterprise 



vania; and he was selected by the theo- 
logical faculty at Halle, with the cordial 
approval of all who were acquainted 
with his qualifications as a suitable 
person to occupy that responsible po- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



121 



sition. He had laid a good foundation 
in the study of theology at the Uni- 
versity, and had already had some prac- 
tical acquaintance with the duties to 
which he had consecrated his life. He 
had labored in the capacity of a minister 
of the gospel for some time, on the 
estate of a Christian nobleman, and had 
given good proof of both his ability and 
fidelity. When the call from the United 
States was tendered him by Dr. Francke 
of Halle, he took the matter into most 
serious consideration, as a great question 
of duty, and finally became convinced 
that it was a call from Providence which 
he had no right to decline. According- 
ly, after being duly examined, he was 
ordained on the 12th of April, 1744, by 
the Consistorium at Wernigerode, in 
the chapel of the castle of that place. 
He immediately made preparations for 
his departure, and, with Messrs. Kurtz 
and Schaum as eateehists, passed over to 
England and embarked for this country 
at Gravesend, on the 29th of November 
following. After a protracted and tem- 
pestuous passage they reached Philadel- 
phia on the 26th of January, 1745. 
Their arrival, as soon as it was known, 
occasioned great joy. A German, com- 
ing from the forest, and not knowing 
who the strangers were, approached 
them as they were passing from the 
vessel into the city, and enquired 
whether no Evangelical preachers had 
come to supply their spiritual wants; 
and the answer was received with the 
most heart felt satisfaction. They very 
soon found themselves among their 
brethren of the same faith in Phila- 
delphia, from whom they received a 
most cordial welcome to their field of 
labor. The intelligence was immediate- 
ly conveyed by a special messenger to 
Pastor Muhlenberg, who was at that 
time serving his charge in the country. 
Between him and Mr. Brunnholtz there 
16 



existed ever after the most intimate 
friendship, so that the latter, after he 
had become so feeble as to be scarcel}; 
able to labor, was wont to say that he 
would ''retire and live as an emeritus 
with Muhlenberg." 

Pastor Brunnholtz was appointed sec- 
ond minister in the churches in which 
Dr. Muhlenberg had hitherto labored 
alone, — namely, Philadelphia, German- 
town, Providence, and New Hanover. 
They not only jointly performed ser- 
vice for these four congregations, but 
they occasionally visited other places in 
the region where they saw that there 
was a prospect of doing good. And 
they were enabled to do this with the 
greater ease, from the fact that Messrs. 
Schaum and Kurtz, who had taken 
charge of schools, — the former in Phila- 
delphia, the latter in New Hanover, — 
had also become their assistants in 
preaching. 

After the lapse of a few months Dr. 
Muhlenberg assumed the more laborious 
stations, whilst Philadelphia and Ger- 
man town were assigned to Pastor 
Brunnholtz, as his more immediate 
charge, in consequence of his physical 
inability to discharge the duties con- 
nected with a residence in the country. 
He lived in Philadelphia, and preached, 
on alternate Sabbaths, morning and 
afternoon, at Germantown. In 1751 he 
resigned his charge of the Germantown 
church to the Rev. Mr. Handschuch, 
and gave his whole time to the congre- 
gation in Philadelphia, although he 
frequently preached at other stations. 
He continued in this charge till the 
close of life, eminently faithful and use- 
ful, and greatly beloved not only by his 
own congregation, but by the com- 
munity at large. He closed his earthly 
pilgrimage on the 7th of July, 1758, 
after an illness which had confined him 
to his bed for three months. In his 



122 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAH BIOGEAPHIES. 



last hours he was perfectly composed, 
having full confidence that it would be 
gain for him to die. His associate in 
the ministry, Mr. Handschuch, makes 
the following record of his last visit to 
his death-bed: 

"July 5th, at 2 o'clock A. M., I was 
called to Pastor Brunnholtz. He wish- 
ed to speak, but could not utter a loud 
word. With deep sorrow I cast myself 
upon my knees, and prayed long and 
fervently. When I arose, I asked him 
whether he had understood all, to 
which he nodded assent. In a few 
moments he sank in the embrace of 
death, amid my renewed and most affec- 
tionate supplications." 

His funeral was attended by an im- 
mense throng from both city and 
country, among which were several pro- 
fessors of the academy (15 in number), 
and the ministers of all the churches. 
Provost Parlin, of the Swedish Luth- 
eran Church, had been requested to 
preach the funeral sermon, but was pre- 
vented by illness from performing the 
service. Both Dr. Muhlenberg and 
Pastor Handschuch were so deeply 
affected by this bereavement that 
neither of them was willing to under- 
take the painful duty. William Kurtz, 
then a student of theology, by request, 
delivered a discourse on the occasion, 
after wliich Dr. Muhlenberg thanked 
the English portion of the congregation 
for the respect they had shown to the 
dead, and then, according to custom, re- 
conducted the funeral procession to the 
house of mourning. 

Mr. Brunnholtz was never married. 



His library he bequeathed to the church, 
and whatever funds remained after the 
settlement of his estate, and the pay- 
ment of some legacies, were to be ex. 
pended in the procuring of a room near 
the church in which his library might 
be preserved. He had, however, been 
so liberal in the use of his property 
during his life-time, that he left but 
little behind him. 

All tradition agrees in representing 
Mr. Brunnholtz as a man of distinguish- 
ed moral worth, and of extraordinary 
devotednoss to the cause of Christ. He 
was modest and unassuming, but most 
inflexible in his adherence to duty. 
His preaching was simple, instructive, 
practical, experimental, and sometimes 
deeply solemn and pungent. He had 
no taste for controversy, and never 
went out of his way to attack those who 
differed from him, while yet he never 
hesitated, from the fear of giving offence, 
to bring out what he believed to be the 
full meaning of his text. He was fond 
of quoting from the writings of Luther, 
in proof of his own positions. He was 
particularly faithful in the duty of 
pastoral visitation, and by this means 
kept himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the spiritual condition of his flock. 
He was also specially interested in the 
religious instruction of the young, and, 
while he secured their confidence and 
affection, he was instrumental, as a 
good shepherd, of bringing many of 
them into the heavenly fold. In short, 
he seems to have been a model of a 
good minister of Jesus Christ. — Sprague. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



123 



KEY. FEEDINAND F. BUERMEYER, A. M. 



Ready writing is not always thought- 
ful writing, but readers of the Lutheran 
Church Review will bear testimony to the 
fact that the articles proceeding from 
the pen of the Rev. Mr. Buermeyer are 
marked alike by literary finish and vig- 
orous logic. Their author is "a citizen 
of no mean city," having been born in 
New York, April 13, 1846. Catechized 
by the Rev. Dr. Stohlmann and educated, 
in part, in the New York Free Academy 
(now the College of the City of New 
York). He spent five precious years at 
Hartwick Seminary, under the special 
care of Rev. G. B. Miller, D. D., whose 
ripe scholarship, earnest piety, and ad- 
mirable faculty of imparting knowledge 
were of inestimable value to the eager 
student of divine truth. 

The years 1868 to 1871 were spent at 
the Philadelphia Theological Seminary. 
After ordination, Buermeyer spent two 
ytars in Germany, partly studying Ger- 
man and theology with Consistorial 
Rath F. W.*Munchmeyer, of Hanover, 
and at Leipsic and Erlangen, and partly 
traveling through Germauy making 
church life his chief object. 

His pastoral activity has been confined 
to two fields: St. John's English Luth- 
eran Church, Wilkesbarre, Pa., which 
he founded; and the Church of the 
E piphany, then a mission of Holy Trin- 
ity, New York, to which he was called 
in 1882. 



At Wilkesbarre he was professor of 
German at the Young Ladies' Seminary 
and also at Kingston Seminary, a prom- 
inent Methodist institution. 

Favorite studies of his are English 
and German literature and natural his- 
tory, but the lines along which he has 
done his best work are sacred music, 
liturgies, church history, and apologetics. 
His refined taste and correct judgment 
in things ecclesiastical have received 
recognition in several ways. The musi- 
cal editing of the Sunday-school book 
of the General Council and of the Sun- 
day-school Service Book of the General 
Synod South were committed to him. 
For several years he has served as a 
member of the "Church Book" commit- 
tee, which deals with church forms and 
largely settles the liturgical usage of 
our church in the English language. 

He has written a few hymns of merit. 
To the Lutheran he contributed a long 
series of popular articles on the church 
history, and some papers on liturgies; 
to the Workman vavions sketches; and to 
the Church Review many trenchant arti- 
cles on Christian Evidence and English 
Church History, aimed on the one hand 
at the arrogance of infidelity, and on the 
other at the pretentiousness of Anglican 
High Churchism. 

In 1887 he was married to Miss Hanna 
E. Ladd, of Wilkesbarre, Pa. 



REV. PROF. L. E. BUSBY, A. M. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
of humble but rigidly honest parentage, 
in the upper part of Lexington District, 
South Carolina, September 5th, 1849. 



The education of his childhood's years 
was limited, owing to the meager ad- 
vantages afforded by neighborhood 
schools. He was early inured to hard 



124 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



work in farm and shop, until, at the 
age of sixteen years, he entered upon 
his literary studies preparatory to a 
college course. His progress was rapid, 
and in the fall of 1872 he entered the 
Sophomore class of Newberry College, 
then located at Walhalla, S. 0. In 
June, 1875, h>e received his diploma of 
graduation. Having been impressed 
for several years with the duty of 
preaching the gospel, he entered the 
Evangelical Lutheran Theological Sem- 
inary at Salem, Ya., in October, 1875. 
The full theological course of three years 
was completed in May, 1878. During 
the summer vacations at the seminary 
his services were employed by the Luth- 
eran congregations in Giles County, Ya. 
These services were eminently product- 
ive of good, and so well pleased were 
his parishioners that they insisted upon 
his visiting them once each month dur- 
ing his last session at the seminary, and 
preaching for them. On the completion 
of his seminary course he was employed 
by the S. W. Ya. Synod as its mission- 
ary for four months. On June 20th 
of this year he was united in holy wed- 
lock with Miss S. A. Goode, daughter of 
Jno. Goode, Esq., of Craig County, Ya. 
Eeeling it his duty to offer his first ser- 
vices to his own (South Carolina) 
Synod, he attended the meeting of that 
Synod, held in the fall of 1878 at Mt. 
Pleasant Church, Barnwell County, S. 
C, and, after an examination by the 
committee, was solemnly ordained to 
the office of the Holy Ministry. He 
accepted the call extended by Pastorate 
14, of the South Carolina Synod, made 
vacant by the resignation of Eev. E. 
Caughman. A casual survey of the 
field produced misgivings. Many feat- 
ures of the work were uninviting; the 
territory was very large, comprising an 
area of twenty miles from the center of 
the pastorate, and embracing parts of 



Lexington, Aiken, and Edgefield Coun- 
ties; the people were poor, and not uni- 
fied in church work; and the intellect- 
ual condition of the people forbade the 
hope of exalting the churches to a com- 
manding position among the denom- 
inations. Fully convinced that the 
people must be educated before they 
could be expected to appreciate the 
doctrines of the Church, or be stable in 
their defence, he at once set to work to 
establish a school. A host of dis- 
couragements confronted him; apathy, 
former failures on the part of other 
teachers, denominational jealousy and 
opposition, ignorance of the masses, 
poverty of the people, limited number 
of church members, etc., etc., all these, 
and many others, presented themselves 
But amid them all he established the 
Leesville English and Classical Insti- 
tute, which for thirteen sessions has 
stood as the proud monument of his in- 
domitable energy, unceasing labor, and 
personal sacrifice. The reputation of 
the institute for thorough work, unex- 
celled methods, and excellent discipline, 
is as wide as the state, hundreds of 
young men and ladies having attended 
the institution. From the beginning 
of his labors in his pastorate to the 
present he has asked for but two limit- 
ed vacations. For all these years he 
has taught five days and preached from 
two to three sermons per week. 

One thine: may be confidently stated — 
his pulpit work has never suffered by 
reason of his school duties. Conscien- 
tious in the one as he is in the other, 
he has endeavored unselfishly to make 
both minister to the best interests of 
the people. His efforts have not al- 
ways been appreciated. They have 
sometimes been misunderstood; at other 
times they have met with stubborn op- 
position. Notwithstanding all this, the 
attendance upon his pulpit ministrations 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



125 



has always been large and enthusiastic; 
and his school work continues to receive 
the approval and patronage of many of 
the best people of the state. 

In his preaching he is plain, practical, 
and pungent; fearless in denouncing 
wrong-doing and error; persuasive in 
urging men to a better life; enthusiastic 
in the defence of the Gospel. 

Thoroughly in love with his people, 



and recognizing that others might be 
deterred by reason of the obstacles in 
the way from accepting the work, 
should he vacate it, he has repeatedly 
refused better salaries and more in- 
viting fields elsewhere. He is yet in 
the prime of life, and bids fair to devote 
many years to the cause to which he 
has consecrated his life. 




KEY. JOHN E. BUSHNELL, A. M. 



Ivev. John Eiclielberger Bustinell, 
A. M., of Boanoke, Ya., was born in Win- 
chester, Ya., Oct. 11, 1856, baptized in 
infancy by Pastor A. Essick, and con- 
firmed in 1869 by Bev. Dr. T. W. Dosh. 
Though left an orphan at an early age, 
bis guardian gave due attention to his 
primary training. He attended the Shen- 
andoah Yalley Academy under A. Magill 
Smith, and spent five years in business 
at Winchester and Staunton. In 1874 
he entered Boanoke College, and gradu- 
ated in 1878, taking the medal in logic 
and metaphysics. He is an ex-student 



of Yale, and graduate of the Lutheran 
Theological Seminary. He is a de- 
scendant, on the paternal side, of the 
first settlers of Say brook, Conn., and a 
grandson of Bev. Lewis Eichelberger, 
D. D., Professor in the Southern Theo- 
logical Seminary. Dr. Eichelberger left 
a valuable manuscript "History of the 
Lutheran Church," which his grandson 
expects to publish soon. 

Mr. Bushnell married, Oct. 15, 1885, 
Miss Annie Terrill, daughter of the late 
Dr. Geo. P. Terrill, of Salem, Ya. His 
wife is a woman of rare Christian graces. 



126 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



He served the Churcli in South. Caro- 
lina three years with marked success. 
While there he wrote a tract on "Bap- 
tism," which was well received by the 
press and highly commended by repre- 
sentative scholars in his own and other 
denominations. The Lutheran said: "A 
great deal of very solid and profitable 
matter concerning Baptism is compressed 
into this tract. It discusses the Nature 
and Necessity of Baptism, the True Mode 
of its Administration and its fit subjects." 
The Standard said: "The author through- 
out shows that he has studied Scriptures 
and Confessions on this important 
subject." 

In 1885 he accepted a unanimous call 
to serve as pastor of St. Mark's Church, 
Roanoke, Ya. It was in his church that 
many Lutheran ministers and delegates 
were assembled in June, 1886, and organ- 
ized the United Synod, a general body 
in which the Synods in the Southern 
States are now bound together. Pastor 
Bushnell used the robe and successfully 
introduced the Common Service as soon 
as published. The membership increased 
from about forty to a well-organized con- 
gregation of over three hundred. Its 
record for systematic benevolence, in 
which Christian giving has been a mat- 
ter of worship rather than social enter- 
tainment, is unsurpassed in the United 
Synod. The synodical apportionment 
for 1890 was $1,582, in addition to local 
expenses. As a result of the missionary 
activity of the congregation we have the 
Second Lutheran Church, Boanoke, and 
St. James Church, Yinton, a suburban 
village. The demands for his services 
outside of the parish, and the frequent 
favorable mention of his work by the 
secular and religious press, attest his 
growing popularity. The public-spirited 
efforts of Mr. Bushnell to promote the 
moral and spiritual advancement of Boa- 
noke have been forcibly felt. His genial 



and pleasant manner won the warm 
friendship of the people. He was assisted 
in 1888 by licentiate C. A. Miller, now pas- 
tor College Church, Salem, and after- 
wards by licentiate J. A. B, Scherer, now 
pastor Woman's Memorial, Pulaski. In 
1890 a call was extended Rev. J. A. Huf- 
fard, Blacksburg, to serve as assistant 
with special reference to mission inter- 
ests of the congregation. At this junc- 
ture the large brick building erected in 
1883 was condemned, and an elegant 
stone church, with Sunday-school chapel, 
is being built on the old site. 

A call to the important and respon- 
sible duties of Synodical Missioner was 
accepted Oct. 1, and Mr. Bushnell will 
devote time and talents to this general 
work in a territory where cities are 
springing up on every side. Having 
been intimately associated as a co-work- 
er in South Carolina and Yirginia, the 
writer is prepared to say that as a pastor 
Mr. Bushnell has few superiors. The 
genius of tireless and well directed labor 
has been the secret of his success. 
Generous in disposition and devoted to 
his high calling he prefers others in 
honor above him, and has largely influ- 
enced several young men to enter the 
ministry. Ministering to the poor and 
needy, the sick and afflicted, the widow 
and the orphan he exemplified the Gos- 
pel of Christ. As a preacher he is prac- 
tical, fluent, forcible, and magnetic, cap- 
tivating in style, happy in illustration, 
and abundant in scriptural reference. 
Though just reaching middle-life he has 
already made his mark and is a "brother, 
whose praise is in the gospel through- 
out all the churches." Five thousand 
copies of his tract on "Consecrated Giv- 
ing" have been used by pastors in al- 
most every synod and denomination. 
Dr. Yan Dyke, who has a book on this 
subject, says: "I have read with great 
pleasure and profit your very admirable 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



127 



tract, entitled ' Consecrated Giving and 
Social Gratification.' It meets bravely 
and heroically denounces an evil that 
calls most loudly for rebuke." Dr. B. 
M. Schmucker said in his literary notes : 
"It is simple, direct, earnest, and practi- 
cal, and well adapted to do good if gen- 
erally distributed. It deals with a great 
need and a great weakness." Among 
the publications which have been used 
by the National Bureau of Education is 
a reprint on "Christian Education," 
written for Quarterly Review, and a pam- 
phlet of more recent date, "Child Saving 
Institutions," concerning which Supt. 
Berkemier, of the Wartburg Home, says: 
"It is the best thing of its kind in circu- 
lation." Mr. Letch worth, chairman of 
the New York State Board of Charities, 
also commends it in high terms. 

Mr. Bushnell is Vice-President of the 
South- Western Virginia Synod, Chair- 
man United Committee Sunday-school 
literature, member International Sun- 
day-school Executive Committee, First 
Vice-President Virginia Sunday-school 



Union, Secretary South View Orphan 
Home Board, and has recently been 
elected Mission Editor for Our Church 
Paper, 

The author desires to add that Mr. 
Bushnell kindly prepared a number of 
interesting sketches for this work, be- 
sides writing the valuable Introduction. 
His address on "Union in Labor and 
Love" at the great Penn-Mar Reunion, 
where fully 18,000 Lutherans congre- 
gated Sept. 3, 1890, was so generally 
commended that it deserves mention in 
connection with his anniversary address 
on "Deaconess Work" at the Mary J. 
Drexel Home and Deaconess Mother 
house, Philadelphia, Oct. 2. The Gospel 
Echo published this address, and said: 
"It is rich in thought, elegant in diction, 
and creditable alike to the head and 
heart of its gifted author. We com- 
mend it to the notice of our readers, 
and send it forth with the earnest prayer 
that it may prove a benediction to the 
whole church." — J. A. Huffard. 



REV. JOHN GEORGE BUTLER. 



Rev. John George Butler was born in 
Philadelphia in the year 1754, and at 
the age of two years was left an orphan. 
He was taken in charge, however, by 
kind friends, and the pastor of the 
German church, of which his mother 
had been a member, was especially at- 
tentive to his interests and watchful for 
opportunities to impress upon his mind 
the great truths of religion. Under this 
favorable influence he grew up in the 
fear of God, and, while he was yet quite 
young, became an exemplary professor 
of religion. 

When he had reached a suitable age 
he was apprenticed to a potter, and he 



continued in this business until his ser- 
vices were called for in the Revolution- 
ary War. Deeply interested in the 
great principles involved in the contest, 
he cheerfully took the field in their de- 
fence; but he carried his religion with 
him into the army, and never shrank 
from avowing his Christian principles or 
performing his religious duties. On one 
occasion he gave great offence to the 
captain of the company to which he be- 
longed by administering to him a rebuke 
for his profaneness. Indeed, he may be 
said to have made his beginning in 
preaching while he was in the army. 
The subject of religion seemed always 



128 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



uppermost in his thoughts, and he was 
ready to take advantage of any op- 
portunity to impress it upon the minds 
of all those with whom he was asso- 
ciated. 

He left the army after a brief term of 
service, and commenced a regular course 
of theological study under the direction 
of his pastor, the Eev. Dr. Helmuth. In 
the latter part of 1779, or the beginning 
of 1780, he was licensed to preach by 
the Synod of Pennsylvania, and soon 
after took charge of the Lutheran 
church at Carlisle and others in the 
vicinity. Carlisle was at that time a 
frontier village, and the Lutheran 
Church, scattered and feeble, was only 
a field for missionary operations. Mr. 
Butler began his labors here under a 
deep sense of the magnitude and diffi- 
culty of the work that was devolved up- 
on him, and he went forward, nothing 
daunted by poverty, opposition and 
hardships of various kinds, to the per- 
formance of it. He was subsequently 
pastor of a Lutheran church at Ship- 
pensburg, and was also, for a time, em- 
ployed in visiting destitute portions of 
the Church in the western part of the 
state, dispersed in the territory now 
known as Huntington, Blain, Somerset 
and Bedford Counties. He made many 
journeys as missionary of the Synod, 
gathering the scattered members of the 
church, establishing congregations, cat- 
echising the young, preaching the Word, 
and administering the Sacraments. 

We next find the devoted minister of 
the Gospel in the state of Virginia, ex- 
ploring the waste places and distributing 
the bread of life among the destitute. 
He was annually commissioned by the 
Synod of Pennsylvania to travel through 
the western part of Virginia and Ten- 
nessee, to stop for a time wherever 
there was a prospect of being specially 
useful, to catechise and confirm the 



young, to distribute copies of the Bible 
and of the Hymn Book, of which he 
usually carried a large supply, and to 
organize congregations wherever it was 
practicable. He made Botetourt County 
his headquarters, but he was constantly 
engaged in missionary labors. His 
several appointments, which were gen- 
erally made a year in advance, were met 
with the utmost punctuality. As an 
illustration of his conscientious exact- 
ness in this respect, it is related of him 
that he has been known to ride upon a 
pillow placed on his saddle, rather than 
disappoint those who he knew had as- 
sembled for a religious service. He 
displayed great moral heroism in resist- 
ing the current of iniquity, and especial- 
ly in opposing intemperance, which 
was then the predominating vice in 
that part of the country. He seems, in 
his ministrations, to have lost sight of 
every other consideration save the will 
of his Master and the salvation of the 
souls for whom he labored. 

In 1805 Mr. Butler removed to Cum- 
berland, Md. The congregation in that 
place was organized in 1794, and was 
occasionally visited by members of the 
Pennsylvania Synod, but it had no reg- 
ular pastor until Mr. Butler took charge 
of it. He brought the whole vigor of 
his faculties and affections to this work 
here, and, as a result of his faithful 
labors, a large number were added to 
the church. 

Mr. Butler continued to labor up to 
the full measure of his ability till the 
close of his life. He evinced the most 
glowing zeal, the strongest confidence in 
God, the most intense desire to witness 
the progress of truth and righteousness; 
in short, everything that enters into the 
idea of the highest spirituality, until the 
Master whom he had served called him 
to his reward. His devoted life was 
crowned by a triumphant death, on the 



AMEBICAK LUTHERAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



129 



12th of December, 1816, in the sixty- 
third year of his age. 

Mr. Butler was married in early life 
to Catherine Miller, of Philadelphia, and 
was the father of six children — four 
sons and two daughters, all of whom be- 
came members of the Church. The 



youngest son, a devoted and worthy 
Elder and Superintendent of the Sab- 
bath School, was the father of the Rev. 
Dr. J. G. Butler, pastor of the Memorial 
Lutheran Church in Washington, D. C. 
— Sprague. 




REV. JOHN GEORGE BUTLER, Ph.D., D.D. 



John George Butler, Ph. D., D. D., was 
born among the mountains of Western 
Maryland, in the then village of Cumber- 
land, in 1826. In the cemetery of that 
mountain town lies buried his grand- 
father. Rev. John George Butler, an old 
Lutheran pioneer, with an immense field, 
reaching into Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania; and a preacher in both English 
and German, who was marked by his 
piety and aggressive scripturalness. 

The father and mother of the John 
George of io-day were members of the 
Lutheran church, — noted for their un- 
bounded hospitality, and the catholicity 
of their faith, always cheerfully helping, 
in their humble way, church planting 
and Christian work of their own and of 
17 



other households of faith. Their chil- 
dren were carefully taught and trained 
in the ways of God, and were accus- 
tomed to the morning and evening wor- 
ship at the family altar. The father 
was a country merchant, the friend and 
helper of the poor, having the love of 
the whole region in an unusual degree, 
an anti-slavery man in what was then 
one of the slave states. 

The subject of this sketch received his 
preparatory education in the academy of 
the town. While managing a store for 
his father in Berlin, Pa., he connected 
himself publicly with the church of that 
village, of which the late Rev. Jesse 
Winecoff was pastor. For about two 
years he lived in the family of Mr. 



130 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Winecoff, pursuing study privately. His 
first efforts at preaching were in and 
around Berlin. In 1846 lie entered 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, as an 
irregular and unclassified student, recit- 
ing principally with the Juniors; and at 
the end of the year he entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary there. In 1849, before 
the completion of the short course of 
study, he was called to St. Paul's Church, 
of Washington, D. C, in which city his 
entire ministry has been spent, and 
where he is now pastor of the Luther 
Place Memorial Church. He says, to 
his friends, that the best part of his edu- 
cation was obtained in his father's store, 
in which he learned to know human na- 
ture, the value and use of money, and 
formed prompt, reliable business habits. 

In 1849 when the young pastor settled 
in Washington, St. Paul's Church was 
in a deplorable condition. It had been 
planted but a few years before as a mis- 
sion by the Synod of Maryland, and had 
a series of misfortunes which left the 
church building heavily mortgaged, and 
with but a "handful" of people, who 
paid the young pastor $400 a year. For 
a number of years there was a struggle 
for life. 

In 1860, at the opening of our civil 
war, Mr. Butler declared himself square- 
ly for the government and against seces- 
sion. Some of his people left him, but 
others ■ rallied around him and the 
church grew. The chaplaincy of the 
5th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
was tendered him and he accepted it, 
his duties being chiefly in and around 
Washington and not interfering with 
his pastoral work. Soon after, President 
Lincoln named him as a hospital chap- 
lain, the sick and wounded now gather- 
ing in large numbers in the Capital; 
and in this capacity he served to the 
close of the war. He was assigned to 
the hospitals in which, with the "boys 



in blue," the sick and wounded of the 
Southern army also found the tenderest 
care. After the surrender at Appomat- 
tox, St. Paul's Church being now full to 
overflowing, the thought of Lutheran 
enlargement came. The Church of the 
Reformation, now served by the Rev. 
W. E. Parson, D. D., was planted as a 
little seed, which has grown encourag- 
ingly. After that the Memorial Church, ^ 
— A Memorial of God's goodness in deliver- 
ing the land frcm slavery and from war, — 
was projected. This memorial occupies 
the most conspicuous church site in the 
city, and stands among the most capa- 
cious and picturesque of the church edi- 
fices in the Capital. In 1873 St. Paul's 
was resigned, and the old pastor organ- 
ized the new Memorial congregation, 
now grown to great helpfulness in the 
work of the kingdom of God. Since 
1884 the colossal statue of Luther, a du- 
plicate of the central figure in the cele- 
brated Worms Group, stands in front of 
the Memorial Church. 

In 1867 Rev. Mr. Butler was elected 
Chaplain of the House of Representa- 
tives, in which position he continued 
during the 41st, 42d and 43d Congresses. 
In 1868 he received the honorary degree 
of Doctor of Divinity from Pennsyl- 
vania College. For many years he has 
been teaching in the Theological De- . 
partment of Howard University, Wash- 
ington, having charge of Church His- 
tory and Homiletics. In 1886 Dr. Butler 
was elected Chaplain to the Senate of 
the United States, a position which he 
still holds. 

Though he has already celebrated the 
40th anniversary of his continuous pas- 
torate in Washington, h*^ is still in his 
usual vigor. But, amid his multiplying 
labors, he has during the past year as- 
sociated with him, in his pulpit and 
pastoral work, his son, Rev. C. H. Butler. 
The Lutheran Free Infirmary for the 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



131 



treatment of diseases of the eye, ear and 
throat, was founded in the Memorial 
Church during 1889; it is in charge of 
Dr. W. K. Butler, the pastor's elder son. 

For many years he has been the 
weekly correspondent of the Lutheran 
Observer, and the frequent correspondent 
of the Lutheran Evangelist, and of other 
papers, secular and religious. 

In preaching his method is wholly ex- 
temporaneous, using neither manuscript 
nor notes; and his pulpit ministrations 
are marked by scripturalness, earnest- 
ness and simplicity. In a word, he en- 



deavors to apply the gospel to the every- 
day needs of men. And his labors, to 
judge of their result, have been accepted 
and blessed of God. He is greatly be- 
loved by his own people, as well as by a 
wide circle of friends in other churches 
and in the city at large. 

Ecclesiastically he may be called low 
church in his views, and is classed as an 
advanced General Synod man, hoping, 
working and praying for the ultimate 
union of all parts of the now divided 
Lutheran Church in the United States. 

C. H. B. 




KEY. JOHN CAMPANIUS. 



A company of emigrants from Sweden 
with Lieutenant-Colonel John Printz, 
under appointment as governor of New 
Sweden, and Magister John Campanius 
(Holm) as Government Chaplain and 
pastor of the congregation, came over in 
1642. Three vessels conveyed the 
heroic and devout band, and it required 
six months to make the voyage. — Wolf's 
"The Lutherans in America.''' 

Pastor Campanius labored not only 
with enlightened zeal and marked 
efficiency over the little congregation 
with whose spiritual oversight he was 
charged, but he took a deep Christian 
interest in the welfare of the nations. 
He maintained "a constant intercourse 
with the wild people," and applied him- 
self eagerly to the mastery of their lan- 
guage, for which his scientific attain- 
ments stood him in good stead, in the 
hope that he might thus be able to pro- 
claim in their own tongue the wonderful 
works of God. "His intimacy with the 
neighboring tribes and their several 
chiefs was promoted by the successive 
governors of the colony; and with the 



simplicity and tenderness of one who 
is dealing with babes he unfolded to 
them the great mystery of the Gospel," 
and succeeded by patient assiduity in 
making them understand many of its 
cardinal truths. 

If these missionary efforts of Cam- 
panius did not precede those of Eliot in 
Roxbury, they were at least contempora- 
neous with them, and Lutherans share the 
glory of being among the first Protestant 
missionaries to the Indians. Certainly in 
Pennsylvania they w^ere the first; and be- 
fore any literary undertaking of the kind 
received attention elsewhere, Campanius 
conceived the difficult task of trans- 
lating Luther'^s Small Catechism into the 
Delaware language. Through some un- 
accountable delay in the printing of 
this work at Upsala, it did not appear 
until some time after the publication, in 
1661, of Eliot's translation of the New 
Testament into the Mohegan dialect; 
but the work of translation preceded it 
by some ten or fifteen years, and the in- 
imitable catechism of the Lutheran Church 
was beyond question the first Protestant 



132 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



book to be translated into a heathen tongue. 
— Wolf's ''The Lutherans in America." 

The Eev. John Campanms Holmensis 
only remained six years, during which 
time, however, he was very zealous in 
learning the nature of the country and 
the language of its heathen inhabitants. 
During all this time he had constant 
intercourse wdth the wild people,- for 
there is still a tradition that he traveled 



up into the interior among them, and so 
went by land home to Sweden — a tra- 
dition which shows how soon the well- 
known and well-established facts of 
history may be forgotten. From his 
journal it is seen that he sailed from 
Elfsborg, in New Sweden, on the 18th 
of May, and reached Stockholm on the 
3d of July, 1648, an uncommonly quick 
voyage. — Aerelius' History of New Sweden, 




EEY. EELAND CAELSSON, D. D. 



Eev. Erland Carlsson was born in 
Suletorp, Sweden, on the 24th of August, 
1822. His parents were Carl Jonsson 
and Stina. At the age of six years he 
was sent to an old Christian widow for 
the purpose of learning to read. After 
having spent a few weeks with the pious 
lady, and made a fair beginning at read- 
ing, he returned home, where, under the 
direction of his parents, his instruction 
was continued. When ten years old he 
lost his father, and the training of the 
children devolved upon the mother, who 
was a religious and very strict woman. 
While she was sitting at her sewing or 



spinning wheel in the evenings the chil- 
dren were wont to recite their lessons, 
which usually consisted of passages from 
scripture, hymns, etc., and Eev. Carlsson, 
in speaking of his childhood, often says 
that he considers himself under special 
obligations to God and his parents for 
the numerous Bible-passages and hymns 
which he learned at the home-fireside, 
and which he has ever regarded as in- 
valuable treasures through life. At his 
confirmation and first communion, Pen- 
tecost, 1838, he experienced a thorough 
change of heart, and simultaneously with 
his conversion awoke a strong desire in 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



133 



his heart to devote himself to the minis- 
try of the gospel. Owing especially to 
his lack of means to carry him through 
a regular course, both his parents and 
the pastors whom he consulted, tried to 
dissuade him from the notion of becom- 
ing a minister; but young Erland took 
this holy ambition to be the work of 
God's spirit upon his youthful heart, and 
he had just enough faith in his Heaven- 
ly Father to make a beginning in the 
direction He had so manifestly indicated, 
and trusted in the Ijord to provide for 
the coming days. 

On the 25th of March, 1839, he began 
private instruction under the curate 
Rev. J. P. Hultbring, where he, together 
with Carl Johan Fovelin, remained for 
two years studying Latin, Greek, history, 
geography and mathematics. In the 
spring of 1842 Mr. Carlsson removed to 
Lenhofda, where he received for some 
time private instruction in German and 
French. Later he was assisted in the 
study of Greek, Hebrew and the higher 
mathematics by the curate Rev. Fredrik 
Thelander, who had just completed his 
course at the Upsala University. In 
September, 1843, he entered Lund's Uni- 
versity, whence he graduated with 
honors in the spring of 1848. 

In April, 1849, he received a call from 
Vexio and Lessebo, where, besides his 
regular pastoral duties, he was also to 
serve as tutor for the sons of the Count- 
ess Carie Cederstrom. After due con- 
sideration and consultation he accepted 
the call, was ordained June 10th, 1849, 
l)y Bishop Christopher Isak Heurlin in 
the Domchurch at Yexio, and held his 
inaugural sermon at Lessebo on the 
third Sunday after Trinity. In 1853 he 
received a call through Dr. P. Fjellstedt 
in Sweden and Rev. T. N. Hasselquist 
— who had labored for some time among 
the Swedes in America and just organ- 
ized congregations in Chicago and St. 



Charles — to come over to America? 
where the need of Swedish Lutheran 
ministers had long been keenly felt. 
After some hesitation he concluded to 
follow the call, bade farewell to his con- 
gregations, and boarded the vessel at 
Kalmar for America on the 3d of June, 
1853, arriving at New York August 13th, 
and at Chicago on the 22d of the same 
month. For twenty-two years (1853 — 
1875 ) he occupied the important position 
of pastor at Chicago. "The fervor of 
his pulpit ministrations and his master- 
ly skill as an organizer were blessed to 
the building up of Immanuel Church, 
now a parish of 1600 communicants." 
Besides his pastoral work at Chicago he 
has served on a number of the most im- 
portant committees in the Swedish 
Augustana Synod. He served as pres- 
ident of the Board of Regents for the 
Augustana College and Theological 
Seminary from 1860 to 1870, 1878 to 
1882, and again from 1884 to 1887. He 
has also served for a number of years as 
treasurer and general manager of the 
same institution. He was elected pres- 
ident of the Swedish Augustana Synod 
at its annual meeting in Lindsborg, 
Kansas, in 1881, which position he held 
and discharged its duties with marked 
ability and faithfulness, until 1888, 
when at the meeting in Galesburg he 
refused to be re-elected, owing to broken 
down health. In April, 1875, he accept- 
ed a call from Andover, 111., where he 
labored with his usual zeal for twelve 
years, until 1887, when, owing to a 
slight stroke of paralysis, sustained in 
l:he spring of 1884, he was obliged to re- 
sign this charge. In July, 1887, he re- 
moved with his family to Rock Island, 
111., having accepted a call from the 
Board of Regents as general manager 
and treasurer of the college and sem- 
inary; but at the meeting of 1883 he was 
obliged to resign his responsible position 



134 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



on account of his constantly failing 
health. It was now his intention to re- 
move to Chicago, but by the advice of 
his physicians he removed to a farm in 
the neighborhood of Lindsborg, Kansas, 
where he bought 240 acres of land about 
a mile east of the city, and where it is 
his intention to spend the remainder of 
his days in rest and quiet. 

Rev. E. Carlsson was married to Miss 
Eva Charlotte Anderson on the 25th of 
May, 1855. She was born in Timmelhed, 
Sweden, March 11th, 1829, and came 
to America with her parents in 1851. 
This union has been blessed with nine 
children, of whom five died in childhood. 



The oldest daughter, Anna Fredrika, 
was married to Rev. C. A. Ewald, but 
died during a visit to Sweden, Nov. 27th, 
1880. Another daughter, Emma Kris- 
tina, was married to Rev. Ewald in 1883. 
A son, Ebenezer, is druggist at Linds- 
borg, Kansas, and is married to Rev. 
Jonas Swensson's only daughter, Anna. 
The son Samuel, who is married to 
Maria Mathilda Edberg, is staying with 
his parents. Both the sons have grad- 
uated from the Augustana College at 
Rock Island. 

For a more complete biography of 
Erland Carlsson the reader is referred 
to Norelius' History of the Swedes. 




REV. WILLIAM CARPENTER. . 



William Carpenter was born on the 
20th of May, 1762, near Madison, 
Madison County, Virginia, and was a 
son of William and Mary Carpenter, 
who were both exemplary members of 
the Lutheran Church. In 1778, when 
he was in his sixteenth year, we find 
him, with his brother, entering the 
Revolutionary War, filled with patriotic 
ardor, and deeply interested in the prin- 
ciples involved in the issue. He was 
present at the surrender of Lord Corn- 
wall! s, and participated in other mem- 
orable scenes in our early history, which 
exerted an influence upon his future 
character. He often, in after life, re- 
counted the hardships which he and his 
fellow soldiers endured, and the great 
privations which they suffered, frequent- 
ly subsisting two or three days without 
their rations, and then receiving only a 
meager allowance of corn-meal — this he 
would hastily mix with a little water in 
his handkerchief, and, after covering it 
with oak leaves, would lay it on a bed 



of warm coals until it was baked, and 
then would partake of his homely meal 
with the greatest zest. 

Young Carpenter remained in the 
service of the country till the close of 
the war; and then being deeply impress- 
ed with the idea that he was called to 
the ministry of reconciliation, he soon 
commenced a course of preparation for 
the work. Reared under religious in- 
fluence, and having been faithfully in- 
structed in the precepts and duties of 
the Christian faith, he was early re- 
ceived, by the rite of confirmation, into 
connection with the Church. His theo- 
logical training was most probably under 
the Rev. Christian Streit, at that time 
pastor of the Lutheran church in Win- 
chester, Va., and he was licensed as a 
minister of the Gospel, in the year 1787, 
by the Synod of Pennsylvania. The 
first sermon he preached was from the 
words: "For as many as are led by the 
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 
His first field of labor was in Madison 



AMERICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



135 



Co., Ya., one of the oldest congregations 
in the country, having been organized 
during the period of our colonial historj^, 
and being rich in association and inci- 
dent. Here he continued twenty-six 
years; and, besides being earnestly de- 
voted to the ordinary duties of a minis- 
ter, he had, at different times, a num- 
ber of theological students under his 
care, among whom was the Rev. G. D. 
Flohr, whose active missionary efforts 
in Western Virginia were followed by 
the most beneficial effects. He would 
doubtless have ended his days in this 
charge, had not an importunate call 
from Kentucky been made for his ser- 
vices, which he could not find it in his 
heart to refuse. As early as the year 
1805 a colony of Lutherans, members of 
his congregation at Madison, emigrated 
to the West. In the wilderness they 
found no organized church, no sanc- 
tuary, no ordinances, no religious priv- 
ileges. Attached to the faith of their 
fathers, they resolved, as soon as their 
cabins were erected, to hold religious 
meetings in their own humble dwellings, 
and to encourage one another in their 
Christian profession in the mainten- 
ance of their Christian integrity. These 
exercises were regularly held for near- 
ly eight years, although they were with- 
out a minister. Subsequently they were 
organized into a church. Mr. Carpenter 
visited them, catechised the children, 
and administered the Sacraments. But 
the members of the little flock were 
anxious to have a permanent pastor 
settled among them, to break unto them 
the bread of life and to minister to 
their spiritual wants. Under the cir- 
cumstances Mr. Carpenter regarded it 
his duty to comply with their pressing- 
request, and to relinquish a field of 
labor in which he was so pleasantly and 
usefully engaged. Accordingly, he re- 
moved to the West in 1813, and entered 



upon his second charge in Boone County, 
Kentucky. Here he exercised his min- 
istry twenty years, with patriarchal 
dignity and energy of purpose, till death 
transferred him to a higher sphere. He 
died at his residence, near Florence, on 
the 18th of February, 1833. Universal 
and profound was the impression of 
sadness which the bereavement pro- 
duced in the community. 

Mr. Carpenter was married in the 
year 1795, to Mary Aylor, who survived 
him not quite two years. From this 
union there were eleven children. Mrs. 
Carpenter died August 12, 1834. 

The personal appearance of Mr. Car- 
penter was striking. He was above the 
ordinary height, of a slender frame, and 
rather delicate. There was a defect in 
one of his eyes, which rendered its vision 
indistinct, but such was the piercing 
brightness of the other, that nature ap- 
peared to furnish an ample compensation 
for the deficiency. His countenance 
was expressive of great though tfulness, 
and his manners were pleasant and 
winning, although, if occasion required, 
he could assume an air of sufficient 
sternness and authority. 

Mr. Carpenter's ministry embraces a 
period of forty-six years of faithful pas- 
toral and pulpit labor, which gave him 
ample opportunity to illustrate the 
power of the principles he held. The 
testimony from both his charges is, that 
he was eminently devoted to his work; 
a sincere, humble Christian; a man of 
kind heart, of blameless life, and tireless 
hand. He was especially distinguished 
for the deep interest he bore in the 
youth of his congregation, and the cor- 
responding reverence and affection with 
which they regarded him. He was re- 
markable for his tact, and seemed al- 
ways ready for the occasion. Once, 
while he was preaching in the country, 
some thoughtless young men, instead of 



136 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



entering the church at the appointed 
time and quietly taking their seats, 
gathered at the door and annoyed the 
congregation. Suddenly he stopped, 
and raising his voice to the highest 
pitch, cried out: "Draussen sind die 
Hunde!" — without are the dogs. The 
result was the instant restoration of 
order. One of the party, now an elder 
in the church, says that he was so 
shocked at his own conduct that he be- 
came at once the subject of conviction. 
He also knew well how to encourage the 
young, to say the kind and appropriate 
word, which often brought great good 
in its train. On a certain occasion, as 
he entered the church, meeting a young 
man who was very regular in his attend- 
ance on the exercises of the sanctuary, 
and remarkably correct in his deport- 
ment, placing his hand on his head, he 
said: "Benjamin, du bist ein braver 
Bube," — Benjamin, thou art a brave 
youth. That young man has now be- 
come old, but is still actively engaged 
in the service of his Master, and often 
refers with satisfaction to the influence 
of this little incident of his early life. 
Mr. Carpenter was a most laborious and 
successful catechist, and a zealous ad- 
vocate of the system. He delivered 
lectures in the English and German 
languages. His early ministerial la- 
bors were confined to the German, but 
in 1820 he commenced preaching in 
English, because he believed the in- 
terests of the Church demanded the 
change. He was at first violently op- 
posed by some of his members, but 
when once satisfied that the course was 
right, nothing could deter him from fol- 
lowing out his own convictions. He 
could never even seem to connive at the 
appearance of evil. During a warmly 
contested election, as he was riding to- 
wards Burlington to exercise the elect- 
ive franchise, he was met by two men 



I who stated that they had bet a consider- 
able amount as to the candidate for 
whom he would vote. The old gentle- 
man replied that he regarded betting as 
a criminal practice, and exceedingly re- 
gretted that he had been the innocent 
cause of their wickedness. He instant- 
ly turned his horse's head and went 
home without voting. Thus neither 
party won the bet, and a wholesome les- 
son was administered. 

He was a man of great uniformity of 
character, faithful to whatever trust was 
committed to him, unwearied in his in- 
dustry and unostentatious in his benev- 
olence. He distained petty intrigue and 
scorned a mean action. His habits of 
lifd were plain and simple, his affections 
warm, earnest and manly. There are 
many incidents, illustrative of his pe- 
culiar traits of character, given by those 
who were brought within the range of 
his influence. He was, even in his early 
days, interested in the study of Meteor- 
ology, and it was his practice every 
night before retiring to walk out and 
observe the clouds. One night he dis- 
covered that the door of hid corn-crib 
was open, and, on approaching the spot, 
found a thief tilling his bag. When the 
poor fellow ascertained that he was de- 
tected, he immediately commenced emp- 
tying the sack, but Father Carpenter di- 
rected him to fill it, and also helped him 
to put it on his horse. *'Now," said the 
good man, "go, and steal no more!" As 
the offender happened to be a neighbor, 
whom he did not wish to expose, he con- 
cealed his name, even from his own 
family, and to this day it is unknown. 

On the farm on which he lived he 
raised more than was required for his 
own use. The surplus he disposed of, 
but he always had a fixed price for his 
corn. In his day he thought twenty- 
five cents a fair equivalent for a bushel. 
He would, however, never sell to specu- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



137 



lators. On one occasion corn rose to 
one dollar per bushel, but he still con- 
tinued to sell in small quantities to his 
neighbors for twenty-five cents. Some 
speculators, having heard of this, 
brought their teams and proposed to 
take all that he had at that price. His 
reply was: "No, you cannot have it at 
any price." 

He was distinguished for his love of 
country. He knew from personal expe- 
rience the sacrifices and toil which it 
had cost to secure our national inde- 
pendence. The motto which he adopted 
showed how earnest was his devotion to 
freedom. On the blank leaf of some of 
his books are found inscribed the words 
^'Ubi lihertas, ibi patria,'' a sentimefet 
which Benjamin Franklin uttered in the 
Colonial Congress, and afterwards re- 
peated at the Court of France. 

He continued a member of the Synod 
of Pennsylvania until his death, al- 
though, in consequence of the remote- 
ness of his field of labor from the place 
of meeting, and the few facilities offered 
for traveling in those days, he was sel- 
dom present. In the minutes, however, 
we find his name frequently referred to, 
and such men as Dr. Lochman and Dr. 
Schaeff'er appointed to convey to him 



by letter the assurance of the Synod's 
high re.^ard and cordial sympathy with 
him in his labors. At the meeting in 
1821 there is a reference to a communi- 
cation received by the Synod from him, 
in which he speaks of the restoration of 
peace to the congregation after the dis- 
turbances occasioned by the introduc- 
tion of the English language into the 
services of the church. He also states 
that, as his mind is now relieved from 
anxiety, he has commenced writing a 
work upon the most important truths of 
the Christian religion, intended for 
plainer people. 

He exercised the most affectionate 
personal faith in Christ as his atoning 
Saviour, and in God as his reconciled 
Father. He lived for the good of others 
and for the advancement of the Re- 
deemer's Kingdom. When his work 
was done on earth, and the message 
reached him, death came disarmed of its 
terrors. That blessed Jesus, whom he 
had so faithfully served, and whom he 
had so earnestly commended to others, 
now upheld him and gave him the vic- 
tory. He passed aw^ay, as he had lived, 
in perfect peace, in the full assurance of 
a perfect rest beyond the grave. — 
M. L. Stoever, in Spr ague's Annals. 




KEY. EMANUEL CAUGHMAN. 



Rev. Emanuel Caughman was born 
January 9, 1802, in the District of Lex- 
ington, and departed this life on the 
29th of December, 1881, making his 
earthly pilgrimage seventy-nine years, 
eleven months and twenty days. He 
was ordained to the holy ministry in 
1849, and from that time to within a 
few years of his death he labored un- 
ceasingly and untiringly in the vineyard 

18 



of his Master. His labors were confined 
almost exclusively to his native and ad- 
joining counties, and very many precious 
souls have been led to the Saviour by 
his earnest, practical exhortations, child- 
like faith in Christ, and zealous Chris- 
tian life. 

Rev. Caughman was a man of great 
liberality in all benevolent enterprises, 
having been instrumental, either direct- 



138 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ly or indirectly, in building twenty- 
seven churches, principally within the 
bounds of the South Carolina Synod. 
He was intensely interested in all the 
operations and developments of our be- 
loved Church. He was constant in his 
attendance upon every synodical con- 
vention, and unflinching in his fidelity 
to his Saviour unto the end. 

When the physical man was worn out 
with labor, the spiritual man loved to 



commune in private with his God, and 
to bear testimony to the fulfilled prom- 
ises of that Saviour who has said He 
will never leave nor forsake his people. 
His mortal remains were laid to rest in 
the burying ground of St. Mark's Church, 
Edgefield county, S. C, on the 31st day 
of December, 1881. He fell asleep in 
Jesus, with the full assurance of a bliss- 
ful resurrection oq the ^ast day. 




EEV. CLAUS L. CLAUSEN. 



Claus Lauritz Clausen was born on 
the island of Aeroe, Denmark, Novem- 
ber 3, 1820. Brought up and educated 
for the ministerial profession, he went 
at the age of twenty-one, to visit with 
some friends in Norway. The emigra- 
tion from that country to the United 
States had begun shortly before this 
date, and letters were bringing news 
from Illinois and Wisconsin. The pio- 
neers found an abundance of bread for 
the body but "the bread of life" was 
scarce among them. Their children were 
growing up, but there was none to in- 



struct them in the Lutheran faith of 
their parents. A cry from these settle- 
ments, "Come over to America and help 
us," was heard on the distant shores 
of Norway, and thus it reached young 
Clausen. He did not hesitate, but after 
having made a trip back to Denmark 
and married there, he immediately em- 
barked for America, where he, after a 
long and difficult journey, arrived at 
Muskego, Racine county. Wis., on 
August 6, 1843. 

He had been called to instruct the 
children in the Christian faith; but up- 




Rev. a. R. Ceevin, Ph. D, 

Page 139. 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



139 



ou his arrival the first Norwegian 
Lutheran congregation in this country 
was organized at Muskego, Wis., and 
Clausen called as pastor. Upon this call 
he was ordained October 12, 1843, by 
Rev. L. F. E. Krause, of the Buffalo 
Synod, and thus became the first or- 
dained minister of the gospel among 
the Norwegians of America. He was 
then nearly twenty-three years of age. 

Since his arrival at Muskego, in 1843, 
Rev. Clausen's name is woven into the 
principal events in the history of the 
Norwegian Lutherans of this country 
down to recent years. Zealously and 
faithfully he administered to the spirit- 
ual wants of the pioneers, traveling con- 
tinually between the small and scattered 
settlements throughout the Northwest. 

In 1850 the Norwegian Synod was or- 
ganized, with Rev. Clausen as superin- 
tendent, or president, the Synod then 
numbering three clergymen. Norwe- 
gian immigrants were steadily pouring 
into the Northwest, and the work of ex- 
perienced men was required on the 
frontier, organizing and building up con- 
gregations. Thus Rev. Clausen moved 
west to St. Ansgar, la., and from this 
point served the people in the neighbor- 
ing settlements until the civil war broke 
out, when he, in 1861, enlisted as chap- 
lain for the famous 15th Wisconsin 
Regiment, under Colonel Hegg. Dur- 
ing the bombardment of Island No. 10 
a mortar was accidentally fired off over 



his head. This gave his nerves a shock 
from the effects of which he never fully 
recovered. 

Simultaneously with the opening of 
the civil war a controversy opened in 
the Norwegian Synod over the question 
of whether or not slavery be sin, in 
which controversy Rev. Clausen stood 
well nigh alone for the affirmative 
against the rest of the Synod. This 
doctrine of the majority being estab- 
lished as the doctrine of the Synod, to- 
gether with dissentions on other import- 
ant questions, caused Rev! Clausen in 
1868 to leave the Norwegian Synod, and 
led to the organization of another 
Lutheran church body, ''The Norwegian- 
Danish Conference," with Rev. Clausen 
as its first executive. This interesting 
chapter of church history is treated of 
in a book entitled "Gjenmalet," by 
Rev. Clausen. 

Suffering from repeated attacks of 
paralysis. Rev. Clausen removed with 
his family to Virginia, where his health 
improved so that, during his stay at the 
coast, he could serve a Scandinavian 
congregation at Philadelphia. Subse- 
quently he was called to Austin, Minn., 
where he served as pastor until 1885, 
when his health again failed him, so 
that he was obliged to lay down the 
work. He is still living in Austin, 
where he, through the liberality of 
"Uncle Sam," passes his old age com- 
fortably cared for. 




REV. ANDERS R. CERVIN, Ph. D. 



Rev. Anders Richard Cervin was 
born in Kristianstad, Skaane, Sweden, 
April 20th, 1823, and was the second of 
four children. At the age of five years 
he lost his father. His mother, un- 



willing to throw the care of the family 
on her parents, and having received a 
good education in music, German and 
French, commenced a school for girls, 
and thus managed to maintain herself 



140 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and her fatherless childreu. At the age 
of nine years Cervin was sent to the 
preparatory school, and four years later 
to the university at Lund. Having ob- 
tained a good report from his teachers 
in the preparatory school, an unmarried 
uncle, Mr. G. Cervin, promised to help 
him while at the university with the 
sum of 150 crowns yearly. After three 
years' diligent study at the university, 
he was graduated with the highest 
honors, and received in 1847 the degree 
of Ph. D. He then studied law for 
about a year, after which he taught 
three terms at Lund's University. In 
1850 he accepted a call as professor in 
the academy at Helsingborg, where he 
labored for six years, from 1850 to 1855. 
At this time he received an invitation 
from his brother-in-law, Eev. T. N. 
Hasselquist, to come to America and 
assist him in the editorship of the 
"•Hemlandet," a paper which Hasselquist 
had begun to publish at Galesburg. 
About simultaneously with this invita- 
tion from America Cervin also received 
an appointment as professor in the 
school at Kristianstad, but was not to 
enter upon his duties there before May 
1st, 1858. He concluded, however, to 
accept the invitation of Hasselquist, 
and accordingly sailed for America ac- 
companied by two sons of Dr. P. Fjell- 
stedt, in April, 1856, arriving at Gales- 
burg in the first part of June. Mr. Cer- 
vin spent fifteen months in America, 
during which time he assisted Eev. 
Hasselquist in preaching in Galesburg 
and vicinity, and acting as assistant 
editor of the paper. During this time 



Mr. Cervin also arranged and published 
an A-B-C, which was used for a long 
time by the Swedish congregations. In 
August, 1857, he returned to Sweden to 
enter upon his duties as professor at 
the Kristianstadt school, where a va- 
cancy had just occurred by the death of 
one of the professors. This position he 
held for three years, when he began a 
theological course at Lund's University. 
Having finished his course he was or- 
dained to the ministry September 20th, 
1864, in the Domchurch at Lund. 

Accompanied by his wife, Emma 
Thulin, to whom he was married 
August 24th, he sailed for America, ar- 
riving at Chicago in tbe beginning of 
October. Here he assumed the editor- 
ship of the "Htmlandet," entering upon 
his duties on the 26tli of October, in 
which capacity he labored for four 
years. At the annual meeting of the 
Swedish Augustana Synod in 1868 Dr. 
Cervin accepted a call as professor in 
the school at Paxton, 111. He continued 
to labor in this capacity also after the 
institution was removed to Eock Island, 
111., which occurred in 1875. He was 
for a while editor of ''Augustana oeh Mis- 
sionceren." Dr. Cervin lives in Eock 
Island, in the neighborhood of Augus- 
tana College. His children are: An- 
ders Emanuel, born in Chicago, Feb- 
ruary 25th, 1866; Olof Zakarias, born in 
Paxton, October 18th, 1868; Josef 
I Ebenezer, also born in Paxton, January 
6th, 1871; and Lovisa Elisabeth, born 
in Eock Island, December 8th, 1874. 

The above data are gathered from 
Norelius' History of the Swedes, 



.X.X, 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



141 




REV. J. A. CLUTZ, D. D. 

President of Midland College, Atchison, Kansas. 



Dr. Clutz was born January 5, 1848, 
near Gettysburg, Adams county, Pa. 
On his father's side, he comes of the 
good old Pennsylvania German stock, 
to which the Lutheran Church in 
America, and the country at large, owe 
so much. His mother was of English 
descent. His early days were spent on 
his father's farm, until the fall of 1863 
when he entered the Preparatory De- 
partment of Pennsylvania College,^ at 
Gettysburg. The next year, though 
only sixteen years old, he entered the 
army in response to the call of the gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania for Emergency 
Men to repel the threatened rebel inva- 
sion, which ended, however, with the 
McCausland raid and the burning of 
Chambersburg After serving about 
four months he was mustered out with 
his company and returned to his studies. 
He entered the Freshman Class of the 
college in 1865 and graduated in 1869, 
with high standing. The subsequent 
three years were spent in his theologi- 
cal course in the seminary at Gettys 
burg, on the completion of which he 
was called to the pastorate of Zion's 
Lutheran Church, of Newville, Pa. He 
remained here only fifteen months, but 



during this time was eminently success- 
ful, having succeeded in uniting a di- 
vided and inharmonious people and also 
adding a large number to the mem- 
bership. 

In the summer of 1873 he was called 
to the pastorate of St. Paul's English 
Lutheran Church, of Baltimore, Md. 
This congregation had then been re- 
cently organized, under the auspices of 
the other four English Lutheran 
churches of the city, being thus the 
first of the series of splendid Home 
Mission efforts in that city, which have 
nearly doubled the number of Lutheran 
churches and membership within the 
last fifteen years. Mr. Clutz accepted 
this call, after mature deliberation, and 
began his work in Baltimore November 
1, 1873. St. Paul's then had a member- 
ship of thirty-one, an uncompleted 
church building, and a debt of ^25,000. 
But they also had a devoted people, a 
good field, and the sympathy and sup- 
port of all the other General Synod 
pastors and churches. The young pas- 
tor, then only twenty-five years of age, 
entered on his work with a great deal 
of zeal and energy, and at the close of 
his pastorate, ten years later, left St. 



142 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Paul's a self-sustaining church with a 
membership of 250, and more than half 
the debt paid. 

The removal of Mr. Clutz to Balti- 
more marked an epoch in his life and 
work. It brought him into contact with 
earnest and aggressive men, made him 
acquainted with the best methods of 
church work, and soon threw him into 
the full current of aggressive, general 
church work. 

At the meeting of the General Synod 
in Carthage, 111., in 1877, he was made a 
member of the Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions, and was shortly after elected by 
the Board as its corresponding secretary. 
It was in this position, which he filled 
for seven and a half years, that he first 
developed and exhibited the executive 
gifts which have caused him to be re- 
tained ever since in positions of great 
influence and responsibility. Even 
before this he had taken part in the 
organization of the Children's Foreign 
Missionary Society of the General 
Synod, and was its first treasurer, and 
for a number of years he designed the 
annual souvenir presented to the mem- 
bers of the society. 

In 1882, when Eev. J. W. Goodlin re- 
signed as General Secretary of the Board 
of Home Missions of the General Synod, 



Mr. Clutz was unanimously elected as 
his successor. This call was declined. 
But a year later he was again elected to 
the same position by the new board ap- 
pointed at Springfield, Ohio, on the sep- 
aration of the Board of Home Missions 
and the Board of Church Extension. 
This second call he felt constrained to 
accept. This step severed his connec- 
tion with St. Paul's church, of Balti- 
more, and also led to his resignation as 
secretary of the Board of Foreign 
Missions. 

In 1888 he was called to the presi- 
dency of Midland College, then recently 
located at Atchison, Kansas. After very 
careful consideration he declined the 
call, preferring to remain in the Home 
Mission work. But a year later, when 
the call was repeated, and an acceptance 
stroDgly urged, not only by the Board 
of Trustees but also by many other 
friends of the new institution, both East 
and West, he finally yielded to the pres- 
sure, and against his own preference 
accepted. He was inaugurated October 
1, 1889, and has since devoted himself 
to the work of building up this promis- 
ing college. The degree of D.D. was 
conferred upon Mr. Clutz by his Alma 
Mater in 1889. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



143 




J^Pc/lLvr. 



Rev. Nicolaus Collin, D. D., was from 
Upsala, Sweden, and sent to America in 
the interest of the Lutheran mission in 
1770, arriving on the 12th of May. His 
chief fields of labor were Raccoon and 
Pennsneck. In 1786 he entered upon 
his duties as rector of Wicacoa (Phila- 
delphia), where he remained until his 
death in 1831. Owing to the scarcity 
of Lutheran pastors he had for his as- 
sistants a number of ministers of the 
American Episcopal Church. When 
he was removed from Raccoon to 
Wicacoa, he made every effort to secure 



a Lutheran pastor for the church at 
Raccoon. Dr. Collin was Vice Pres- 
ident of the American Philosophical 
Society. He has left in manuscript a 
translation of I. Acrelius' "The History 
of Swedish Congregations," which is 
owned by the New York Historical So- 
ciety. He has also left a brief written 
report of the beginning and continuation 
of the Swedish Mission in Raccoon and 
Pennsneck. With him the old Luther- 
an mission from Sweden terminated. 
He died in Philadelphia on the 7th of 
October, 1831, in his 87th year. 



144 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. FEEDEEICK W. CONEAD, D. D., LL. D. 



Frederick William Conrad was born 
at Pine Grove, Scliuylkill County, Pa., 
on January 3, 1816. After a common 
school education he entered Mount Airy 
College, Germantown, in charge of 
Colonel A. L. Eoumfort, in 1828, and 
prosecuted his studies there for three 
years. In 1834, at the age of eighteen, 
he was appointed collector of tolls on 
the Union Canal and Eailroad at Pine 
Grove, and continued in this office until 
1841. In 1836 he attended a course of 
catechetical instruction by Eev. Marcus 
Harpel, then pastor of St. Peter's Luth- 
eran and Eeformed Church at Pine 
Grove, which resulted in his conversion 
and union with the Lutheran Church in 
that year. This wrought an entire 
change in his character and plans for 
life, and soon after he resolved to devote 
himself to the ministry of the gospel. 

In the fall of 1837 he entered the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., 
and pursued the course of studies in 
that institution for two years, and was 
admitted to the ministry and licensed to 
preach by the Lutheran Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania at Allentown, in 1839. 
Soon after he was elected pastor of St. 
Peter's church at Pine Grove, and of 
two other churches in the vicinity, and 



preached for several years with great 
earnestness and power. Extensive re- 
vivals of religion took place, many per- 
sons were converted, and the moral and 
religious character of the whole com- 
munity was changed. 

In June, 1836, with the co-operation 
of several Christian ladies of the village, 
he organized the first Sabbath-school at 
Pine Grove, and this became a powerful 
source and centre of religious influence 
throughout the entire region. Quite a 
number of young men who were pupils 
in this school subsequently became min- 
isters of the gospel. 

In 1841 Dr. Conrad was married to 
Miss Eebecca Filbert, daughter of Peter 
Filbert, of Pine Grove, and accepted a 
call to the pastorate of the Lutheran 
churches at Waynesboro and vicinity, in 
Franklin County, Pa., and served that 
charge for three years, during which 
time extensive revivals of religion took 
place under his ministrations, and many 
persons were brought into the fold of 
Christ. 

In 1844 he accepted a call to the pas- 
torate of St. John's Lutheran Church at 
Hagerstown, Md., in which he continued 
to labor with marked success for over 
six years, when he was elected Professor 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



145 



of Modern Languages in Wittenberg- 
College at Springfield, O., and also of 
Homiletics and Clinrcli History in the 
Theological Department of that institu- 
tion, and removed there in 1850. In 
this position he continued to labor for 
five years, during which time he also 
served as pastor of the College Church, 
and as associate editor of the Evangelical 
Lutheran, a weekly church paper pub- 
lished at Springfield, besides prosecuting 
various efforts for the support and en- 
dowment of Wittenberg College. In 
1855 he accepted a call from the First 
Lutheran Church at Dayton, O., to 
which he ministered for nearly seven 
years, during which time the present 
large and handsome church edifice was 
erected, and numerous accessions were 
made to the congregation. 

In 1862 he accepted the pastorate of 
Old Trinity Church, Lancaster, Pa., and 
in 1864 was called to the Lutheran 
Church at Chambersburg. During his 
pastorate there the town was burned by 
the Confederate troops under General 
McCausland, and his house, though not 
destroyed, was pillaged by the Southern 
invaders. 

Prior to Dr. Conrad's removal to Ohio, 
and during his pastorate at Waynesboro 
and Hagerstown, he was engaged on 
successive occasions by the faculty of 
Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg to 
deliver a series of discourses at special 
services for the students, which were 
continued for several weeks at a time. 
These protracted meetings were occa- 
sions of profound religious interest, and 
resulted in the conversion of a large 
number of students and others, many of 
whom subsequently entered the ministry 
of the Lutheran and other churches to 
which they respectively belonged. 

During Dr. Conrad's pastorate at Lan- 
caster, Pa., in 1862, he becane joint own- 
er and editor of the Lutheran Observer, 
19 



and on the removal of the paper from 
Baltimore to Philadelphia, he resigned 
his church at Chambersburg, removed to 
Philadelphia in 1866, and became editor- 
in-chief of the Observer, and has contin- 
ued in that position to the present time, 
a period of over twenty- eight years. 
Thus, by including four years of his 
connection with The Evangelical Lutheran, 
he has been engaged for ovtr thirty- two 
years in editorial service for the Luth- 
eran Church. 

For about six years after his removal 
to Philadelphia, Dr. Conrad served as 
pastor of the Messiah Lutheran Church, 
during which time its present edifice, at 
the corner of Sixteenth and Jefferson 
streets, was partly built. 

Dr. Conrad has led a most active life, 
and been prominent in all the general 
enterprises of the Lutheran Church in 
this country in connection with the 
General Synod. In all charges of his 
early ministry, extensive revivals of re- 
ligion occurred under his ministrations, 
and his efforts to promote the establish- 
ment and endowment of literary and 
theological institutions have been highly 
successful. For years his services have 
been in great demand at the dedication 
of new Lutheran churches in various 
parts of the country, and he has thus 
officiated in hundreds of instances with 
marked success in securing large contri- 
butions from the people to free their 
churches from debt. He has also deliv- 
ered many educational and other ad- 
dresses at literary institutions, and on 
special occasions, in various parts of the 
country, and has traveled thousands of 
miles every year in filling such appoint- 
ments. He delivered a memorial dis- 
course on Luther and his work at the 
commemoration of the fourth centenary 
of the reformer's birth, in Farwell Hall, 
Chicago, on the 11th of November, 1883, 
and also during the ceremonies connect- 



146 



AMERICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GKAl>HlE8. 



ed with the unveiling of the Luther 
statue at Washington in May, 1884. 
During the Luther memorial year he 
also delivered a number of discourses 
on Luther and the reformers at various 
places throughout the country, and pub- 
lished a memorial tract, in which the 
origin, doctrines, and characteristics of 
the Lutheran Church are concisely set 
forth. This tract has been widely cir- 
culated. 

Besides his editorial work on the Ob- 
server, Dr. Conrad has been a frequent 
contributor to the Lutheran Quarterly, and 
some of his articles have been published 
in separate form. Among these is one 
on the subject of "Baptism," being the 
Holman Lecture on the Ninth Article 
of the Augsburg Confession ; another on 
"The Call to the Ministry," in which the 
prevalent and true theories are examined; 
and a third on the liturgical question — 
entitled "Worship and its Forms." A 
number of his discourses on special oc- 



casions have been published, among 
which, one delivered at Chambersburg 
during the war of the Kebellion on "The 
Hand of God in the War," is among the 
more notable, in view of the circum- 
stances under which it was delivered. 
His latest publication is "Luther's Small 
Catechism Explained and Amplified," 
which has been received with extraordi- 
nary favor throughout the Lutheran 
church, and which is doubtless destined 
to be the most widely and permanently 
useful work of his life. The honorary 
degree of D. D. was conferred on him by 
Wittenberg College, Ohio, and that of 
LL. D. by Eoanoke College, Virginia. 

Dr. Conrad is still frequently called 
upon to dedicate churches and deliver 
addresses on special occasions, and con- 
tinues to be actively engaged in promot- 
ing the interests and progress of the 
Lutheran Church in America, in all de- 
partments of her edu(;ational and evan- 
gelizing work.^ Stall's Year Book. 




EEV. AUGUSTUS COKDES. 



Rev. Augustus Cordes, the Rector 
and Pastor of the magnificent Mary J. 
Drexel Home and Motherhouse of Dea- 
conesses in Philadelphia, was born in 
India, at the Tranquebar Mission, Pres- 
idency of Madras. He is the son of our 
first Lutheran missionary of the Leipsic 
Mission. He was educated at Leipsic, 
and ordained in the congregation of 
Oberalbertsdorf, Saxony. The Rev. Dr. 
Spaeth proposed his name, February 
18th, 1888, for the position which he 
has filled with such ability and devotion 
since August 7th, of the same year. 



He was assistant of the late Pastor 
Ninck in Hamburg, and had known the 
Deaconess work from practical experi- 
ence. He is only thirty years old, and 
has commanded the love and confidence 
of all his fellow-workers in this import- 
ant field ot Christian service. He and 
Mrs. Cordes were both born in the 
India mission, and they seem to be 
providentially suited for each other. 
They have a sweet and beautiful home 
upon the grounds adjoining the Mother- 
house and the German Hospital. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



147 




EEV. VICTOE L. CONRAD, D.D., Ph.D. 



Victor Lafayette Conrad was born at 
Pinegrove, Schuylkill County, Pennsyl- 
vania, on the 7th of October, 1821. 
During his early youth he attended the 
village school, and subsequently studied 
at an academy in Waynesboro, Pa., dur- 
ing several winters. In 1841 he was 
appointed collector of tolls on the Union 
Canal and Railroad at Pinegrove, having 
succeeded his brother. Dr. F. W. 
Conrad, in that office. 

He entered Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, in 1844, and graduated 
there in 1848. He subsequently pur- 
sued a theological course in the Semin- 
ary at Gettysburg, and s:raduated in 
1851. He was licensed to preach by 
the East Pennsylvania Synod in the 
same year, and subsequently ordained 
by the Synod of Pittsburgh. 

In 1852 he removed to Springfield, 
0., to assume the editorship of the 
Evangelical Lutheran, a new church paper 
just started there. In 1854 he was 
married to Miss H. D. Bartlett, 
daughter of the late Jonathan Bartlett, 



of Maine. In consequence of inad- 
equate patronage the new paper was 
discontinued, and in 1856 Prof. Conrad 
moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he had 
been appointed principal of the ninth 
ward public school. In the following 
year he removed to Dayton, O., where 
he took charge of Cooper Seminary for 
young ladies, which he conducted until 
the war of the Rebellion broke out in 
1861. In 1862 he removed to New 
York City, and was engaged in business 
there until 1867, when he was elected 
Professor of Natural Sciences in Penn- 
sylvania College, Gettysburg, and re- 
moved to that place. In 1870 he re- 
signed his professorship and removed 
to Philadelphia, where he has been en- 
gaged as associate editor of the Lutheran 
Observer until the present time. 

The honorary degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy was conferred upon him by 
Pennsylvania College, and that of Doctor 
of Divinity by Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, 0. 



148 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. A. B. CAELSON. 



"Utopia" was the name of the ship in 
which Eev. A. B. Carlson and wife sailed 
from New York, June 24, 1878, for the 
General Council's mission at Eajahmun- 
dry, India. Was it a Utopian scheme 
for this young Swede to devote his life 
to the far-off work then conducted by 
but a single missionary? Carlson was 
hearty, enthusiastic, and in the prime of 
life. Born at Doederhult, Sweden, Aug. 
16, 1844. He emigrated to America, and 
here received his literary and theological 
education in the institutions of the 
Augustana Synod at Eock Island, con- 
cluding with a course in the Philadel- 
phia Theological Seminary. 

While here he was deeply moved by 
the cry for help that came from mission- 
ary Schmidt. Though there was ample 
work in his own Synod, he offered to go 
to the Telegus. After ordination, June 
16, 1878, by the Augustana Synod, he 
was solemnly set apart to the mission 
work at a special service held in Zion's 
Church, Philadelphia. As the first link 
in the chain, composed of Carlson, Art- 
man, Dietrich, and Misses Sadtler and| 



Schade, this brother was instrumental 
in binding the foreign and the local 
churches more closely than formerly. 

After a six months' sojourn in Europe 
and journey India- ward Carlson arrived 
at Eajahmundry in January, 1879. His 
letters en route, and from time to time 
as he went out on visiting tours through 
the villages, were fresh and full. He 
labored to make the church understand 
the people and their habits. Meantime 
he diligently studied Telegu, took charge 
of the English services at Eajahmundry, 
taught Bible classes at several stations, 
and made a thorough study of the vari- 
ous schools of the mission, with a view 
to assume the management of this de- 
partment of the work. But severe at- 
tacks of fever disabled him. In the 
hope of relief he was, at his own request, 
transferred to Samulcotta, nearer the 
sea. He entered with his accustomed 
zeal into this field, when a sunstroke 
laid him low. His reason gave way. He 
was taken to Madras and there died 
March 28, 1881, cut off at thirty-six. 

His dear wife, Mrs. Hilda Carlson, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



149 



returned to America, and was em- 
ployed in the work of lier Synod, first as 
matron of the Angustana Hospital, Chi- 
cago, and then for a short time as mis- 
sionary among the Mormons at Salt 
Lake City. 



"Faithful, zealous, and self-denying," 
writes Missionary Paulsen of Carlson. 
He stood in the breach at a critical time. 
He gave his life for the cause. The sac- 
rifice still bears fruit among his coun- 
trymen in America. 




U • (pv^y-^ ^^--v/v-vV" O^ 1 



The life-work of Rev. George Cronen- 
w«tt, as missionary bishop and pastor in 
northwestern Oliio, outlines half a cen- 
tury's church history, and its dr>termin- 
ing influence still points onward. De- 
scending on the paternal side from the 
exiles of Salzburg, he was born in Lan- 
gensteinbach, Baden, on the 1st of No- 
vember, 1814, the first son of George 
Cronenwett, Sr., and Rosin a, nee Den- 
ninger. After early special advantages 
from a private tutor he attoncled the 
Teacher's Seminary of Prof. Stern in 
Karlsruhe, applying himself to the nor- 
mal branches, Scripture, and Latin. In 
1832 the family migrated to Monroe, 



Mich., where he became organist in the 
Episcopal church, taught parochial 
school, and read an occasional burial 
service. He was made messenger to the 
Rev. F. Schmid at Ann Arbor, pioneer 
Lutheran clergyman in southeastern 
Michigan, whose subsequent ministry 
in the settlement at Monroe had a deter- 
mining, godly influence on many a life. 
The ensuing acquaintance between pas- 
tor and teacher resulted in the removal 
of the latter, with his young wife 
Magdalena, nee Knab, whom he had 
wedded on the 21st of March, 1836, to 
Scio, near Ann Arbor, and there, under 
the guidance of his clerical preceptor, 



150 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



he applied himself to theology and 
Greek. His ordination in the church 
at Scio, on the 26th o£ September, 1841, 
at the hands of Eevs. Schmid and G. 
W. E. Metzger, was the first Lutheran 
ordination in the then "Northwest." 
The direction of his explorations lay 
from Monroe southward. He visited 
Toledo, 0., in its incipiency, and pen- 
etrated into the heart of the Black 
Swamp, to the clearings of humble 
Hannoverians, whose advance colonies 
had drifted thither in the fall of 1833- 
34-35, where land was to be had for 
a trifle, but where that pittance must 
first be earned at canal work. 

Theirs for years was a hard lot. 
There at Woodville, on the line of what, 
as the Western Eeserve and Maumee 
Pike, became the national wagon thor- 
oughfare to the great "Northwest," 
Pastor Cronenwett, in December, 1841, 
fixed his abode; because, on his return 
to Monroe, teams came after him and 
his family and fetched him back. This 
was his call. He then had two sons, 
both of whom he in after years likewise 
educated for the ministry.* 

In humble self-distrust, yet full re- 
liance in God he, on the third Sunday 
of Advent, began his ministry with a 
sermon on 2 Cor. 4, 8: "We are per- 
plexed, but not in despair." As a youth 
he was wont to withdraw to his closet 
and pray to the Lord to further him in 
his studies, and now as young pastor he 
sought the quietude of the sanctuary, 
and kneeling there at the altar besought 
the Master's benediction on himself and 
his people. His heart was fixed on 
God in singleness of purpose to do His 
wall; he drew on God1:or direction and 
strength, and God blessed his labors. 

From Woodville the missionary-pas- 

* [His nearest clerical neighbor to the southeast was 
the venerable J. J. Beilharz, of Tiffin, O., nntil the son- 
in-law ot that missionary pastor, the gentle Rev. Henry 
Lang, became his near lifelong colleague at Fremont, O.] 



tor explored the clearings of the back- 
woods, and ere long served thirteen 
settlements in the counties of Sandusky, 
Wood, Lucas, and Ottawa — prominent 
among which soon became Perrysburg 
and Toledo — often preaching at seven 
stations from Sunday morning till 
Wednesday night, and traversing some 
eighty miles as best he could through 
forest and swale. During one season 
of exceptional fatality from swamp 
malaria he scarcely spent four days at 
home in as many months, ministering 
to the sick and dying, and burying in- 
the meanwhile forty-five of his parish- 
ioners. It was his custom to stay and 
comfort, all the night through if need 
be, when he saw the end to be near, and 
to pronounce the benedicton of the 
God of Israel upon his parishioners as 
the shadows darkened — closing their 
eyes in death. Incident and adventure 
were not wanting. In perils oft, in 
swollen flood, 'mid forest storm, on 
treacherous ice, through blinding snows 
and sultry suns, braving epidemics of 
fevers, small-pox, cholera, enduring 
hardships, he waited on his ministry; 
and when wild sectarianism and the 
Mormon craze swept through the settle- 
ments, as vigilant shepherd he threw 
himself in the breach and protected his 
fold. Meanwhile the wilderness blos- 
somed as the rose. The outposts were 
supplied with local pastors, and after 
some thirty years' missionary work 
Pastor Cronenwett was finally enabled 
to confine himself to the home congre- 
gation What once was his extended 
pastoral charge grew into sixteen flour- 
ishing parishes, supplied with church, 
parsonage, and school, and the Black 
Swamp has become a garden of the 
Lord and stronghold of confessional 
Lutheranism. 

At first member of the old Michigan 
Synod, Pastor Cronenwett warmly in- 



AMERICAN LtJTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



151 



terested himself and his people in their 
Indian missions of that state, before the 
Indians were removed, but in May, 1851, 
he identified himself with the Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and 
other States," at Canton, O.; was chosen 
chairman at the organization of its 
"Northern District" there — and thence- 
forward became prominent in its coun- 
cils and offices, taking a leading part in 
its deliberations and doctrinal discus- 
sions, as also in the public pen-con- 
troversies on the burning questions of 
the day. In the strength of his con- 
victions he shunned not to engage with 
the foremost elsewhere, when he thought 
the catholicity of Lutheranism en- 
dangered by what seemed to him specious 
tendencies in doctrine or practice. He 
served on committees of colloquy with 
other synods, and became the principal 
compiler of the Ohio Synod's German 
Liturgy of 1863, and German Hymn- 
book of 1870. 

In his preaching he was didactic, 
lucid, logical, evangelical, substantiating 
his positions as he proceeded with ready 
proof from Scripture and citations from 
the Confessions. He spoke deliberately 
and with unction and was gladly heard 
both by the clergy and laity. Faith in 
the Christ was his motive and theme. 
As catechist he was second to none, and 
he grounded his people in doctrine to 
the third generation. He never forgot 
his early love — the youth of the fold 
and their Christian training, and no- 
where left the little ones of a family un- 
noticed. 

At advanced age he consummated a 
cherished aim of his life in founding 
the Parochial Teachers' Seminary at 
Woodville (1881), by drawing his im- 
mediate colleagues into the work with 
him and editing a paper in its inter- 
est: "Die Christliche Gemeindeschule." 
When success was assured the institu- 



tion was handed over to the synod, 
(1882), while he continued in manage- 
ment as its President. A stately edifice 
and flourishing school now bear tribute 
to his efforts and blessings to posterity, 
and through them he, being dead, yet 
speaketh. 

During his long pastorate of forty-six 
years he baptized 2,341 persons, con- 
firmed 1,730, married 530 couples, and 
attended 1,214 funerals, preaching some 
10,000 sermons and traveling tens of 
thousands of miles in his preaching tours. 
A posthumous volume of his sermons, 
which he himself had prepared for pub- 
lication: "Predigten ueber die Evan- 
gelien des Kirchenjahres und ueber 
freigewaehlte Texte zur Passionszeit," 
was issued by the Lutheran Book Con- 
cern, Columbus, O., in 1889. 

In person Pastor Cronenwett was of 
martial build, standing six feet four 
inches high, and of patriarchal bearing, 
having his conversation honest among 
men. And he never forgot himself. His 
sincerity and honor no man questioned. 
Strong in calibre, positive in character, 
he commanded respect. Of genial, 
social qualities, courteous, generous, 
hospitable, his hand was open, and his 
house the wayfaring pilgrim's home. 
Kindly affectioned, considerate, just; in 
matters of faith, of right and wrong un- 
compromising and unflinching, he could 
deal circumspectly and gently, could 
bind up and heal — and in the rugged 
stalwartness of his upright soul could 
also prove a son of thunder. In him 
was the gentleness of the shepherd, the 
resoluteness of the warrior, and the 
honor of manhood combined. God made 
him, and assigned him his place — a 
landmark among men— a prophet to his 
people. And when at last the tidings 
of his death flashed along the wires, and 
the general public realized that a prom- 
inent figure among them for half a cen- 



IS^ 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



tury was no more, the spontaneous ver- 
dict was: A good man is gone. He 
died, as he lived, witnessing for Christ, 
on January 31, 1888, at the age of sev- 
enty-three years and three months, hav- 
ing, up to the close of December, in ac- 
customed manner, attended to his pub- 
lic ministrations. A fall on an icy walk 
on New Year's morning, which had 
seemed not necessarily serious, resulted 
in fatal complications. Conscious of 
his departure, he took leave from the 



faithful companion of his toils, and his 
sons and daughters, in the language of 
the patriarch of old: "Behold, I die; 
but God shall be with you." The thou- 
sands whom his death affected showed 
what place he held among the people. 
He rests amidst the scenes of his life- 
work, at the side of the generation be- 
fore him, in the cemetery at Woodville, 
his grave marked by a monument which 
filial parishioners erected to the mem- 
ory of a faithful pastor. 




BEY. THEODOB H. DAHL. 



Bev. Dahl came to America, from his 
fatherland, Norway, in 1865, when twen- 
ty years of age, after having spent sev- 
eral years as a student in Christiania. 
He completed his theological studies at 
the seminary of the Swedish Augustana 
Synod, then located at Pax ton, 111., and 
was ordained to the ministry June 16, 
1867, by the venerable Prof. T. N. Has- 
selquist, D.D., at the Synod's annual 
session in Berlin, 111. He was then 
called by the synod as home-missionary 



to labor in northwestern Minnesota, 
where he had also received a call from a 
Swedish congregation. In this capacity 
he traveled hundreds of miles on horse- 
back and suffered great hardships, vis- 
iting the scattered Scandinavians in 
Kandiyohi, Meeker, Pope and Douglas 
counties, and breaking to them the 
bread of life. He organized Eagle Lake 
congregation in Kandiyohi county, 
which was the first Norwegian congre- 
gation in that county. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



153 



In December, 1867, he was married to 
Miss Lina Gjertsen, only daughter of 
Eev. J. P. Gjertsen.* 

In June, 1868, Mr. Dahl accepted a 
call from Ness, Arendal, and Thrond- 
hjems congregations in Meeker county, 
where he moved with his family in the 
latter part of July. He was the first, 
and for many years the only Norwegian 
Lutheran pastor west of "The Big 
Woods." Indefatigably and with in- 
domitant courage did he labor among 
these newly settled people and share 
with them the untold hardships of pio- 
neer life, his only ambition being to do 
the work to which his Master had called 
him. A number of new congregations 
were soon added to his cliarge, and not 
unfrequently was he obliged, when the 
blizzards had made the roads impassable 
for driving or riding, to travel on snow- 
shoes sometimes a distance of thirty 
miles to fill his appointments. There 
being no churches, and but few school 
houses, the services were generally held 
in the log houses in winter and in the 
barns in summer. His first confirma- 
tion services were held in Ole Ness's 
barn, which was appropriately decorated 
with green leaves and branches. For 
two years Eev. Dahl lived with his fam- 
ily in a small log cabin, consisting of 
one room, which served for all purposes. 
In the spring of 1870 he moved into a 
parsonage which the congregation in 
Meeker county had built, and which 
was four miles distant from Litchfield, a 
small station which had been located 
there when the railroad had reached 
that place the previous fall. In 1872 
his charge was divided into two charges, 
the one consisting of Wilmar, Eagle 
Lake, St. John, Hardanger and Nord- 
land's congregations, and the other of 



♦We regret that we have been unable to obtain a 
biographical sketch of this worthy and venerable ser- 
vant of Christ. 

20 



Ness, Arendal, Throndhjem and a Dan- 
ish congregation near Hutchinson. 

Having received a call from a congre- 
gation around Ft. Howard, Wisconsin, 
Mr. Dahl removed there with his family 
in 1873. The congregations in Marinette, 
Oconto, and Peshtigo, being unable to 
support a pastor alone, Eev. Dahl was 
also called to serve these in connection 
with his charge. By reason of his fre- 
quent exposures, incessant travels, and 
excessive work, his health began to fail, 
and it was deemed advisable for him to 
take a few months' rest. Accordingly, 
he took a vacation of four months, in 
1875, and made a visit to Norway, from 
which he returned considerably strength- 
ened and refreshed. He now resumed 
his labors with his wonted ambition, 
serving for three years three different 
charges, and usually preaching three 
times every Sunday, besides traveling 
several miles between each service. In 
1881 he accepted his present charge 
at Stoughton, Wis., his extensive 
charge in northern Wisconsin being 
divided into three charges, with each a 
pastor. 

Eev. Dahl is a highly cultured 
Christian gentleman, whom it is only 
necessary to know in order to love. He 
has excellent powers of conversation, 
and withal a truly genial spirit. Though 
not a little peculiar in his delivery, he 
has the merited reputation of being an 
exceptionally eloquent preacher, and 
his church is always crowded with at- 
tentive hearers. In ecclesiastical courts 
and public bodies of which he has been 
a member he has proved to be strictly 
conscientious, discreet, and influential. 
His pastoral qualifications are par- 
ticularly eminent. Affable, courteous, 
and kind, his words are fitly spoken. 
Few know better than he the best means 
of pouring consolation into the soul- 
sick and afflicted heart. His discourses 



154 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



are 



richly evangelical and practical, 
well arranged and lucid. 

For five years (1876-1881) lie served 
the synod of which he became a member 



at its organization in 1870, the '^Nor- 
wegian Danish Lutheran Conference," 
as secretary, and from 1881 to 1886 as 
its president. 




EEY. WILLIAM DAMMAN. 



Eev. Wm. Damman, pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran St. Jacob's Church 
at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was born in 
Erfurt, Prussia, August 6th, 1829. He 
was educated at the Erfurt Gymnasium 
and at the Barmen Theological Semi- 
nary. In 1860 he came to the United 
States, under the auspices of a Pastor's 
Emigrant Aid Society. He had preach- 
ed one year in the old country; was a 
few years in Washington County, Wis- 
consin, and then settled in Milwaukee in 
May, 1861. On the 20th of May, 1861, 



he organized the Evangelical Lutheran 
St. Peter's Church, of which he was 
pastor until April 15th, 1873. He was 
married in April, 1861, to Miss Emma 
Streissguth, formerly of Germany. They 
have eight children. He has been a 
frequent contributor to church period- 
icals, and has published several pam- 
phlets, and assisted in the preparation 
of reading books for German schools. 
He has been an organizer and mission- 
ary worker. — History of Milwaukee. 




EEY. PEOF. JOHN B. DAYIS, D.D. 



One of the most scholarly and scientific 
men in the Southern Lutheran Church 
is Eev. Prof. John B. Davis, D. D. His 
life and labors have added luster to both 
the domain of Church life and science 
in the South, and but for his modesty 
and "instinctive repugnance to public 
notices" he would have unquestionably 
established a national reputation. Men 
of national fame urged him to allow the 
world to see and know the results of his 
superior and indefatigable labors in 
scientific research and study; but he 
shrank from the thought of publicity, 
and preferred to labor unostentatiously 
in the spheres assigned him in the de- 
velopments of his day and generation, 
however great or humble they might be. 
He is, next to the celebrated and vener- 



ated Eev. Dr. John Bodemann, LL. D., 

the most scholarly and scientific Luther- 
an divine in all the Southland. His 
theological acquirements and abilities 
are also of a high order. Gifted by 
nature, both in body and mind, and 
thoroughly consecrated to God and hu- 
manity, the effect of his life and labors 
will be felt long after he has passed 
away. 

He was born May 26th, 1808, three 
miles south of Winchester, Ya. He 
was baptized in early infancy by Father 
Streit, one of the pioneers of Lutheran- 
ism in Yirginia. When but still a 
child his parents removed to Eocking- 
ham County, Ya., where he soon helped 
as best he could in a flouring mill. He 
was sent to school to an excellent teach- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



155 




REV. PROF. JOHN B. DAVIS, D. D. 



er. At that time the schools in that 
neighborhood began early in the morn- 
ing and continued until night, and were 
kept up all the year round. He was 
complimented again and again for 
making rapid progress in his studies, 
and thus already as a mere child mani- 
fested the powers that made him em- 
inently worthy of honor and appreciation 
at the hands of the Lutheran Church. 
Although his studies were frequently 
interrupted by duties to be attended to 
in the mill, he never allowed himself to 
fall behind in his classes. 

Profoundly interested in his studies, 
and eminently successful in pursuing 
them, his mind developed rapidly and 
ever anxious 
and to learn 
or insect would be sure to have at his 
hands a post-mortem examination, and 
minerals and plants were crushed apart 



to pry into the unknown 
a dead rabbit, snake, dog 



also to find out their make-up, ofiices, 
etc. He thus early became a practical 
student of nature, and by virtue of his 
many out-door excursions and efforts be- 
came a strong, hearty, healthy child, 
and, for those days, superior athlete, 
and 'in this way laid the foundation of 
living under God's Providence over 
eighty-two years. 

His devoted and pious mother, much 
concerned about her son's spiritual wel- 
fare, kept him daily engaged in studying 
the Bible and Luther's Catechism, until 
he, in his eighteenth year, was volun- 
tarily confirmed. Having been con- 
firmed, and feeling in his heart a desire 
to preach, and called of God to become 
minister of the Gospel, his troubles be- 
gan. A wealthy bachelor had for ten 
years been much interested in the talent- 
ed youth, and his ambition and wish 
was to make a lawyer of the promising 



156 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



young man, of whom he was proud, and 
the struggle about the two callings per- 
plexed him much. The right triumph- 
ed, and the wishes of his heart, his 
mother, and his pastor. Rev. J. P. Cline, 
carried the day, and he was sent to 
Gettysburg, early in September, 1828. 
Like the heroic youth of that early day he 
started out on foot, walking first to Win- 
chester. Being the first student for the 
ministry from Virginia, the ladies of the 
church in that grand old Southern town 
helped him and treated him with special 
kindness, promising him he should want 
for nothing. They offered to send him 
by stage, but he declined the kind offer 
and walked on to Gettysburg. The 
noble Winchester ladies and Rev. Dr. S. 
S. Schmucker, Hon. Thaddeus Stephens, 
and Mr. J. Danner, of Gettysburg, help- 
ed him for six years. 

The celebrated Thaddeus Stephens 
heard his first speech at Gettysburg, 
and was so impressed that he made in- 
quiries about the young and gifted 
Virginian, and when he found that he 
was from Dr. Schmucker's old charge, 
and that he was worthy but in indigent 
circumstances, replied: "Don't tell him 
of it. I intend to help that young man." 
Accordingly, he every few months re- 
ceived through the post office five, ten, 
or twenty dollars, from an "unknown 
friend," until in three years he was help- 
in this way to over two hundred dollars. 
Mr. Davis was not aware of the fact 
that Mr. Thaddeus Stephens was his 
"unknown friend," though he was often 
in his office. He once related to the 
writer that Mr. Stephens, who was at 
that time one of the leading lawyers of 
Pennsylvania, one day in his law office 
"pulled out from under his cot a linen 
wallet, containing the outfit of a journey- 
man shoemaker, and remarked, 'This I 
brought with me to this town to help me 
along in the study of law eleven years 



ago.' " This incident gives us a striking 
idea of the condition of affairs at that 
time. His own hardships taught Mr. 
Stephens to sympathize with and help 
the struggling young theological stu- 
dent. Student Davis spent three years 
in the old Gymnasium, and in the third 
year became tutor to a class in pre- 
paratory studies. Then and there he 
taught the great, lamented Dr. Krauth, 
who was a young student at that time, 
Latin, geography, etc. Dr. Krauth was 
ever the friend of Dr. Davis. In April, 
1834, he left the seminary for Virginia. 
It was the earnest wish of Dr. Krauth, 
Sr., that Candidate Davis should become 
his successor as pastor of St. Matthew's 
Church, Philadelphia, and he urged 
him to go there, but the pressing want 
and claims of the church in his native 
state led him back to Virginia. Had he 
gone to Philadelphia, he would, no 
doubt, have risen with his talents to 
greatest distinction. 

April 15, 1834, he was ordained by the 
Virginia Synod and at once took charge 
of the churches at Strassburg and 
Stephen City. The Strassburg church 
he served nine years, and the Stephen 
City church sixteen years. When he 
took charge of the church in Stephen 
City it numbered only about twenty 
members, and when he left it, in 1850, it 
numbered 280. He resigned at the urg- 
ent request of his ministerial brethren 
to take charge, also at their urgent so- 
licitations, of the missions in the then 
growing city of Staunton. Here he 
found a difficult and discouraging work. 
There were but six members, who had 
no church, but owned a vacant lot. . 
Whilst at Staunton he acted as supply 
of Mt. Tabor church. In 1852 the 
church in Staunton was begun, and in. 
1854 was dedicated, and in this church 
he preached until the war broke out in 
1860, when he resigned. So far he la- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



157 



bored as a popular and successful pastor, 
and now lie begins his eventful career as 
professor. The honorary degree of 
D. D. was conferred upon Dr. Davis by 
North Carolina College in 1873. 

In 1862 he was elected Professor of 
Natural Science in Roanoke College, 
Salem, Ya., but did not enter upon his 
duties until 1865, when the war was 
over. This position he held for nine 
years. In 1875 he was elected Presi- 
dent of North Carolina College, Mt. 
Pleasant, N. C. Accepted the high and 
honored position of College President, 
and served the institution well during 
his terms of office and jadministration, 
and subsequently, when advancing age 
led him again to assume pastoral duties 
in Mt. Pleasant, he still assisted, by lec- 
tures and otherwise, the students in 
their various callings. 

His whole student life has been 
unique. He read and studied but little 
at night. He goes to bed early, and 
rises early; and reads, studies, memo- 
rises and writes in the morning. He 
has lived much out-doors, in the forest, 
in the fields, along creeks and rivers, 
pursuing his studies. For twenty years 
he carefully wrote and then committed 
his sermons to memory, being blessed 
with a wonderful memory. 

The study of his life has been the 
harmonies of God's word and works. 
The distinguished Prof. A. T. Poledsoe 
and the still more celebrated Asa Gray, 
who knew his great skill in science, often 
upbraided him with the words, "Modesty 
will kill you." On their suggestions, 
and at the earnest solicitations of others, 
he began and completed "A Botany of 
the Bible," and "A Chemistry of Life," 
which, together with a number of lec- 
tures on various learned subjects, he 
had arranged to publish but they were, 
however, unfortunately, nay most un- 
fortunately, destroyed by a disastrous 



fire in Salem, Ya., in 1873, which com- 
pletely destroyed his entire library, 
manuscripts, etc., much to his own and 
his friends and admirers' sorrow. This 
was a fearful blow to him, and he has 
never fully recovered from it. 

He has reproduced "The Cosmogony 
of Moses," "Unity of the Human Race 
from a Christian Standpoint," "Papers 
on the Mineral Kingdom," "The Yeg- 
etable Kingdom of Nature," and "The 
History of Theological Seminaries," 
"The Intellectual Triumphs of Youth 
and Age Compared," etc., etc. It is 
sincerely to be hoped that these, and 
about a dozen other valuable, scholarly 
and instructive lectures, will some day 
be printed by some Lutheran individual, 
society or publishing house. 

He was ever interested in the move- 
ments of the day, which could help to 
improve the material conditions of the 
people, as well as spiritually. Fifty 
years ago he made the first public ef- 
forts in behalf of agriculture, in Fred- 
erick county, Ya., and thus brought 
about the societies which have, in vari- 
ous states begun agricultural colleges. 
He also personally seconded and assist- 
ed Jno. W. Garrett, Sr., in getting a 
railroad in the valley of Yirginia, and 
was ever a personal friend of this great 
Railroad magnate. He has delivered hun- 
dreds of addresses in Yirginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee 
alongside of the greatest men of these 
states, and always with credit to himself 
and to the welfare of the people. But 
few men in the Lutheran Church have 
enjoyed so well an acquaintance with 
the leading men of the day as he, and 
they held him in grateful remembrance. 
The results of his labors as pastor and 
professor cannot be estimated. There 
are living at this writing forty-six Luth- 
eran, two Episcopal, and three Presby- 
terian ministers, whom he taught in col- 



158 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



lege from one to four years. Added to 
this there are ten professors in onr 
church schools whom he trained more or 
less. Thus the influence of his life and 
labors have gone out beyond all compu- 
tation. When we add to this the many 
he baptized, confirmed, etc. , the thousands 
of sermons he has preached from April, 
1834, to 1890— fifty-six years — it is sim- 
ply wonderful, to see what one man can 
do in a lifetime. This venerable and 
venerated man of God, who has served 
our great church for almost three score 
years, and who has passed through the 
joys, triumphs, trials and sorrows of 
over eighty-two years, is residing at 



present with his second wife, in the 
home of his noble son at West Liberty, 
Ohio, honored, not only by his children, 
and their children, but by all who know 
him. Eecently, whilst administering the 
holy communion to the Lutheran congre- 
gation there, near the close of the service 
his voice entirely failed him, but subse- 
quently he regained it again, and is still 
in bright hopes of carrying out a long 
cherished wish, namely: that he might be 
able to preach in the Lutheran church 
sixty years. He is still a member of the 
old North Carolina Synod. 

May his last days on earth be his best. 

And then, God grant him heavenly life, peace and rest 

M. E. P. 




EEY. DAVID L. DEBENDAEFEE. 



Eev. David L. Debendarfer was born 
on the 12th of May, 1843, in the vicinity 
of Cochran's Mills, Armstrong county, 
Pa. So great was the influence of a de- 
vout mother over him, that very early in 
life he renewed his baptismal vows and 
became deeply interested in all that re- 
lated to his beloved church. After a 
course of study at the academy in Leech- 
burg, he obtained the situation of prin- 
cipal of the schools of Brady's Bend, 
where he gave general satisfaction to the 
community. At this time a deeper work 
of grace took place in his heart — an en- 
tire consecration to Jesus Christ and the 
work of the ministry. For the purpose 
of preparation he entered Thiel Hall, at 
Phillipsburg, where he diligently pur- 
sued a course of theological reading and 
study. 

In the year 1867 Mr. Debendarfer was 
called, first as teacher to the Orphan's 
Farm School, of Zelienople, Pa., and the 
following year became director of the 



same, assuming all the duties of the in- 
stitution, and for ten years labored in- 
cessantly and most unselfishly, for the 
Farm School, whose welfare he had so 
much at heart, his only thoughts being 
for the highest good of its inmates. 
Nothing was at any time allowed to 
stand between him and the good of his 
charge. 

In the year 1875 Mr. Debendarfer was 
ordained to the work of the ministry at 
the convention of the Pittsburg Synod, 
in Leechburg. At this time, in connec- 
tion with orphan work, he took charge 
of a congregation in Lawrence county, 
besides supplying vacancies and missions. 

After a life of untiring energy, strict 
integrity, and conscientious, earnest la- 
bor, Eev. L. Debendarfer entered into 
rest at the Orphan's Farm School, Dec. 
5, 1877, in the thirty-sixth year of his 
age. His wido^y, Anna M., to whom we 
are indebted for these data, and one 
child, a daughter, survive him. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



159 



EEV. CHAS. K. DEMME, D.D. 



Kev. Charles Kudolph Demme, D.D.,! 
a son of the Rev. Dr. Herman Gottfried 
Demme, and Frederica Konig, his wife, 
was born at Miihlhausen, Thuringia, on 
the tenth of April, 1 795. His father oc- 
cupied honorable positions in his native 
country as Superintendent of Muhl- 
hausen, and subsequently as General 
Superintendent at Altenburg. The son 
pursued his earlier studies at the Gym- 
nasium at Altenburg, from which he 
was afterwards transferred to the Uni- 
versity of Gottingen, and, at a later 
period, to that of Halle. He was a 
student at the university when so many 
young Germans volunteered their ser- 
vices to repel the invasion of Napoleon. 
With many of his companions in study 
he repaired to the scene of conflict, and 
placed himself in the very front of the 
battle. At Waterloo he was carried 
wounded and bleeding from the field. 
This experience is supposed to have led 
him to abandon the hitherto cherished 
idea of studying law, and to devote 
himself to the Christian ministry, and 
also to have had much to do in origin- 
ating the purpose of making this coun- 
try his future home. He came to the 
United States in 1818, an ardent ad- 
mirer of American institutions, and the 
next year was licensed to preach by 
the Synod of Pennsylvania. His first 
charge was Hummelstown, Dauphin Co., 
Pa. After a brief but happy and use- 
ful ministry there, he received and ac- 
cepted a call, in 1822, to St. Michael's 
and Zion's Church, Philadelphia, as col- 
league of the Rev. Dr. F. D. Schgeffer. 
Here he continued to labor with great 
fidelity and success for thirty-seven 
years. At length his physical constitu- 



tion began to sink under the immense 
burden of labor which his position in 
the Church devolved upon him, and he 
made a visit to his native country in the 
hope that it might be instrumental of 
restoring to him his wonted vigor. He 
returned, apparently somewhat benefit- 
ted, but it soon became'^manifest that 
there had been no permanent favorable 
change. In 1859 he was chosen Pastor 
Emeritus, which position he retained till 
his death. As his bodily health failed, 
his mind also became clouded and en- 
feebled, so that several of his last years 
were little better than a blank. He 
died, universally lamented, on the 1st of 
September, 1863. He was the fafher of 
eleven children,— five sons and six 
daughters. In 1839 he was called to 
the Professorship of Theology in the 
Seminary at Columbus, O., and in 1849 
was elected Professor in the Theological 
Seminary of the General Synod, at 
Gettysburg, Pa. He was a member of 
the American Philosophical Society, 
and was honored with the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity, from the University 
of Pennsylvania, in 1832. He edited, 
in the German, the works of Josephus; 
published a sermon preached before the 
Synod of Pennsylvania, and one on the 
death of Dr. Helmuth; and had much to 
do, under the direction of Synod, in the 
preparation of Manuals for the Church, 
sach as Liturgies and Hymn-books. 
He was a man of great kindliness of 
spirit, of high intellectual culture, of in- 
tense devotion to his work as a minister 
of the Gospel, and one of the ablest 
divines and most eloquent preachers of 
his day. — Sprague. 



160 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



KEY. GEOEGE DIEHL, D.D. 



Dr. George Diehl was born near 
Greencastle, Franklin county, Penn. 
His parents were Michael and Catharan 
Diehl, who removed in 1808 from Lan- 
caster connty, Penn., and settled on a 
large farm lying a few miles north of 
Greencastle, and resided there for 
the remainder of their lives, the form- 
er dying in 1842 and the latter in 1847. 
Their oldest son, Samuel, followed the 
occupation of school teaching and a few 
years that of farming. He died when a 
young man, in 1834. Their second son, 
Jacob, followed the business of farming, 
living in the old homestead until his 
death, in 1889. The third son, John, 
when yet a young man located in Lou- 
isa county, Iowa, on the lands belonging 
to the Indian chief, Black Hawk, many 
of whose tribe were John Diehl's neigh- 
bors for some years. He frequently de- 
clared that in his business transactions 
the Indians and the German Lutherans 
were the most honest and reliable of all 
his neighbors. They invariably fulfilled 
their contracts and engagements, where- 
as his other neighbors required constant 
watching. John died in 1883, leaving a 
large landed estate, about twenty -five 
miles from Burlington. Another broth- 
er of the subject of this memoir was 
Prof. Michael Diehl, who, upon finish- 
ing the full course of studies in Penn- 
sylvania College and the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, was called to 
the professorship of ancient languages 
in Wittenburg College, Springfield, Ohio, 
in 1846, and occupied this chair for 
twenty-two years, till October, 1868, 
when he resigned his professorship on 
account of failing health, and died in 
March, 1869. Dr. Diehl had several sis- 
ters who departed this life many years 



ago. Two of his sisters are yet living 
in Franklin Co., Penn. 

After receiving all the education 
that the schools of the neighborhood af- 
forded, and at last in the high school 
taught by his brother Samuel in Green- 
castle, he entered the preparatory de- 
partment of Pennsylvania College, Get- 
tysurg, the last of November, 1832. In 
October, 1834, he entered the freshman 
class, graduating in September, 1837, 
being assigned by the Faculty the vale- 
dictory, which was then the highest 
honor. 

In October, 1837, Dr. Diehl was 
appointed tutor in Pennsylvania College, 
which position he filled for two years, 
prosecuting his theological studies at the 
same time. In the winter of 1840 he 
was invited to occupy the pulpit of the 
Winchester church for the space of six 
months, during the absence of their pas- 
tor. Dr. Theophilus Stork, who spent the 
winter in Mississippi. 

In the summer of 1840 he accepted a 
call from the churches in Boonsboro, 
Sharpsburg and Barbarsville, in Wash- 
ington county, Md. Under his ministry 
of three years these congregations more 
than doubled their membership. In 
August, 1843, he accepted a call from a 
newly organized congregation in'Easton, 
Pa. He completed this organization 
under the name of Christ's Church, and 
built their beautiful house of worship in 
1844. The congregation and the attend- 
ance commencing with a membership of 
about fifty, steadily increasing, it has 
become a large and influential congrega- 
tion, in which the many and prominent 
citizens of Easton worshipped. When, 
in July, 1851, Dr. Diehl accepted a call 
from the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAK BIOGBAPHIES. 



161 



of Frederick, Md., Dr. Dielil took charge 
of the church in Frederick July 6, 1851. 
The congregation had only one church 
edifice, in which all the services were 
held. The pastor immediately began to 
urge upon the congregation the import- 
ance of a new and larger church. It re- 
quired nearly three years to create a 
strong sentiment in favor of it and a 
subscription of $10,000. The new church 
was regarded as probably the finest 
Lutheran church in the United States 
at the time of its consecration Decem- 
ber, 1885. It seats comfortably eleven 
hundred persons, and was erected at a 
cost of $24,000. Dr. Diehl continued in 
the pastoral oversight of this large con- 
gregation for thirty-six years and a half, 
and the congregation steadily gained 
under his ministry. He exerted a wide 
infiuence in the town, and to some ex- 
tent throughout the county. The evi- 
dence of his popularity and the confi- 
dence of the community in him, was 
seen in the steady growth of the church, 
and in the general peace and harmony 
in the congregation. But in the sum- 
mer of 1887, when the Doctor was under 
treatment in Baltimore by an oculist, 
and unable to fill his pulpit for several 
months, one or two evil-minded persons, 
taking advantage of his affliction, deter- 
mined to work mischief in the church, 
by striking a blow at the pastor which, 
in his disabled condition, he could not 
parry. The seeds of dissention were 
sown. The minds of many people were 
poisoned, and by the grossest misrepre- 
sentations. In the ferment and aliena- 
tions produced in a congregation where 
all had been harmony, with such few 
exceptional misunderstandings that will 
always arise under a protracted ministry, 
a pastor that was universally believed to 
have the strongest hold on the affection 
and confidence of this people, was con- 
strained to surrender the practical pas- 
21 



toral oversight of a flock with which he 
should have sustained the tenderest re- 
lationship to the latest hour of his life. 
It is an instance of the fearful power of 
evil in the hand of every man who may 
be animated by malicious or wrong mo- 
tives. This capacity for mischief does 
not even require high talent or attain- 
ments. In January, 1888, more than 
fifty of Dr. Diehl' s parishioners called 
upon him without his having exerted 
any influence in that direction, and even 
without his knowledge, and entreated 
him to continue his ministerial services 
in their behalf by organizing them into 
a new congregation. These parishion- 
ers affirmed that if their request should 
be denied, they would be compelled to 
unite with churches of other denomin- 
ations; inasmuch as they could not, 
under a sense of duty to God and the 
cause of justice and piety, continue to 
worship with a congregation that had 
tolerated the great wrong done to a 
pastor by a few evil disposed persons. 

In view of these facts Dr. Diehl felt it 
his duty to continue his ministerial 
services in Frederick. Accordingly St. 
James Lutheran Church was regularly 
organized, of which he became the 
pastor. 

In 1855 Dr. Diehl, Dr. F. K. Anspach, 
and Mr. S. Newton Kurtz, purchased of 
the Maryland Synod the Lutheran Ob- 
server, with the condition that Dr. Ben- 
jamin Kurtz should continue to be editor 
for two years more. In January, 1858, 
the Lutheran Observer passed under the 
editorial control of Drs. Anspach and 
Diehl, the latter continuing as pastor of 
the Frederick Church. In January, 
1861, upon the outbreak of the civil war. 
Dr. Diehl withdrew his connection with 
the Observer. In October, 1862, Dr. 
Diehl and Dr. S. Stork re-purchased the 
Observer of S. Newton Kurtz, who had 
become the sole owner. They subse- 



162 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



quently associated with them Dr. F. W. 
Conrad. From thafc time until January, 
1867, Dr. Diehl was the senior editor of 
the Observer, and also its financial agent 
during that stormy period which wreck- 
ed many religious papers. The Doctor 
managed to make the Observer pay ex- 
penses and yield to the proprietors five 
dollars a column for their editorial 
writing, and six per cent, on the capital 
invested. 

After the organization of the General 
Counsel, and the great ability given to 
the Lutheran, the organ of the Counsel, by 
the genius and scholarship of Dr. C. P. 
Krauph, the editor of that paper, it was 
deemed advisable by the friends of the 
General Synod, that the Lutheran Observer 
should be removed from Baltimore to 
Philadelphia in January, 1867. Being too 
remote from Frederick to continue the 
chief editorship, the Doctor resigned that 
position when the paper passed into the 
control of the Lutheran Observer As- 
sociation. He, however, has been ever 
since President of the Board of Direct- 
ors and one of the special contributors. 



Dr. Diehl has also been a frequent 
contributor to the Lutheran Church 
papers. He has also contributed ar- 
ticles to the Gettysburg Union, among 
others the sketches of the life and la- 
bors of Dr. D. F. Bittle, Dr. Stork, and 
Dr. S. L. Schmucker. Several of his 
lectures and sermons have been pub- 
lished. 

Through the influence of Dr. Diehl, 
one of his parishioners, the late John 
Loots, left a legacy of over fifty thousand 
dollars, to found the Loots Female Or- 
phan Asylum at Frederick, Md., in 1882, 
of which institution Dr. Diehl is super- 
intendent and President of the Board. 

He has been a member of the Board 
of Trustees of Pennsylvania College at 
Gettysburg; served repeatedly as a di- 
rector in the Seminary Boards; a mem- 
ber of the Baltimore Pastor's Fund; has 
repeatedly been President of the Mary- 
land Synod, secretary of the General 
Synod at Charleston, S. C, 1850, and 
President of the General Synod at Day- 
ton, O., in 1871. 




KEY. JOHANNES W. C. DIETKICHSON. 



Johannes Wilhelm Christian Diet- 
richson was born in Fredrikstad, Nor- 
way, on the 4th of April, 1815. His 
parents were Capt. F. Dietrichson and 
Karen Sophie Henriette. In his early 
youth he attended the high-school at 
Fredrickstad, whose principal was at 
that time the excellent scholar and 
preacher, Eev. Eiddervold, who was 
also bishop of the diocese of Thrond- 
hjem. He attended this school up to his 
eighteenth year, when he was admitted 
to the Norway University at Christian ia, 
from which he graduated with high 
honors in 1837. Immediately after his 



graduation he received appointment as 
tutor at the salt works near Tonsberg, 
where he remained one year. He then 
returned to Christiania, where he was 
engaged for a while partly in attending 
the theological lectures in the univer- 
sity, partly in giving instruction at a 
private school, which he, in connection 
with other persons, had established, and 
partly in attending to the religious in- 
struction of the prisoners at the prison. 
In November, 1839, he was married 
to Miss Jorgine Laurense Broch, who 
soon died, leaving her husband and an 
infant son to mourn her death. In the 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



163 



spring of 1842 he made a journey 
through Denmark, Germany and Switz- 
erland. By the urgent request of 
Christian brethren, and with the prom- 
ise of partial support, he determined, 
after mature deliberation, to visit his 
countrymen in North America, for the 
purpose of breaking to them the bread 
of life. Accordingly he received holy 
ordination in Oslo Church on the 23d of 
February, 1844, Bishop C. Sorensen 
officiating. 

Having arrived at Koshkonong Prai- 
rie, Wisconsin, he preached his first 
sermon on Friday, August 30th, 1844, 
in the afternoon. The service took 
place in a barn belonging to Mr. 
Amund Anderson in the East Settle- 
ment. On the following Sunday (Sep- 
1st and 13th Sunday after Trinity) he 
held communion services at the same 
place in the forenoon. On the follow- 
ing Monday (September 2d) he held 
services with communion in the West 
Settlement under a large oak on Mr. 
Knud Aslakon's farm. On the 10th of 
October, 1844, at a meeting held in the 
East Settlement at Mr. Asmand Ander- 
son's house, he organized a congrega- 
tion of forty families, and on Saturday, 
October 19th, he organized a congrega- 
tion in the West Settlement of about 
thirty families. From these congrega- 
tions Mr. Dietrichson received a call on 
the 3d of March, 1845, which he accept- 
ed, on condition that the congregations 
should grant him permission first to 



make a trip to Norway. He secured 
the temporary services of Bev. C. L. 
Clausen, then of Muskego, Wis., to 
minister to his congregations during 
his absence. May 12th, 1845, Mr. Diet- 
richson left for Norway, where he was 
married to Charlotte Mueller, returning 
to America in September, 1846. On 
his arrival, Bev. Clausen retiirned to 
his charge at Muskego, and Dietrichson 
resumed his labors as pastor at Kosh- 
konong, where he remained until 1850, 
when he again, accompanied by his 
wife, went to Norway, the congregations 
having called Bev. A. C. Preus to be 
his successor at Koshkonong. 

During his pastorate at Koshkonong 
Bev. Dietrichson made many missionary 
journeys in Wisconsin, organizing con- 
gregations at Bock Biver, Pine Lake, 
Heart Prairie, Sugar Creek, White- 
water, Spring Prairie, Norway Grove, 
and Bonnet Prairie. 

Mr. Dietrichson was the first pastor 
from Norway who came to America. 
After his return to Norway he ]-eceived 
appointment as resident pastor at Ner- 
strand, where he remained from 1851 to 
1862. He was then removed to East 
Moland, where he labored until about 
1874. At about this time he resigned 
from the active ministry and was ap- 
pointed postmaster at Porsgrund. 
Here he died about 1882 from a stroke 
of paralysis. He leaves a wife and a 
daughter. 



BEY. J. B. DIMM, D.D. 



About the year 1741, the ancestors of 
the subject of the present biographical 
sketch came from Germany, and settled 
in Philadelphia, Pa. Springing from a 
family of Lutherans from the beginning. 



he belonged to the fourth generation. 
He was born on August 28, 1830, near 
the village of Muncy, Lycoming Co., 
Pa., and was a son of Simon and Bebecca 
Bose Dimm. He received the solemn 



164 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



rite of baptism in infancy, at Emanuel's 
Lutheran Church near his birthplace. 
He grew up on the farm of his father, 
and was accustomed to labor. He at- 
tended the public schools and was al 
ways among the first in his classes of 
the same. At the age of twenty, after a 
course of instruction in the catechism, 
on giving evidence of thorough devotion 
to Christ, he was confirmed by Eev. 
George Parson, in the church of his 
fathers. Under the guidance of his 
pastor he entered the preparatory de- 
partment of Pennsylvania College, at 
the age of twenty-one, in response to 
what he felt to be a divine call to the 
sacred office of the ministry. He was a 
close, honest, hard- working student. At 
the end of the whole classical course of 
two years in the preparatory and four 
years in the college, he was rewarded by 
the faculty with the first honor of his 
class at graduation. 

Obstructed by the want of means and 
unaided by the church, he was compelled 
to take the course of theology while teach- 
ing in an academy. Having noted down 
the course of two years, as then laid out 
in the seminary at Gettysburg, he went 
in September, 1857, to take charge of 
the classical school at Aaronsburg, Cen- 
tre Co., Pa.; there, with one assistant, 
he conducted and taught a full school, 
applying himself early and late to the 
study of theology till 1859. Among the 
influential men started there by him is 
Dr. E. J. Wolf, of the theological semi- 
nary. In September of that year he 
was examined and licensed by the Synod 
of East Pennsylvania, having* already 
accepted a call to the Lutheran church 
at Bloomsburg, Columbia Co., Pa. Here 
he labored eight years as pastor, doub- 
ling the Sunday-school and member- 
ship of the church, and assisting in 
laying, all over the Susquehanna region, 
those foundations which have resulted 



in the distinguished success of the Sus- 
quehanna Synod. During the latter 
part of his time there he helped to or- 
ganize and to baild the Bloomsburg 
State Normal School, teaching the 
classics in the same for one year. In 
August, 1867, he was unanimously elect- 
ed to the pastorship of St. Peter's 
Church at Barren Hill, ten miles out of 
Philadelphia. During the four years of 
his pastorate the congregation was in- 
creased about one-third, the church re- 
modeled, a private classical school con- 
ducted, and three young men started in 
their education for the ministry who are 
now filling first-class positions in the 
Church. 

In 1871 he was elected to the Secreta- 
ryship of the Lutheran Publication So- 
ciety of Philadelphia. In this service 
he traveled a year and three months 
arousing the churches of five states, as 
far as possible, to the support of their 
own publication house. During this 
time he assisted in starting those enter- 
prises which have set the publication 
house on its feet. 

In 1873 he was elected pastor of Mes- 
siah Lutheran Church, at Sixteenth and 
JefPerson streets, Philadelphia. Here 
he came into possession of a church 
floundering with debt. He succeeded 
in saving the church from sale by the 
sherift* and reducing the debt within the 
limits of control. 

In 1874 he consented, after a year of 
solicitation, to become the principal 
of Luther ville Female Seminary. He 
conducted this school over the six years 
of great financial depression, raising the 
standard of scholarship, and repairing 
the building at pecuniary loss. 

In 1880 he retired to Kimberton, 
Chester Co., Pa., to seek some rest and 
to organize a school for a man that 
owned a school building. Before reach- 
ing the place he was elected pastor of 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



165 



the charge of two churches, which just 
then became vacant. Accepting the 
situation, he again found himself over- 
whelmed with the intensity of labor. 

In 1882, a vacancy occurring, he was, 
without any solicitation or knowledge 
on his part, elected by the Board of 
Missionary Institute, at Selinsgrove, 
Pa., and solicited to become the princi- 
pal of the Classical Department of 
that institution. He has now filled this 
position for eight years, and he still 
remains. 

Under his management the number 



of students has been doubled, the stand- 
ard of scholarship raised, the curricu- 
lum lengthened by the addition of one 
class, the buildings repaired, and the 
dignity and reputation of the school en- 
hanced. This institution is chartered, 
prepares students for the junior class of 
any college in Pennsylvania or adjacent 
states, and the tendency is that of grow- 
ing up into a full college. 

In 1884 the title of D.D. was con- 
ferred upon Rev. Dimm by Pennsylva- 
nia College, his Alma Mater. 




REV. HEINRICH K. G. DOERMANN. 



Mr. Doermann was born January 6, 
1860, in Olean, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., 
of German parents, and in holy baptism 
which he received on the day of his 
birth, on account of serious illness. He 
received the name, Heinrich Karl Gott- 
hilf Doermann. His father is the Rev. 
J. H. Doermann, the Evangelical Luth- 
eran pastor of Blue Island, 111., and his 



mother Maria, nee Allwardt. On account 
of throat trouble his father had to seek 
a warmer climate, and thus accepted a 
charge of three congregations in Ran- 
dolph Co., 111., when young Doermann 
was three years of age. Here he re- 
ceived a good common-school education 
in his father's parochial school, taught 
by Mr. W. Lohmeier. After he had re- 



166 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ceived due instruction he was confirmed 
in the Evangelical Lutheran St. Peter's 
Church, of Bremen, by his father, who 
thereupon, in September, 1874, sent him 
to Concordia College, Ft. Wayne, Ind., 
with a view of preparing him to enter 
into the ministry. He received at col- 
lege no other support but of his father. 
He graduated in June, 1880, and in Sep- 
tember of the same yf^ar entered the 
Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Theo- 
logical Seminary, of St. Louis, Mo., 
where he received his theological train- 
ing, mainly under the Eev. Prof. C. F. 
W. Walther, D.D., the leader of the 
Missouri Synod. 

In February, 1882, a call was extend- 
ed to him from a small number of Lu- 
therans in Chicago, 111., who for con- 
science sake resigned their membership 
with the congregation of a Missouri 
minister. He accepted the call and was 
examined by the theological faculty of 
Capital University, Columbus, O., and 
was given by them a testimonium ortho- 
doxicB et faeultatis. 

His ordination took place March 5, 
1882, in the Swedish Evangelical Lu- 
theran Church, on Houston Ave., Chi- 
cago, conducted by his father, assisted 
by Eev. Prof. H. Ernst, of Afton, Minn., 
and the Eev. H. P. Duborg, of Minne- 
sota. Thirteen members, organized as 
Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
purchased three lots on Ninety-first St. 
and Superior Av., built a two-story 
house thereon, the upper floor being in- 
tended for a chapel and the lower for a 
school-room. In less than a year the 
school had seventy pupils, and the con- 
gregation, which had greatly increased, 
called Mr. F. Ganschow to take the 
school off the pastor's hands, in order 
to give him more time for pastoral work. 
The chapel soon became too small, but, 
on account of scarcity of money — his 
people being all day-laborers — they 



had to defer building a larger church. 
In the spring of 1885, however, the 
congregation, rather than see people 
turned away Sunday after Sunday for 
want of room, decided to build, which 
was all the more praiseworthy since 
there was still a debt of |2,100 resting 
on the old church property. 

The new church is a frame structure, 
with brick basement for a parsonage. 
The capacity of the church is 800. It 
has a 2,600-pound bell and a $1,400 pipe 
organ. Its total cost was ^10,800. 

Eev. Doermann again took part in 
teaching his school, which increased so 
remarkably that the congregation called 
Mr. Ch. Schnizler as a second teacher." 

His congregation was throughout a 
German one with a sprinkling of Danes, 
who were, however, able to use the Ger- 
man language. He had no occasion to 
preach a single English sermon. While 
at this place, he lived in a Scandinavian 
neighborhood; and made himself ac- 
quainted with their language, so that 
in less than two years he could read, 
write, and understand — but not speak 
much — Norwegian, Danish, and Swed- 
ish, and also a little Polish. 

In September, 1888, the Joint Synod 
of Ohio established an English Practi- 
cal Theological Seminary at Hickory, N. 
C, having bought the Eoman Catholic 
convent at that place for $6,000. Mr. 
Doermann was elected President and 
Theological Professor of the new insti- 
tution. He laid the call before his con- 
gregation and they did what they had 
done on six or seven previous occasions, 
when he had received calls, — unani- 
mously declined to let him go. The 
call, however, was renewed, and this time, 
though with great reluctance, they re- 
solved that they would not protest i£ he 
were convinced that he must accept the 
call. Having secured a successor in 
the person of Eev. A. J. Feger, ho went 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



167 



to Hickory and began to teach February 
1, 1889. He had eight students to begin 
with. The next year he had thirteen, 
and this year he has twenty three to 
twenty-six. He became a member of 
the Ohio Synod in 1882, and served 
six consecutive years as secretary of the 
Northwestern District. Since his re- 
moval to North Carolina he is a mem- 
ber of Concordia District, being Vice- 
President and Yisitator of the same. 

He was married January 1, 1890, to 
Miss Ketta Nicol, of Marysville, Ohio, 
also of German parentage. 

He has quite a number of relatives in 
the ministry: his father, three brothers, 
four brothers-in-law, several cousins, 
and three uncles; among the latter is 
Rev. Prof.F. A. Schmidt, D. D., of North- 



field, Minn., and the Rev. H. A. All- 
wardt, of Lebanon, Wis. 

His favorite work has been, and still 
is, preaching; for, although he teaches 
five classes daily five days in the week, 
yet he preaches several \ times every 
Sunday, serving five congregations tem- 
porarily until they can be supplied with 
a pastor. He is obliged to travel 118 
miles to make the circuit, all on horse 
back, on account of the mountainous 
territory. In preaching and teaching 
he speaks and lectures without a man- 
uscript. 

On the whole it must be said that 
Prof. Doermann's career since his ordi- 
nation, although he is still only a little 
above thirty years of age, has been very 
successful. "Soli Deo Gloria." 




REY. SAMUEL DOMER, D. D. 



Dr. Domer, pastor of St. Paul's Eng- 
lish Lutheran Church, Washington, 
D. C, was born in 1826, at Sabbath 
Rest, Blair County, Pennsylvania, where 
his childhood and youth were passed. 
His parents were John and Catherine 
Domer; his father a native of Frederick 
County, Md., his mother of Pennsyl- 
vania, and both of Germanic origin, 
whose ancestors many years before had 
emigrated to America. His father and 
mother were both sincerely devout and 
pious, and from childhood he had the 
loving attention and training which 
such parentage involves. The family 
genealogical record is in many respects 
very meagre; but tradition has it that 
some generations back the name appear- 
ed with some degree of prominence in 
the clerical roll of the Church in Ger- 
many. His grandfather was a man of 
the most sterling integrity and of re- 



spectable attainments, educated chiefly 
in the German language, and remark- 
able for his knowledge of the Sacred 
Scriptures. He was a pillar in the 
church of the wilderness, for he was a 
pioneer settler in that country, and his 
house was the home of the early mis- 
sionaries and pastors, when they found 
their first sanctuaries along the moun- 
tain streams and in the dark forests of 
Pennsylvania. Mr. Domer's early edu- 
cation was pursued in the common 
country schools. He was intensely fond 
of study, and never failed to keep him- 
self at the front in his efforts to ad- 
vance in learning. When only about 
sixteen or seventeen years of age, he be- 
gan to teach a country school in the 
pine forests of Cambria county. Pa., ap- 
plying himself meanwhile earnestly to 
self-culture, and making his first teach- 
ing effort a great success among the 



168 



AMEEICAN LXJTHEBAN B10GBAI>HIES. 




EEY. SAMUEL DOMEE, D. D. 



lumbermen of that district. He re- 
ceived a salary of sixteen dollars per 
month, out of which he paid five dollars 
per month for board and lodging. After 
that he alternated between study and 
teaching and other kinds of work. Ne- 
cessity compelled him to rely on his 
own efforts, and this self-reliance made 
him the more determined and inde- 
pendent. His pathway onward was 
often rough and steep, and in the face 
of sternest financial impediments he 
was compelled to make his way as best 
he could, — "faint, yet pursuing," he 
persevered in his purpose to achieve 
the end which he kept steadily in view. 
In the spring of 1849 he entered 
Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, 
and was graduated with the second 
honors of his class in 1853. He entered 
the Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, soon after his 



graduation at college. Rev. S. S. 
Schmucker, D. D., and Eev. C. P. 
Krauth, D. D., were the active and dis- 
tinguished professors in that seminary 
at that time. Under their guidance and 
care Mr. Domer passed his seminary 
career. He left the seminary in the 
spring of 1855, and under the sanction 
and recommendation of Dr. Schmucker 
accepted a call to the pastorate of the 
English Lutheran Church at Selins- 
grove, Pennsylvania. He began his 
ministry there May 17, 1855, before he 
was regularly licensed. He was licensed 
by the old Pittsburg Synod, at Canton, 
Ohio, in June of the same year. On 
the examining committee of the Syuod 
were Drs. C. P. Krauth, Jr., and W. A. 
Passavant, whose names are in honor in 
all the churches. Mr. Domer was 
transferred as a licentiate from the 
Pittsburg Synod to the East }*ennsyl- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



169 



vania Synod, and the followiDg year 
was ordaiDed to the ministry by the 
latter Synod. He resided at Selins- 
grove fourteen years; eleven years as 
pastor of the church. At the close of 
the tenth year of his pastorate he took 
charge of the Susquehanna Female 
College in the same town, and from 1865 
to 1869 was its principal, serving the 
Church also as pastor one year longer 
in connection with his labors as princi- 
pal of the college. He resigned the 
pastorate in 1860, and for three follow- 
ing years devoted himself principally 
to the duties of the school. Prosperity 
and success crowned his labors in that 
institution; but, his tastes and inclina- 
tions running in the direction of minis- 
terial work, he resigned his charge of 
the school, and accepted a call to St. 
Matthew's English Lutheran Church in 
the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, in 
June, 1869. He remained at Reading 
three years, during which time he had 
much success and made many warm and 
valued friends. On account of failing 
health he was compelled to resign and 
rest a while. Subsequently he accept- 
ed a call from the Trinity Lutheran 
Church of Shamokin, Pa., to which 
place he removed in October, 1872. He 
labored there for two years with great 
satisfaction and success. He was call- 
ed to the pastorate of St. Paul's English 
Lutheran Church, Washington, D. C, 
in November, 1874, and has continued 
in this church ever since, a period now 
of sixteen years. 

During his tirst pastorate he was as- 
sociated with the Rev. Dr. Benjamin 
Kurtz and Rev. Dr. H. Ziegler and 
others in founding and establishing 
Missionary Institute, a classical and 
theological institution at Selinsgrove, in 
which he served for some time as a vol- 
untary professor in connection with the 
pastorate of the local church. He was 
22 



also one of the founders of Susquehanna 
Female College, before referred to. He 
was invited to the presidency of a fe- 
male college in one of the Southern 
states, prior to the war, but declined be- 
cause of his preference for pastoral 
work. At the annual commencement 
of Roanoke College, Virginia, in June, 
1876, the board of directors conferred 
on him the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Divinity. He had delivered the Bac- 
calaureate address at the annual com- 
mencement of the college the year pre- 
vious, at the special invitation of Dr. 
Bittle, the president, whose warm per- 
sonal friendship he greatly appreciated 
and valued. Dr. Domer has, at various 
times during his ministry, received calls 
to a number of prominent congregations 
in the Church in Cincinnati, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia and other places, but his 
ministry of thirty-five years has been 
given to the four churches already 
named. As a writer and author for 
publications Dr. Domer has given to 
the public a number of sermons, ad- 
dresses and lectures. His published 
discourse, delivered on Thanksgiving 
Day — the last Thanksgiving of the first 
century of the nation — in 1875, in Foun- 
dry Methodist Episcopal Church, Wash- 
ington, D. C, was pronounced "a mas- 
terpiece of eloquence" by some who 
were present on the occasion, and its 
publication was demanded at once by 
the unanimous voice of the oongrega- 
tion before the benediction was pro- 
nounced. He was frequently applauded 
before the public as a lecturer at college 
commencements, before literary socie- 
ties, and on other occasions, but he has 
never aimed at making a specialty of 
this kind of work. A series of some 
twelve lectures on the "Reformation of 
the Sixteenth Century," delivered in his 
own church at Washington in the autumn 
of 1883, the four hundredth anni- 



170 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



versary of the birth of Luther, attracted 
much attention and interest in the city. 
A vigorous response and criticism from 
Roman Catholic papers attested the 
strength of the impression made by the 
lectures. 

Dr. Domer was married January 28, 
1858, to Miss L. Louisa, youngest 
daughter of Col. J. K. Davis, of Selins- 
grove, Pennsylvania. Her brother, 
Capt. Charles S. Davis, commanded 
Company G, one hundred and forty- 
seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- 
teers, General Geary's Brigade, and 
was killed at the battle of Lookout 
Mountain and Taylor's Ridge, in Nov- 
ember, 1863. A family of six children, 
four sons and two daughters, constitute 
the home circle of Mr. and Mrs. Domer. 
The first born, a son, died at Selins- 
grove, when only three years and three 
months of age. The sons, all younger 
than the daughters, are still at home. 
The two daughters are married, the 
older one, Delia Irene, to John S. Alle- 
Esq., of Harrisburg, Pa.; the 



man, 



second daughter, Eulalie, to Clarence 
B. Rheem, of the firm of B. H. Warner 
& Co., of Washington, D. C. Dr. 
Domer's family is one of much musical 



talent, and the daughters are widely 
known for their fine voices and excellent 
singing. 

Dr. Domer is a man of large stature 
and well proportioned physique. He 
measures six feet one and a half inches 
in height, and weighs two hundred 
pounds. 

A few years ago Dr. Domer visited 
various localities in the west and north- 
west going as far as Salt Lake City. 
He made it a part of his business to 
visit the Scandinavian churches along 
the line of his travels as he had oppor- 
tunity. The result of his experience 
among the ministers and people thus 
visited, has been to put him into deep- 
est sympathy with their enterprises and 
movements. He is enthusiastic in his 
mention of their earnest piety and their 
energetic efforts to extend the Redeem- 
er's kingdom in "the great, the growing, 
the mighty west." Dr. Domer is no 
dogmatist in religion. The Father- 
hood of God, the Christhood of Jesus, 
and the Brotherhood of man are central 
in his theology, and at the same 
measure, the range of his views as 
touching the doctrines of the church. 




REV. GEORGE J. DONMEYER. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Centre County, Pa.,. on the 17th day 
of June, 1814, being at the time of his 
demise 72 years, 9 months and 27 days 
old. 

Rev. Donmeyer's parents were Penn- 
sylvania Germans, whose parents had 
immigrated from the Fatherland in their 
youth. They resided in Centre county, 
and were in humble circumstances. The 
subject of this sketch labored with his 
father at the trade of a shoemaker from 



his eleventh to his eighteenth year. 
He had no advantages of attending 
school in his childhood, but learned to 
read German from his mother, who la- 
bored to direct him in the way he 
should go. At eighteen years of age he 
gave up the shoemaker's business as 
not agreeable to his liking, and in- 
jurious to his health. He engaged in 
manual labor of any kind that would 
pay best, and in two years was able to 
lay up the snug sum of $300 clear gain. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



171 



He now commenced going to school, 
and was so far advanced that he could 
teach, and at twenty years of age did 
teach for six or eight months, both 
English and German; and in a year or 
two afterwards he had a school of eighty 
scholars for one winter. He had a 
sti'ong desire to study for the ministry 
from his "earliest recollections," as he 
says, in which his pious mother en- 
couraged him. At nineteen years of 
age, after a course of religious instruc- 
tion, he was confirmed as a member of 
the Lutheran Church. He had a great 
struggle until his mind was finally made 
up to go to an institution to study for 
the ministry — until at twenty-two years 
of age he repaired to Gettysburg, and 
on the eighteenth day of June, 1836, he 
entered Pennsylvania College. He first 
boarded in the Seminary building, with 
some forty other students, and soon got 
into great mental trouble, under the 
conviction that he was not really con- 
verted to God, and of course was not fit 
to become a minister of the gospel. 
For a while he thought that he had 
better give up the idea altogether, and 
leave the institution. But his convic- 
tions deepened — he could not rest — he 
used to go out into a grove back of the 
seminary at night, and plead with God 
in earnest prayer for guidance and di- 
rection. His cries were heard and an- 
swered — he gave himself up to Christ, 
and obtained joy and peace by believing. 
He now went on with his studies gladly 
and happily. 

In March, 1842, he was licensed by 
the Alleghany Synod, and on the 1st of 
April of the same year, he took charge 



of churches in Clearfield Co., Pa. On 
his resignation ho came west and set- 
tled in Stephenson Co., 111., and on the 
12th of May, 1850, commenced his labors 
here, where he continued for thirty- 
seven years, until the day of his death. 
He was the first Lutheran minister that 
ever preached in Stephenson county, 
and laid the foundation of nearly all our 
churches there, amounting to about a 
dozen, organizing congregations and 
building houses of worship. He preach- 
at the little brick school house at Wad- 
dam's Grove, sometimes at Freeport, at 
Richland school house, at Cedarville, 
New Pennsylvania, Babb's school house, 
Yellow Creek, Rock Grove, Ault's school 
house, and afterwards also Forreston, 
Brookville, Polo, Adaline, and Mt. Car- 
rol. Salem church, at Rock Grove, was 
organized September 28th, 1850, and 
Unity on the 14:th of the same month. 

When he started West, the Home 
Missionary Society gave him $100; after- 
wards he received no further aid, as far 
as I have been able to learn. He was 
an industrious and hard-working man — 
economical, kind-hearted, and able to 
help himself in many ways. He 
preached in both the German and Eng- 
lish languages, and was a good Bible 
preacher, plain, earnest, solemn and di- 
rect, and "the common people heard 
him gladly." 

By his saving and care he[;Was'able to 
buy a good farm, on which he lived to 
the day of his death, and which is left 
to his widow and family. He leaves a 
wife and seven children, — five sons and 
two daughters, — all of age and able to 
help themselves. S. W. Hakkey. 



172 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




KEY. T. F. DOENBLASEE. 



In the Knight and Soldier of October 
26, 1887, is presented the portrait which 
now appears on this page. Underneath 
the picture, in the Knight and Soldier, we 
read: "T. F. Dornblaser, Sergeant Co. E., 
7th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Post Chap- 
lain Lincoln Post, No. 1, Department of 
Kansas." 

Eev. T. F. Dornblaser was born near 
Clintondale, Clinton Co., Pa., June 27, 
1841. He spent his boyhood on his 
father's farm where he was born. At 
the age of seventeen he began teaching 
school, which profession he followed un- 
til the outbreak of the rebellion. 

Eev. Dornblaser was married at Cen- 
tre Hall, Pa., September 15, 1872, to Miss 
Annie Shannon, a graduate of Luther- 
ville Female Seminary, Lutherville, Md., 
and their family consists of five children: 
Mabel, John, Josephine, Frank, and 
Paul Logan. 

He served in his regiment (the 7th 
Pennsylvania Cavalry ) from October 14, 
1861, until August 27, 1865, during 
which time he was in many battles and 
fighting engagements, among which were : 
Stone Eiver, The Tullahoma Campaign, 



Chicamauga, Mission Eidge, Atlanta 
Campaign, Kilpatrick's Eaid, Pursuit of 
Hood, Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, 
and Macon. In these various engage- 
ments and campaigns he had three horses 
shot in battle, and was twice wounded 
himself, and still carries in his fiesh a 
piece of rebel lead as a memento of what 
used to be considered "rebellion." How- 
ever, we are inclined to think that no 
amount of majorities could ever make 
the Chaplain believe that it was other- 
wise than open rebellion of a very kill- 
ing kind. He wasn't hit by "difference 
of opinion," but by traitorous rebel lead. 

During his term of service in the army 
he was a regular correspondent for his 
home newspapers, writing over the name 
"Dragoon," and since the war he has 
gathered his articles together and from 
them has produced a very interesting 
book called "Sabre Strokes," by 
"Dragoon." 

With the money he had saved in the 
army he paid his way at college until he 
graduated from Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, O., in 1872. In the same 
year he was ordained to the gospel min- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



173 



istry in the English Evangelical Luth- 
eran Church. He served a charge in 
Ohio for two years, then went to Kansas 
City as pastor of the First Lutheran 
Church, where he remained five years. 
The two years following he was State 
Missionary for the Kansas Synod, and 
in 1881 became pastor of the English 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Topeka, 
Kansas, which for nearly ten years pre- 
vious had been — not dead, but sleeping 
very, very sound. After preaching two 



years in the little, dingy church building 
on Topeka Avenue, an effort, under his 
leadership, was successfully made to 
erect a more commodious and inviting 
place of worship. The result was the 
present handsome church home. 

Rev. Dornblaser is but a young man 
yet in years, and this article is not in- 
tended as a history of his life, but only 
a sketch of the first part of it. We hope 
many years of usefulness in his Master's 
work are yet before him. 




REY. T. W. DOSH, D. D. 



Genial, gentle Dr. Dosh; handsome in 
appearance, graceful in movement, kind 
in manners, and earnest and solemn in 
demeanor, he was in his day one of the 
leading spirits of the church in the South. 
He was bom in the lovely little, quiet 
village of Strasburg, Ya., November 21, 
1830. In holy baptism he received the 
name Thomas William Luther. In 
1851 he began his studies in Gettysburg, 
having taught school awhile before he 
started off, as student. He graduated in 
the same class with the celebrated Rev. 
Dr. S. Aughey, in 1856, and had the 
honor of delivering the valedictory of 
the class on commencement day. Re- 
turning to Gettysburg to complete his 
theological studies, he spent two years 
there, and in 1858 entered the ministry. 

He was sent in 1859 by the Yirginia 
Synod to begin a mission in the city of 
Wheeling, now West Yirginia, and la- 
bored there from 1859 to 1861, when, 
true to his Southern training, instincts, 
friends and home, he crossed the lines 
and cast in his lot with the South in her 
struggles. He did an excellent work in 
Wheeling, and laid the foundation of 
the present prosperous English Lutheran 
Church and Sunday-school there. In 



1862 he became pastor of the church at 
Winchester, Ya., and remained there 
until 1872, a period of ten years. This 
was the longest pastorate of his life, and 
he did a blessed work. In 1872 he was 
honored by a call to become assistant 
pastor of the distinguished Rev. Dr. 
Bachman, in the old historical St. John's 
Church, in the city of Charleston, S. C, 
and accepted the call. He so faithfully 
performed his duties, and so endeared 
himself to his congregation as to be 
elected pastor after the death of the la- 
mented Dr. Bachman, and labored here 
from 1872 to 1876. In connection with 
his pastoral labors, he became editor of 
The Lutheran Visitor, and so served the 
church in a two-fold capacity. From 
1876 to 1877 he was pastor of the old 
St. John's church, Salisbury, N. C, in 
which the North Carolina Synod was 
organized in 1803. 

In 1877 he became president of Roa- 
noke College and so removed from 
Charleston, S. C, to Salem, Ya., where 
Roanoke College is located. Having 
filled this high and important trust for 
one year, he became a professor in the 
Theological Seminary in Salem, and in 
this capacity labored from 1878 until the 



174 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



unfortunate closing of the seminary, by 
the Southern General Synod, in its con- 
vention in Charleston, S. C, when it 
was closed by a majority vote of only 
one, in 1884. Associated with Eev. 
Prof. S. A. Eepass, D.D., in the semi- 
nary, quite a number of young men were 
trained for the ministry, who will revere 
his memory as long as they live. Some 
of these young men have risen to great 
prominence, and all of them are serving 
the Church well. 

Dr. Dosh was an eloquent preacher, 
and was always gladly heard. Coupled 
with his eloquence, there was manifest 
in his speech and manner a sincerity 
that impressed itself upon the mind 
and heart of the hearer. His diction 
was lofty, his sentences were clean cut, 
his sermons well arranged, and his de- 
livery eloquent and impressive. 

Subsequent to his severing his rela- 
tions with the theological seminary, he 
edited the Lutheran Home, an excellent 
monthly magazine. Whilst editor of 
this valuable, useful, and necessary 
periodical, he spent two weeks with the 
writer as his guest, and then and there 
we learned to know and understand 
fully his sufiPe rings. We have seen him 
kneel for half an hour beside a sofa to 
find relief from pain and sickness, be- 
ing unable to sit up or lie down. In 
all his trials and sufferings he was calm 
and patient, and ever inclined to a spirit 



of prayer. He was devotedly pious and 
entirely consecrated to God. 

After editing the Lutheran Home for 
some time, he accepted a call from the 
Burkittsville, Md., charge, which he 
served with great acceptance up to the 
time of his death, Tuesday, December 
24th, 1889, in the sixtieth year of his 
age. He was married November 3d, 
1864, to Miss Kate Baker Brown, of 
Winchester, Va., who, with two sons 
and three daughters, survives him. 

In 1875 Eoanoke College gave him the 
degree of D.D., which he justly merited. 

He was buried at Winchester, Va., 
where he had spent ten years of his 
life, and where he had found and mar- 
ried his most excellent wife. 

Like Hugo of St. Victor, who prayed 
God for three things: (1) that his last 
food on earth should be the holy com- 
munion; (2) that his last thought 
might be the thought of Christ upon 
the cross in His bitter sufferings; and 
(3) that his last word might be Jesus, 
so Pastor Dosh's only wish, desire, and 
aim was to be true to God. A good 
man has gone to rest. "O Eest! thou 
soft word! Autumnal flower of Eden! 
Moonlight of the spirit! Eest of the 
soul, when wilt thou hold our head that 
it may be still, and our heart that it 
may cease beating and aching? O come, 
EesJ} for the sonl, and then God grant 
us 'Wiedersehen: " F. W.. E. P. 




EEV. JOHN DYLANDEE. 



Mr. Dylander, adjunct in the church 
of Borstil, being called and appointed 
as pastor of the Lutheran congregation 
at Wicacoa (Philadelphia), by the Ec- 
clesiastical Consistory of Sweden, de- 
parted from Stockholm on the 13th of 
July, 1737, and arrived at Philadelphia 



on the 2d of November of the same year. 
The voyage was quick and did not occu- 
py more than five weeks from Stockholm 
to London, and seven weeks from 
London to Philadelphia. He entered 
upon his duties in the church on the 6th 
of November, 1737, that being the 22d 



AMEBICAN LtJTHEKAN BIOOBAPHIES. 



175 



Sunday after Trinity, when he for the 
first time preached before a very nu- 
merous congregation. His superior 
gifts and pleasant manner of intercourse 
with his people secured for him not only 
love and respect within the congrega- 
tion, but also the friendship of all who 
knew him. 

His Christian zeal and fluency in the 
German enabled him to found German 
churches at Germantown and Lancaster, 
regularly conducting an early morning 
service in German in his church at 
Wicacoa, preaching at the usual hour 
in Swedish, and in the afternoon in 
English. His English was so elegant 
and his address so engaging, that he 
captivated the English population, and 
he became so popular with that element 
that he was called upon to solemnize 
most of their marriages. This so ex- 
cited the English Episcopal clergyman 
that he lodged a complaint against him 
before the Governor, who, however, de- 
clined interfering, declaring that the 
people in this country had the right to 
get married wherever they pleased. 

The establishing of good order in the 
church was faithfully attended to by 
Pastor Dylander. Especially did he re- 
mind the church wardens of their duty. 
Each one in his turn was to see to it 
that the congregation should practice 
their Christian duties, lead an honor- 



able and Christian life and keep their 
children in the same. If any intention- 
al violation of this was noticed, it should 
be proceeded against according to the 
grades of warning in the church laws, 
and, in defect of improvement, such a 
person should be expelled. 

The joy now universally felt at the 
good regulations that were established 
in Wicacoa, as well in the church as out- 
side of it, the pleasure experienced by 
the Archbishop and the Ecclesiastical 
Consistory of Upsala from a frequent 
interchange of letters with their mission- 
ary, and the remarkable esteem that 
Pastor Dylander had secured over the 
whole country — all this was soon ter- 
minated by his death, which occurred 
on the 2d of November, 1741. His life- 
less body was laid out in Wicacoa 
Church, and honored in a funeral ser- 
mon in English by Pastor Peter Tran- 
berg, in the presence of a great multi- 
tude of people, as well from the congre- 
gation as from the city of Philadelphia, 
of all forms of religion. All laid this 
tribute of praise upon his grave — that 
he was a chosen teacher for the Church, 
an ornament of his order, an honor to 
his countrymen, and an affectionate hus- 
band to his widow, the daughter of 
Peter Kock, of Passayungh. — See Wolfs 
^^The Lutherans in Ameriea," and Aerelius* 
'^History of New Sweden/' 



:©: 



EEV. EEANELIN S. DIETKICH. 



The same copy of the General Coun- 
cil minutes that records the death of 
Missionary Carlson mentions the send- 
ing out of Kev. Franklin S. Dietrich, 
to the Rajahmundry Mission. He sailed 
October 17th, 1882. His earthly course 
was finished June 11th, 1889. 



Rev. Dietrich, was, like Artman, of 
Pennsylvania German origin. He was 
born in Albany Township, Berks Co., 
Pa. He was an alumnus of XJrsinus 
(Ger. Reformed) College, and of the 
Philadelphia Theological Seminary, 
which has in recent times given so many 



176 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. FEANKLIN S. DIETRICH. 



of. her sons to tlie India work. The ser- 
vice of consecration was held for the 
first time outside of Philadelphia, in 
Trinity Church, Eeading, Pa. At sem- 
inary and in the mission field Dietrich 
was characterized by modesty and dili- 
gence. "His missionary life was a 
growth that developed itself in a correct 
appreciation of the needs of the heathen, 
and the best methods for meeting them, 
in a hope that was always rejoicing, and 
in plentifully sowing the good seed of 
the Word that will bear fruit unto eter- 
nal life," is the language of his colleague^ 
in India. 

At first Dietrich assisted Artman in 



the English department of the schools 
and in the instruction of a class of 
Brahmins. His duties widened until at 
his death he was in charge of the Dow- 
laishwaram district, and temporarily also 
of the Samulcotta district. His estimate 
of the situation at the time of his de- 
parture was, that Hinduism is beginning 
to marshal its strength against the 
Christian religion. He believed that 
great events would happen in the re- 
ligious world in the next five years. 
But he was not spared to see them. 
After a few days illness, and while in 
the midst of house-building at Dow- 
laishwaram, he died. He was unmarried. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



177 



REV. HOLMES DY8INGER, D.D. 



This gentleman is president of Car- 
thage College at Carthage, the county 
seat of Hancock county, Illinois. He 
was born near Mifflin, Pa., March 26th, 
1853. Though yet young, this gentle- 
man has occupied several positions of 
honorable distinction, and his career 
and character furnish a pleasing illus- 
tration of the value of early home dis- 
cipline. No richer fortune has ever been 
given to a child than that of good 
raising. Though unable to apportion to 
their children a wealthy estate, the pa- 
rents of Holmes Dysinger and his five 
brothers and one sister, made their home 
a school of instruction in all the virtues 
of love for one another, obedience to su- 
periors, self-control, industry, economy, 
and reverence for God. 

With the exception of his great-grand- 
father on his mother's side of the an- 
cestral line, the lineage of Dr. Dysinger 
was German. His ancestors settled 
originally in York and Lancaster count- 
ies, Pennsylvania, more than a hundred 
years ago. His grandparents on both 
sides subsequently migrated to that part 
of Mifflin county which was afterwards 
cut off, and which now forms the county 
of Juniata. Here his parents, Joseph 
Dysinger and Mary Amelia Patterson, 
were united in marriage November 30th, 
1850. Here at the pioneer age of 
Juniata county, was the humble but 
happy and well-ordered mansion of 



rental love. Purity of thought, speech 
and act held sway where no intrusion of 
profane or offensive vulgarities was al- 
lowed. The free use of good period- 
icals was deemed a more desirable em- 
ployment for the hours not claimed by 
honest toil, than the companionship of 
the silly gossip or the vagrant idler. 

The subject of this brief sketch began 
his course of literary pursuit at a date 
too early for his recollection. Under the 
guidance and encouragement of parent- 
al forethought, the child mind soon ac- 
quired a taste for learning, and was not 
slow in feeling the touch of a praise- 
worthy ambition to excel in the country 
school at that time averaging a term of 
only about three months out of the 
twelve. ' The principals of the home 
school were the parents, the assistants 
were the elder children, who found de- 
lightful amusement in holding school 
with the younger for pupils. Such were 
the home activities amidst which the 
subject of this sketch was reared. 

His early eagerness for books drew to 
him the kindly and encouraging notice 
of the relatives and many other friends 
who visited at his father's house. 
While other children romped, the youth 
of whom we write was reading. The 
boy's growing acquaintance with the 
thinking minds that talked to him 
in the lines of the printed page was to 
him an inspiration, lifting his soul into 



for 



knowledge. 



There 



Joseph and Mary Amelia Dysinger. I the realm of noble aims, and quicken 
Their children, six sons (of whom 
Holmes was the second) and one daugh- 
ter, were reared amid surroundings con- 
ducive to vigorous physical and mental 
development. Their country home 
was regulated by wholesome discipline 
and sweetened by the presence of pa- 
23 



ing his desire 

was created in him a bent in the direc- 
tion of professional life. His next em- 
ployment after that of the farmer was 
school teaching. To this he betook 
himself at the age of seventeen, still 
continuing work on the farm in spring 



178 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and summer, and taking charge of a 
school in winter. His service as a 
teacher was continued through a period 
of five years. 

His conversion to Christ was effected 
in the winter of 1871-1872, through the 
instrumentality of Eev. D. M. Black- 
welder. He immediately took active 
part in promoting the interests of the 
Lutheran Church, of which he became a 
member. 

The question of entering the gospel 
ministry so far engrossed his attention 
that he resolved to begin a course of 
preparation for the sacred office. His 
studies, therefore, were now chosen with 
a view of going to college. His supreme 
desire was to serve the Divine Master 
to whom he had vowed obedience and 
love. 

In the spring of 1873 the ardent young 
Christtan attended, as a pupil, Airy 
View Academy, located at Port Eoyal, 
Juniata Co., Pa., where he began the 
study of Latin and Greek. With the 
progress of his academic pursuits there 
came a deepening conviction of duty to 
devote himself to the ministry. 

With the exception of his one term in 
the academy, and a few private lessons, 
he prepared for college without a teach- 
er; and in the fall of 1875 he was admit- 
ted to the Sophomore class of Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, Pa. Here 
he prosecuted his studies with diligence 
and success. At that excellent seat of 
learning Mr. Dy singer graduated in the 
spring of 1878; and to him was given the 
honor of the valedictory. 

As additional evidence of his faithful- 
ness and proficiency, the young graduate 
was immediately appointed to the po- 
sition of tutor and manager-in-chief of 
the Preparatory Department of his hon- 
ored Alma Mater. In this position he 
devoted all his spare time to theology 
in the seminary classes under the tuition 



of Drs. Brown, Steck, Wolf, Hay, and 
Valentine; and this he did without neg- 
lect of his work as tutor. He completed 
the course and was a graduate of the 
seminary in June, 1881, but he contin- 
ued his studies one year longer. 

At the termination of his post-grad- 
uate course in theology, he received no- 
tice of his election to the professorship 
of Ancient Languages in North Carolina 
College, and held the position nearly 
one year. 

For a short time after leaving North 
Carolina College he served a mission 
church as a supply, at Moorsville, N. C. 

In the spring of 1883 Prof. Dysinger 
accepted the chair of Ancient Lan- 
guages in Newberry College, Newberry, 
S. C, entering upon his duties in the 
autumn of the same year. He held this 
position five years, and during four of 
these years he also served as professor 
of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis 
in the Evangelical Lutheran Theological 
Seminary of the South. 

Within the compass of those busy 
years the pushing young professor took 
time to find him a wife in the person of 
a most estimable lady, — Miss Ada Eay, 
of Blairsville, Pa. They were united in 
marriage in August, 1886. 

During the period of his professor- 
ship in Newberry College, Prof. Dysin- 
ger became a member of the American 
Institute of the Hebrew Language, an 
organization founded by Prof. W. E. 
Harper, of Yale College. In the employ 
of this Institute Mr. Dysinger was an 
instructor in the months of summer 
when regulation college work is always 
cast off. into vacation. As was his man- 
ner in all his other undertakings, the 
Professor gave to his researches and in- 
structions in Hebrew literature all the 
force of his earnest, adventurous, and 
able nature. 

July 10th, 1888, Prof. Holmes Dysin- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



179 



ger, whose interesting career we have 
thus far traced, was elected president of 
Carthage College, at Carthage, Hancock 
Co., 111. His work there has proved 
eminently satisfactory. His assistants. 



with himself, constitute a Faculty worthy 
of high commendation. In that po- 
sition of honor, responsibility, and toil, 
our narrative must leave him. S. 




EEV. J. A. EAENEST, D.D. 



Dr. Earnest is the oldest son of Obed 
and Margaret ( Cobaugh ) Earnest. He 
was born in the township of Derry, 
Dauphin Co., Pa., and grew up to youth- 
ful manhood in Hummelstown, a vil- 
lage nine miles east of Harrisburg, Pa. 
His great-grandfather, whose Nurnberg 
Bible, edition of 1767, is possessed by 
Dr. Earnest, wrote his name Ernst, as 
did also his grandfather, David Ernst, 
until 1798. Since then his branch of 
the family has written the name Earnest. 

Up to the age of nineteen Dr. Earnest 
enjoyed only such educational advant- 
ages as the common school afforded. 
He was bred to his father's trade, to 
which, however, he had neither taste nor 
aptitude; his ambition being a collegiate 
education and the legal profession. 

In May, 1852, his father released him 
from further service for him, and kindly 
assisted him in l^iis eflPort to secure an 



education. After having entered the 
Preparatory Department of Pennsylva- 
nia College, Gettysburg, at the above 
mentioned date, he was confirmed in 
September, 1853, in the college church, 
by Dr. S. S. Schmucker. It was at 
that time that Dr. Earnest, after months 
of earnest prayer, changed his purpose 
and chose the ministry as his life work. 
He graduated from the Preparatory 
Department with the class of 1857. In 
1858 he was made tutor in the Prepar- 
atory Department of said college, and at- 
tended at the same time the studies of 
the Junior year in the seminary, Drs. S. 
S. Schmucker, C. P. Krauth, Sen., and 
C. F. Schseffer, being the theological 
professors. 

In September, 1859, at Hanover, Pa., 
he was licensed by the W. Pa. Synod, 
and received a call to Kittanning, Pa. 

October 6th, 1859, he wan united in 



180 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



marriage with Miss Julia G. McCreary, 
of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and a daughter 
of Col. S. S. McCreary, of Gettysburg, 
Pa. 

After two years of service as a licen- 
tiate, subject to annual examination by 
the synod, the rule at that day, he was 
ordained in June, 1862, at Alleghany, 
Pa. 

His pastorates have been : Kittanning, 
Pa., from October, 1859, to January, 1870; 
Westminster, Md., from January, 1870, 
to May, 1878; Ehinebeck, N. Y., from 
May 1878, to January, 1885; Mifflinburg, 
Pa., since January, 1885. 

His literary works are: Centennial 
Address, St. Peters, Eheinbeck, N, Y. ; 
Centennial Address, Lutheran Church, 
Buffalo Yalley, Pa.; "Evolution in the 
Scriptures," Lutheran Quarterly, Jan., 
1882; "Preparatory Service in the Luth- 
eran Church," Luth. Quarterly, Jan. 
1886; "Dr. Conrad's Catechism," Luth. 
Quarterly, April, 1887; "Luther as a 
Preacher," Eheinbeck, 1884; "An En- 



quiry into the Constitution of the Gen- 
eral Council" (Pamphlet), 1867. 

He has held the following official po- 
sitions: Director of the Theological 
Seminary of the General Synod from 
the synods of Pittsburg, Maryland, New 
York, New Jersey, and Central Pennsyl- 
vania; Missionary President of the 
Pittsburg Synod during the years 1868 
and 1869; Secretary of the Pittsburg 
Synod in the years 1863 and 1864, and 
Secretary of the Maryland Synod in 
1873; Professor of German in Western 
Maryland College, at Westminster, Md., 
1876-77; President of Central Synod, 
Pa., 1889. 

He has served as delegate to the 
General Synod at its convention in 
Canton, Ohio, 1873; in Carthage, HI., 
1877; Springfield, O., 1883; and Omaha, 
Neb., 1887. 

In 1860 he received the degree of A. 
M. in course; and in June, 1888, Penn- 
sylvania College, his Alma Mater, hon- 
ored him with the degree of D. D. 




EEY. CHEISTOPH L. EBEEHAEDT. 



Eev. Christoph L. Eberhardt, pastor 
of the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's 
Church, Saginaw (city), Mich., is a na- 
tive of Wurtemberg, Germany, and was 
born January 3d, 1831, in Lauffen, lo- 
cated in a romantic part of the valley of 
the river Neckar, a tributary of the 
Ehine. He attended the common pa- 
rochial schools of his birthplace for 
eight years, and took a four years' 
course at the Industrial School. When 
he was of age, his parents, admonished 
by intelligent Christians, told him that 
if he would like to take a course in the 
Mission Seminary at Basle, he should 
have their permission. This was a 



source of great joy to young Eberhardt, 
and he immediately sent in his applica- 
tion for admission to the seminary, 
which was granted. 

Eev. Eberhardt graduated from this 
institution in June, 1860, and in con- 
sequence of a call by Eev. F. Schmid, 
of Ann Arbor, Mich., he and Eev. 
Klingmann were ordained by Decan 
Hamm in Germany, August 5th, 1860. 
On the 1st of September, they both left 
the old fatherland on the steamer 
"Bremen," arriving at New York Sep- 
tember 20th, and at Ann Arbor, Mich., 
September 27th, 1860. 

Eev. Eberhardt commenced mission 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



181 




REV. C. L. EBERHAEDT. 



work October 20th, 1860, in Hopkins, 
Allegan Co., Mich., making his home in a 
log house with a family residing at that 
place. Before Christmas came he had 
to preach at sixteen places, scattered 
over a territory with a circumference of 
360 miles, and had to preach regularly 
at each place every three weeks. The 
greater part of his journey he had 
to make on foot through the sparsely 
settled parts of Michigan. A walk of 
only twenty miles a day seemed to him 
a pleasure. His mission stations were 
located in the following counties: Al- 
legan, Van Buren, Ottawa, Muskegon, 
Clinton, and Shiawassee. 

When Eev. Eberhardt arrived in 
Michigan, the Michigan Conference 
consisted of only six pastors, who, to- 
gether with Eberhardt and Klingmann, 
held a meeting on December 9- 10, 1860, 
in Detroit, and organized the "Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Synod of Michigan." 

In June, 1861, the Synod appointed 
him to visit the region on Lake Superior, 
where he found hundreds of German 
Lutheran families from Ontonagon to 
Marquette, who were destitute of Luth- 
eran preachers. 



In 1861 he was called to Saginaw, 
Mich., to take charge of a mission at 
that place. Here he succeeded in build- 
ing a church and establishing a flourish- 
ing parochial school, which Eev. Eber- 
hardt continued to teach for fourteen 
years, teaching five days in the week 
and ten months in the year. 

In 1876 the congregation relieved its 
pastor from the extra work of school- 
teaching, and called a teacher to take 
charge of the school. 

Since 1883 the congregation has had 
a beautiful school-house, with three 
teachers, and a substantial dwelling for 
the principal of the school. 

Eev. Eberhardt has organized other 
congregations in and about Saginaw. 
He has been president of the Michigan 
Synod from 1881 to 1890, and has as- 
sisted in teaching at the Theological 
Seminary of that synod since 1887, when 
the seminary was built at Saginaw, 
Mich. 

On the 30th of June, 1890, Eev. Eber- 
hardt was elected Vice President of the 
Michigan Synod and President of the 
seminary. 



182 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



EEY. HANS P. EGEDE. 



"Since the fifteenth century Greenland 
had been completely lost sight of by the 
nations of Europe. A Norwegian minis- 
ter, Hans Egede, became possessed with 
a strong desire to win back this legen- 
dary country to the fellowship of Euro- 
pean and Christian society. He finally 
succeeded in obtaining the support of 
the Danish government, and a commer- 
cial society (1721). On the western 
coast, the only port accessible, he found 
a country bound up in ice, where a few 
thousand Esquimaux, with no traditions 
of the past, wrest from the hand of 
nature the scantiest means of subsist- 
ence. Egede dedicated himself to the 
work of their improvement and conver- 
sion. Since that time civilization and 
Christianity, as far as was possible in 
such a sterile soil, has been planted and 
maintained there." — History of the Chris- 
tian Church, by Dr. Charles Hase. 



Hans Egede was born in Senjen, 
Norway, on the 31st of January, 1686. 
After having graduated from the uni- 
versity at Kjobenhavn, Denmark, he 
was ordained to the holy office of the 
gospel ministry and appointed pastor at 
Yaagen in Norland, Norway, at the age 
of twenty-one. After having labored 
there about ten years, and having con- 
ceived an ardent desire to go to Green- 
land in the capacity of missionary, he 
went to Bergen in the fall of 1718 
accompanied by his noble wife, Gjetrud 
Eask, and four children. In the spring 
of 1719 he went to Kjobenhavn and made 
known his purpose to King Frederik IV. 
who in 1721 appointed Egede missionary 
to Greenland with an annual salary of 
300 Eigsdaler. The vessel, containing 
Egede and his family, sailed from Ber- 



gen the 3d of May, 1721, and after a 
stormy voyage, arrived at an island, 
which they called Haabets O, on the 
3d of July. On the 8th of July, Egede, 
and those that were with him, com- 
menced building a house of sod and 
stone and boarding it on the inside. On 
the 31st of August the house was com- 
pleted, and Egede preached in it the 
same day, the first sermon in Haabets 
Havn. 

Having labored in Greenland with 
great zeal and devotion amid many 
hardships for about fifteen years, having 
become broken down in health, and hav- 
ing lost his wife by death December 
21st, 1735, he returned to Denmark in 
1736. Egede could not think of leaving 
the remains of his noble wife in Green- 
land. He therefore took them with him 
to Denmark, and had them interred in 
St. Nicholas' churchyard in Copenhagen. 
His son Paul succeeded him in Green- 
land. Egede now took charge of the 
missionary institute in Copenhagen, 
which had been erected with the design 
of preparing laborers for the field in 
Greenland. Here he remained to the 
day of his death, which took place on 
the 5th of November, 1758. 

The Danish and Moravian missions 
have been continued ever since, and the 
Lord has been pleased to bless their 
labors to the conversion of many heathen. 

He wrote a description of Greenland. 
His son, Paul, who succeeded him, and 
emulated his virtues, was born in 1708 
and died in 1789. Paul Egede wrote an 
account of Greenland, composed a dic- 
tionary and grammar of the language, 
and translated into their language a part 
of the Bible and some other works. — 
Davenport. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



183 




REV. JOHANNES M. EGGEN. 



Rev. Johannes Mueller Ee^s^en was 
bom in the neighborhood of Thrond- 
hjem, Norway, on the 20th of April, 
1841. His parents are L. Eggen and 
Elise (Mueller) E.s^gen. Up to the 
time of his confirmation he stayed at 
home, whence he frequented the near- 
est high school. After his confirmation 
he accppted a position as clerk in the 
office of his uncle, a merchant at Trom- 
so. While at this place he also took 
private instruction from the principal of 
the Tromso Grammar School, with a 
view to enter the university. 

Having spent two years in Tromso, he 
went to Christiania, where he studied at 
the university for two years. From 
Christiania he went to Bergen, where he 
was occupied for one year as instructor 
in languages. At this time he thought 
seriously of adopting the stage as his 
profession, and appeared in a number of 
theatrical performances; but the desire 
to give his time and talents to a better 
cause — the gospel ministry — became 



stronger, until he finally entered a sem- 
inary with this calling in view. After 
having prosecuted his theological studies 
at the seminary for one year, he estab- 
lished a high school at Trysild, which 
was intended to be a preparatory school 
for the seminary and the grammar 
school. Having labored for a number 
of years in the capacity of principal of 
the high-school at Trysild, he received 
a call to the principalship of the high- 
school established by the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in North America, 
which he accepted, and emigrated to 
America in the summer of 1865. He 
was, however, urged by leading men in 
the Norw. Swedish Augustana Synod, 
with whom he became acquainted soon 
after his arrival, to enter the theological 
seminary at Paxton, 111., for the purpose 
of perfecting his theological education. 
Accordingly he entered the Paxton Sem- 
inary, graduating in the spring of 1866. 
He was ordained to the gospel ministry 
in the summer of the same year, having 



184 



AMEBICAN LtJTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



accepted calls from tlie Norwegian 
Lutheran congregation at Stoughton, 
Wis., and the Norwegian Danish Luth- 
eran congregation at Eacine, Wis. He 
continued to serve these congregations 
for five years, residing at Kacine. In 
1871 he accepted a call to the pastorate 
at Luther Yalley, Rock Co., Wis., where 
he labored until 1882, when he accepted 
the present pastorate at Six Miles 
Grove, Mower Co., Minn. 

Rev. Mueller Eggen has been honor- 
ed by a number of official positions. 
He served as secretary of the Norwegian 
Danish Augustana Synod until the or- 
ganization of the Conference for the 
Norwegian Danish Evangelical Luther- 
an Church was effected, when he was 
elected Secretary of that body. In 
this capacity he served for nine 
years. He has also served as Vice Pres- 
ident of the Conference for two years. 
At the annual meeting in 1886 he 
was elected President, but was obliged 
to decline, on account of poor health. 
He has also served as missionary- 
secretary of the Conference until this 
body, in 1890, entered the "United Nor- 
wegian Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America," of which Rev. Eggen was 
one of the organizers, and by whom he 
was tendered the same position. 



He is the author of the following 
books, the most of which have gone 
through several editions: "Confirma- 
tion;" "Sin of Weakness and Christian 
Perfection;" "Engagement;" "Woman's 
Relation to Man;" "The Importance of 
Missions;" The Sign of the Times;" 
"Pastoral Sermon;" "The Sins of the 
Church; the Church is not Babel; We do 
not Withdraw;" "A Look at our Times." 

New Years, 1865, Rev. Eggen was 
united in marriage with Miss Henriette 
Rossow, with whom he has had eight 
children, two of whom have died. Last 
New Years Rev. and Mrs. Eggen cel- 
ebrated their silver wedding, the mem- 
bers of his congregation taking part in 
the festivities. Their children are Elise, 
22 years; Lauritz, 20 years; Bagna, 18 
years; Laura, 12 years; Emilie, 10 years; 
Gustav, 7 years. 

Bev. Eggen is eminently a cheerful 
and genial Christian pastor. His ser- 
mons are distinguished for well matured 
thought and sound argument, rather 
than for bold and pathetic appeals to 
the passions. As a debater he seldom 
fails to make his influence felt on the 
floors of deliberative conventions. His 
literary productions bespeak a vigorous, 
richly endowed, logical, and well bal- 
anced mind. 




BEV. C. L. EHRENFELD, A.M., Ph.D. 



Charles Lewis Ehrenfeld, the young- 
est child of Augustus Clemens Ehren- 
feld, M. D., was born in Kishacoquilas 
Valley, Mifflin County, Pa., June 15, 
1832. 

His father was a native of Heilbronn, 
Germany, a graduate of Heidelberg 
University, a classical scholar who wrote 
and spoke the Latin with ease, con- 



versed readily in the French, and knew 
several other modern languages. 

His grandfather, George Frederick 
Ehrenfeld, came to this country in the 
latter part of the last century. He was 
a wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, but 
was financially ruined some time before 
his death, through being security for 
others, having lost £8,000, English 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



185 




EEV. C. L. EHRENFELD, A. M., PH. D. 



money, through one individual. He 
died there in 1809, at the house of his 
son, and leaving his son nothing from 
the wreck of his estate. 

His maternal grandfather, Henry 
Stetzer, was a patriot soldier in the Rev- 
olutionary War, serving through a great 
part of that long contest. And Henry 
Stetzer' s father, John Stetzer, great- 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
was also in the service of the American 
Army during the Revolution, charged 
with superintending the shoeing of army 
horses. The other maternal great-grand- 
father of our subject was in Braddock's 
Army, and died of sickness near Brad- 
dock's field, where he lies buried. 

In his religious antecedents Prof. 
Ehrenfeld comes from the two historic 
branches of the Protestant faith, his 
father having been Lutheran, his mother 
Reformed. 

The subject of this sketch was in his 
seventh year when his father died; there- 
after, his mother and older brother hav- 
24 



ing gone to farming, he worked on the 
farm until he was fifteen; then was clerk 
two years in a country store; taught a 
country school during the winter of 1850 
-51; went to Wittenberg College in 1851; 
graduated in 1856. He was an active 
member of the Excelsior Society. In 
the contest between the literary societies 
in the spring of 1855 he was Orator. He 
was elected contest debater for the next 
year, but declined the honor, as he had 
studies to make up, having lost the 
previous summer term on account of 
sickness. 

After his graduation in 1856 he re- 
turned home and took an active part in 
the presidential campaign for Fremont, 
making speeches for the "Pathfinder," 
and cast his first vote for president. 
Taught school the following winter. In 
the fall of 1857 returned to Wittenberg 
College to study theology, but upon his* 
arrival was chosen tutor in the Prepara- 
tory Department, and remained in that 
position two years. While tutor at col- 



186 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



lege lie was elected Principal of the City 
Schools at Hamilton, Ohio, at an annual 
salary of $1,000. But wishing to con- 
tinue post-graduate studies, especially 
theology, and his salary as tutor hav- 
ing been increased, he did not accept 
the position at Hamilton. 

Eesigned position as tutor in 1859, 
and devoted himself to the study of 
theology. In the spring of 1860 became 
the pastor of the First Lutheran Church 
at Altoona, Pa., where he remained un- 
til 1863 ; pastor at Shippensburg, 1863-5 ; 
at Hollidaysburg, 1865-71. Was called 
thence to Newport. At the same time 
he was chosen principal of the South- 
western Pennsylvania State Normal 
School. This was one of the number of 
schools authorized by special act of the 
state for the higher professional train- 
ing of teachers. Having visited the 
school, he found it was heavily involved, 
and so thought it unwise to accept. But 
at the urgent solicitation of the State 
authorities he gave up the call to New- 
port and entered upon the principalship 
of the Normal School in July. The 
school had not yet met the requirements 
of the law, and had not been accepted 
by the State authorities. The State had 
granted it $15,000, as it had granted a 
like sum to each of the other five State 
Normal Schools then established, with 
the understanding that this was to be 
the end of state appropriations. But it 
was evident that the extensive require- 
ments of the law constituting the schools 
could not be met without large help 
from the treasury of the commonwealth. 
The following winter he was appointed 
by the Board of Trustees to visit the 
authorities of the several other schools, 
to induce them to unite in a movement 
to secure a change of financial policy on 
the part of the Legislature. Such a 
united movement he felt could not then 
be got under way, but he proposed to go 



directly to the Legislature then in ses- 
sion with the facts in regard to his 
school, believing he could obtain the ap- 
propriation; and, if so, it would, in its 
ejffect, be the same as a general law in- 
volving all, as all would have to be 
treated alike. He was appointed to 
make the effort. To give the history of 
it is not necessary, but after considerable 
struggle it was successful, and an ap- 
propriation of $10,000 was obtained. 
On the final passage of the bill like 
appropriations to two other schools 
were carried through, as Dr. Wicker- 
sham expressed it, "hanging to the coat- 
tail of Prof. Ehrenfeld." The policy of 
the state was permanently reversed. He 
also obtained the passage of a special 
act authorizing the school in his charge 
to borrow $15,000 additional, and issue 
bonds therefor. With this and the ap- 
propriation of $10,000, and subsequent 
appropriations, the additional buildings 
were erected and equipped, and in May, 
1874, the institution was inspected and 
adopted as one of the regular State 
Normal Schools. 

In 1872 Prof. Ehrenfeld was appoint- 
ed by Dr. Wickersham, State Superin- 
tendent, as his deputy, to act as chair- 
man of the committee of five to conduct 
the examinations of the graduating 
classes at the several State Normal 
Schools. In the Pennsylvania School 
Journal, August, 1872, Dr. Wickersham 
said: "Prof. Ehrenfeld attended this 
year all the examinations of the grad- 
uating classes at the several State Nor- 
mal Schools, acting in the capacity of 
Deputy State Superintendent. It is 
only just to say that Mr. Ehrenfeld per- 
formed his delicate duties in a way 
that gave satisfaction to all parties." 

During the following winters he was 
several times appointed by the State 
Department as one of the several in- 
structors at County Institutes. When 



AMEBICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



187 



so employed lie was paid a salary of 165 
per week. 

In 1876 lie was appointed by the ex- 
ecutive committee of the State Teach- 
ers' Association to read a paper on the 
"Needs of the Normal Schools," at the 
Convention at Westchester, Pa., in 
August of that year. In the discussion 
of this paper after it had been read. Dr. 
John S. Hart, then Professor of Prince- 
ton College, said: "The argument in 
the paper is so complete and entire 
that there is nothing left for others to 
do but to say 'amen' and subscribe to 
it." — [Pennsylvania School Journal, 
Sept., 1876. 

The paper was published in the pro- 
ceedings. After the discussion of the 
paper, Prof. Ehrenfeld was appointed 
chairman of a committee of nine "to 
prepare an address to the legislature 
with the aim of securing a truer and 
more successful policy for the Normal 
S<^hools of our Commonwealth." — \_Ibid. 

The following January Governor 
Hartranft, at the solicitation of Dr. 
Wickersham, appointed Prof. Ehrenfeld 
Financial Secretary of the Department 
of Education, with direction to take 
charge as soon as a suitable successor 
could be found as principal of the 
school he had in charge. He remained 
Financial Secretary till February, 1878, 
when Governor Hartranft appointed 
him State Librarian. This gave him 
charge of both the law and miscella- 
neous libraries. His report to the 
legislature on the condition and needs 
of the libraries was followed by success- 
ive extraordinary appropriations with 
which to make purchases abroad as 
well as at home, to fill, as far as pos- 
sible, the existing gaps. He according- 
ly made many purchases at Edinburgh, 
London, Amsterdam, and Paris, of im- 
portant and rare works upon the earli- 
est American history and upon the 



Provincial histories of Pennsylvania 
and other American colonies. He also 
had some copies made of unique docu- 
ments pertaining to Pennsylvania in 
the British museum through the agency 
of the late Henry Stevens, Esq., of 
London. 

The Law Library was also built up 
into completeness, second only to the 
Library of Congress. 

The following is part of an editorial 
notice of the Library at that time made 
by Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of the 
Christian Union, New York, in the issue 
of July 9th, 1879: "I wish a Congres- 
sional Library Committee would come 
on to Harrisburg and see how Pennsyl- 
vania treats her books, perhaps they 
would then instigate Congress to give 
Mr. SpofPord something better than his 
present lumber room in which to stow 
the National Library. Under the ener- 
getic management of Dr. C. L. Ehren- 
feld a special appropriation was made 
by the last legislature of 111,000, to be 
employed in making the library what a 
state library ought to be, a complete 
collection of works throwing light on 
the history of the state." To the above 
the next legislature added $6,000 more, 
beside the regular annual appropriations, 
to be used for the same purposes. 

In 1881 he was re-appointed as State 
Librarian by Governor Hoyt. In 1882 
he was elected Professor of English and 
Latin at Wittenberg College. 

His term as librarian would not have 
expired till 1884, and the salary was 
much above that of the professorship, 
but the college was his Alma Mater, and 
its acceptance afforded oppoi-tunity 
of educating his children not only at 
home, but at a college whose course 
meant thorough study. Moreover, the 
library had become such a resort for 
legal and historical research, and had so 
grown in his 'hands, that without ad- 



188 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



ditional assistants he had no time left 
for study. He accepted the professor- 
ship and entered upon its duties in the 
autumn of 1882. 

Mr. Ehrenfeld was married October 
3d, 1860, to Miss Helen M. Hatch, of 
Springfield, O. They have five children, 
three sons living, two daughters de- 
ceased. 

This sketch has said nothing about 
its subject's work in the active ministry, 
the part of his life wh ich he regards as 
the most noteworthy, from whose duties 
and studies he turned aside with reluct- 
ance, and only as he was strenuously 
called to other work that was thrust in- 
to his hands. Also, nothing of his 
part in the National struggle during 
the Eebellion. Several of his dis- 
courses during the war were published 
at the request of those who heard them. 



His report to his own synod on the 
action of the memorable convention of 
the General Synod at Ft. Wayne, in 
1866, was re-published in the Lutheran 
Observer as a "clear and thorough" state- 
ment of that eventful case. 

He delivered the annual address be- 
fore the Alumni of Wittenberg College 
in 1868. Subject, "Men of Ideas"— was 
published. 

His reports to the different State De- 
partments of Pennsylvania are in the 
public documents. Besides, he wrote 
frequently for the press. 

Mr. Ehrenfeld is a member of the 
Dauphin County Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania. In 1881 he was elected 
honorary member of the Historical So- 
ciety of Virginia. He is a member of 
the modern Language Association of 
America. — G. W, Wood, 




EEY. L. EICHELBEEGEE, D.D. 



Dr. Eichelberger was born in Fred- 
erick County, Md., on the 25th of 
August, 1803, so that at his death he had 
just entered upon his fifty-seventh year. 

At the early age of ten or eleven years 
we find the subject of this notice in the 
school of EeA^ Dr. Schaeffer,of Frederick, 
Md. Not a few of the clergymen of our 
Church received their early training at 
that school. Subsequently he was re- 
moved to Georgetown, D. C, and whilst 
boarding in the family of a married sis- 
ter, attended the classical school of the 
Eev. Dr. Carnahan, who afterwards be- 
came distinguished as the president of 
Princeton College. 

From Georgetown he was transferred 
to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., by 
which institution he was graduated Sep- 
ember 27, 1826. From the order of 



exercises of that commencement, we see 
that the deceased was a classmate of the 
Eev. Dr. Baugher, President of Pennsyl- 
vania College, and of George Buchanan, 
a brother of the president of the United 
States. The valedictory, noted as the 
first honor, was taken by Mr. Buchanan; 
the Latin salutatory, a second honor, was 
given to Dr. Baugher; and the English 
salutatory, also a second honor, was as- 
signed to Dr. Eichelberger. 

From college he at once removed to 
the newly organized theological semi- 
nary at Gettysburg, and became a mem- 
ber of the first class formed in that in- 
stitution, and one of its first graduates. 
After spending two years in the study 
of theology, he was licensed to preach 
the gospel by the Evangelical Lutheran 
Synod of Maryland and Virginia, con- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



189 



vened in Shepherdstown, October 21, 
1828. 

Whilst yet a student of theology he 
accepted an urgent invitation from the 
council of the Lutheran church of Win- 
chester, Ya., to visit them and preach 
for them. The result of this visit was 
his unanimous election as pastor of the 
congregation. Immediately after his 
licensure he repaired to his new field of 
labor, and at once commenced his duties. 

His "ministerial journal" shows an 
amount of service and a degree of fideli- 
ty worthy of all praise. In connection 
with the church in Winchester, he 
serv^ed three congregations in the country. 
Having been vacant for a considerable 
time prior to his settlement over them, 
some of these congregations were much 
scattered and distracted, but in all of 
them great good seems to have been ac- 
complished. 

This connection continued until May 
1, 1833, (a period of four years and six 
months) when the charge of the church 
in Winchester was resigned, but that of 
the country churches retained. About 
this time Dr. Eichelberger opened a fe- 
male school in this place known as 
Angevona Seminary, and shortly after 
became proprietor and editor of a weekly 
journal still known as The Virginian. In 
these several occupations he continued 
actively and usefully engaged until the 
year 1849, when he was elected to the 
Professorship of Theology in the Luth- 
eran Seminary at Lexington, S. C. At 
first he declined the appointment, but 
was induced to change his decision, and 
he then removed from Winchester, after 
a residence of more than twenty years. 
As professor of theology he labored 
with the same untiring diligence and 
conscientious fidelity with which all his 
preceding duties had been discharged. 
He continued to serve the church in that 
responsible capacity until impaired health 



made it proper for him to ask a release. 
In the year 1853 his position and attain- 
ments were suitably recognized by one 
of the oldest and most influential literary 
institutions of our country. The honor- 
ary degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
conferred by Princeton College. He re- 
signed his professorship in March, 1858, 
and immediately returned to Winchester, 
warmly welcomed by many ardent friends. 
His time, however, was not without its 
appropriate employment. He eagerly 
seized the leisure at his disposal for the 
execution of a long cherished purpose — 
to prepare for the press a compact and 
popular History of the Lutheran Church, 
for which he had made extensive prepa- 
ration in the collection of materials, and 
the sketching of chapters, as other 
duties permitted or other pursuits and 
studies furnished opportunities. Al- 
though frequently interrupted by illness 
and much disabled by bodily weakness, 
he yet lived to finish his last work of 
love to his Church, of which he was ever 
an admiring, loyal son, and a faithful, 
self-denying servant. Death found him 
with the harness still on, ready to do or 
die as the Lord might order. His death 
was peace, was triumph. It was a privi- 
lege which never shall be forgotten to 
see his heavenly composure, and to hear 
his dying utterances. When he had but 
strength to whisper a few words at a 
time, he said to a brother in the ministry, 
"Christ is a precious Saviour. He does 
more than he promises for his dying fol- 
lowers. Go preach to sinners, Christ 
will save them all. Nothing but Christ 
will do in death." 

He was very much beloved by all for 
whom and with whom he labored, and 
was universally respected and esteemed 
wherever he lived. He was twice mar- 
ried, and left a widow and five children 
to mourn their loss, and cherish his 
memory. 



190 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Dr. Eichelberger was an eminently 
pious man, a devoted Christian, an able 
and faithful preacher and teacher, and 
an affectionate and sympathizing friend 



and pastor. He always manifested great 
simplicity of character, exemplifying the 
humble virtues and meek adornments of 
the child of God. — Morris, 




REV. ELLING EIELSEN. 



EUing Eielsen was born in a country 
district called Yos, belonging to the 
Diocese of Bergen, on the 19th of Sep- 
tember, 1804. His parents were among 
the admirers of old Hauge and his la- 
bors. His father was a shoemaker by 
trade. From the time he was eight years 
old he perceived a powerful drawing to- 
wards the Lord. He carefully shunned 
frivolous company, which, indeed, did 
not require any special effort, as he was 
rather inclined to melancholy than to 
levity, wherefore he regarded himself 
out of place in frivolous gatherings. 
However, when he was eighteen years 
old a decided change in this respect was 
noticeable in the young Eielsen. He 
had made many good resolutions, but it 
occurred to him that he never could be- 
come sincere enough, and the very 
thought of hypocrisy was revolting to 



him. Hence he began to seek worldly 
associations and gave himself to a sinful 
life. This course he followed until he 
was twenty-two years, when, on a certain 
occasion, his uncle's wife said to him in 
a jesting manner: "Indeed, your father 
was just such a person; I remember well, 
when I attended school with him, how 
frivolous he was." This brought Eielsen 
to reflect. The four last years of his life 
passed before his mind like a "written 
book describing a life in consummate 
sin," although he had never fallen into 
any outward vice. 

Early and late he heard, as it were, a 
voice reminding him of repentance, but 
he knew not how to begin. Nor was 
there anyone to whom he could turn with 
confidence for direction, as 
and converted people were 
known then in that neighborhood." His 



"awakened 
scarcely 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



191 



soul's distress became at times almost 
intolerable. He feared that lie could 
not recover the grace of God, which he 
had once possessed. He had read in the 
works of Pontoppidan of persons who had 
wished themselves death, because of im- 
patience, and he now imagined himself 
to be one of them. The devil often sug- 
gested to him that he should end his life 
in a secret way. But the thought that 
"God knows the hidden thoughts and 
the secret places," held him back. 

To seek comfort in his spiritual dis- 
tress, and instruction in the way of life, 
he concluded, in 1829, to go to Bergen. 
Here he found experienced Christian 
brethren, who rendered him invaluable 
assistance in directing him to seek God 
in His word, and the grace of God in 
the blood of Jesus. While at Bergen 
he was taken into military service, where 
he occasionally spoke publicly, by per- 
mission, to the soldiers about the one 
thing needful. 

From Bergen Mr. Eielsen went to 
Nordland, where he remained for two 
years, preaching and admonishing the 
people to repentance. In 1834 he trav- 
eled southward to Drontheim, where his 
preaching was strenuously opposed by 
the Kev. Lammers. At this place he 
made the acquaintance of Bishop O. 
Bugge, who heartily endorsed his work. 
After having traveled almost over the 
whole of Norway, preaching everywhere 
repentance and the forgiveness of sins, 
he came to Denmark, where he met the 
famous German Lutheran theologian, 
Ludvig Harms, of Hermansburg, Ger- 
many, and Pastor Grundtvig. In Den- 
mark, particularly in Kjobenham, he 
found the religious and spiritual condi- 
tion of the people to be deplorable. 
While laboring in Denmark for the con- 
version of sinners, Eielsen was arrested 
under an ordinance of January 13, 1741, 
which provided that no person should be 



permitted to preach or teach without 
legal call. Under bail of the kind and 
Christian Countess Holstei?! he was, 
however, permitted for a while to con- 
tinue his missionary labors He was 
finally imprisoned at Slagelse and placed 
in a cell among some thieves; but also' 
here Eielsen improved his opportunity, 
admonishing the prisoners to repentance 
and faith. He was finally released from 
his bonds by the kind interference of 
Prince Kristian and Princess Karoline 
Amalie. He then returned to Norway, 
where he traveled a great deal, and with 
his characteristic boldness preached 
Christ and Him crucified. In 1839 Mr. 
Eielsen came to America. After a brief 
stay in Chicago, then only a small vil- 
lage, where he held his first religious 
service, he moved to Fox River, 111., 
where the first Norwegian meeting- 
house — a log-house — was built. From 
Fox River he visited the scattered Nor- 
wegians especially in Wisconsin. Find- 
ing that his countrymen generally had 
neglected to take with them to America 
Pontoppidan's excellent explanation of 
Luther's Catechism, he made a trip to 
New York in 1842, where be made ar- 
rangements for the printing of an edi- 
tion of this book. 

Having returned to Wisconsin he was 
married July 3, 1843, to Miss Sigri 
Nilsen. Having received a call from 
the newly organized congregation at 
Fox River, he was ordained in Chicago 
October 3, 1848, by the Lutheran pastor, 
Rev. Hoffman. Some time later he also 
accepted a call from Queen Ann Prairie, 
Wis. In 1846 he was one of the organ- 
izers and president of the synodical 
body known as the Evangelical Luther- 
an Church, at a meeting on Jefferson 
Prairie, Wis., April 13 and 14. At the 
annual convention of this body at Prim- 
rose, Wis., June, 1856, a division was 
brought about, a considerable number 



192 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



withdrawing from Eielsen and his 
friends. In the fall of 1861 he made a 
visit to Norway, returning in 1863. Ow- 
ing to Eielsen's dissatisfaction with a 
revision of the synodical constitution he, 
and a few of his more intimate friends, 
withdrew from the general body, and in 
the winter of 1876 re-organized on the 



basis of the unaltered constitution, with 
Eielsen as president. 

After a long and busy life spent in the 
Master's work, Mr. Eielsen died at his 
home in Chicago January 10, 1883. His 
last words to his wife were these: "Tell 
my friends and acquaintances that I die 
in the faith of my Saviour." — Eielsen's 
Life and Labors. 




EEY. G. W. ENDEES, D.D. 



Eev. George W. Enders, D.D., was 
born in Norheim, Prussia, Germany, 
October 26th, 1841. He came to Amer- 
ica at the age of twelve years, and 
settled with his parents in New York 
and later in New Jersey. In the Ger- 
man schools he had previously laid the 
foundation for that literary and religious 
career for which he has subsequently 
become famous throughout the Lutheran 
Church of the General Synod. Fortune 
had not favored the young adventurer 
in the way of financial means, but Prov- 
idence had endowed him abundantly 
with mental ability, indomitable will 
power, fervent piety, and controlling 
faith; so that after some struggles with 
questions concerning what he should 



eat and drink, and wherewithal he 
should be clothed, in 1860 the way 
providentially opened for him to realize 
his cherished ambition — that of prepar- 
ing himself for the gospel ministry in 
the Lutheran Church. 

In 1861 he entered Hart wick Semin- 
ary to pursue his classical and theologi- 
cal studies. At that time the institution 
was presided over by the well known 
Eev. Geo. B.Miller, D.D. The school 
was small and every student, therefor^, 
came into intimate contact with that 
eminent instructor, and it may well be 
inferred that impressions were made 
which will remain with those fortunate 
young men while they live. Among his 
classmates and schoolm 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



193 



ders was faeile prineeps, and even the 
good Dr. Miller was compelled to shrug 
his shoulders and parry the inquiries 
propounded by the young theologue on 
obstruse questions of theology and exe- 
gesis. Mr. Enders was a born preacher 
and long before he had finished his 
theological studies or even begun them 
in the school, he had exercised his gift 
to the edification of numerous congre- 
gations, and not least among these were 
the unfortunate inmates of the Otsego 
County Almshouse, to whom he regular- 
ly carried the gospel message during 
his junior student days. 

The death of Dr. Miller in 1869 some- 
what interrupted the studies of the 
young men then in the Seminary. Mr. 
Enders had organized a church at Mary- 
land, in Otsego County, and had served 
it more or less in connection with his 
theological studies. In 1869 he accept- 
ed a call to Bridgetown, N. J., and in 
connection with his pastorate continued 
and completed his studies in the theo- 
logical seminary at Philadelphia. He 
had, however, been previously licensed 
by the Hartwick Synod from which 
body he had received financial aid in 
pursuing his course of studies. He 
was ordained October 18th, 1868, at 
Friesburg, N. J., by the New Jersey 
Synod. On June 15th, 1870, pastor 
Enders was married to Miss Phoebe A. 
Miller, of Deerfield, N. J., a member 
and organist of Immanuel Lutheran 
Church of Friesburg, N. J., of which 
Rev. J. W. Lake, Mr. Enders' brother- 
in-law, was pastor. The young preacher 
and his bride took a wedding tour to 
England, France, Switzerland, and vis- 
ited the scenes of his birth and boy- 
hood. This visit to the old Fatherland 
was coincident with the Franco-Prussian 
war. 

After three and a half years at 
Bridgeton, Mr. Enders accepted a call 
25 



to St. James Church, Gettysburg, Pa. 
Here he at once took high rank as a 
preacher, and often numbered among 
his interested auditors the students and 
professors of college and seminary. 

Mr. Enders had never learned to 
spare himself. He entered into his 
work with enthusiasm and often beyond 
hie strength. His services were num- 
erous and often prolonged beyond 
human endurance. In consequence 
nature asserted herself and called a halt. 
For two years Mr. Enders was disabled 
and for a part of this time hung in the 
balance between this world and the 
next. 

After partial recovery, on the first of 
May, 1876, Pastor Enders accepted a 
call to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 
Richmond, Ind., a field then largely 
grown up to weeds, thorns, and thistles ; 
but which soon became abundantly 
fruitful under his prudent ministrations. 
It was a German congregation as was 
also Bridgeton — alternating with Eng- 
lish charges — in either of which Mr. 
Enders served as if '*to the manor born." 

By this time the pulpit ability and 
intellectual vigor of the young preacher 
had far outreached the bounds of his 
individual parishes. Christ's Church, 
York, Pa , one of the most influential in 
the General Synod, became vacant by 
the resignation of Rev. Dr. A. H. Loch- 
man. Who could fill his place? The 
eyes of the people turned to Richmond, 
Ind., and thither came their official 
voice in the way of a call, once, twice, 
thrice, and four times. These impoi*- 
tunities finally prevailed and on the 
first of July, 1882, Pastor Enders began 
his labors in his pres^^nt field, and with 
what success, many, if not all, of our 
readers are at least partially acquainted. 
Into this church alone Mr. Enders has 
received nearly one thousand souls. He 
has here baptized five hundred forty- 



194 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



seven children. Performed two hundred 
twenty-eight marriages and attended the i 
last rites of two hundred fifty departed. 
His Sunday School now numbers about 
nine hundred members, and in extra 
services, lectures, addresses, etc., he is 
"in labors abundant." In recognition 
of his distiuguished abilities, Witten- 
berg College, of Springfield, O., in 1878, 
conferred upon him the degree of A. M. 
and in 1888 that of D.D. 

The limits of this sketch will hardly 
admit of a suitable analysis of the char- 
acteristics of our subject. 

He is cast somewhat in the mould of 
the great hero of his Fatherland, Mar- 
tin Lulher. He has a considerable 
amount of "Hier stehe ich" in his com- 
position and in debate or argument is a 
foeman worthy of Damascan steel. His 
preachiug is rather of the effective ex- 
pository order and in illustration he is 
exceedingly prolific. So fertile is he in 
thought and so oblivious of passing 
time, that frequently, especially in his 
earlier ministry, his services are pro- 
longed beyond modern measure. 

Here we lay down our pen — confess- 
edly, friendly — and allow our readers to 
watch his further career and from 
future successes learn to appreciate his 
talents as we long ago have done. — Rev. 
Prof. James Pitcher, A.M. 



Eev. Dr. Gotwald, professor of theol- 
og}; in Wittenberg Seminary, an inti- 
mate friend of Dr. Enders, writes con- 
cerning him as follows: 

Dr. Enders is one of the marked men 
of the Lutheran Church of this coun- 
try. His mental ability is of a very 
high order, characterized by versatility, 
sociality, inventiveness, keenness, and 
quickness of perception, power of grasp- 
ing and applying the principles of 
things rarely equaled. He impresses 
one always as an intellectually vigorous 



and strong man, and he possesses the 
quality also of impressing you with the 
conviction that he has at his command, 
at all times, great reserved or unexpend- 
ed power. I have heard him speak and 
preach frequently, and always with both 
pleasure and profit, and yet, while hear- 
ing him, there was the feeling that he 
was not at all working up to the full 
measure of his real ability, and that he 
might do much better, accompanied 
with a half -provoked impatience with 
him for not letting himself out at his 
full measure, and give us all that was in 
him at once. 

Dr. Enders' scholarship, while not 
eminent, is yet far more than ordinary. 
He is an excellent German scholar, and 
is especially familiar with the rich 
treasures of our Lutheran theology — 
just what every Lutheran pastor ought 
especially to be. His thinking may 
also be said to be characteristically 
German: penetrating, profound, patient, 
accurate, with an unwearied following 
up of his line of thought and logical 
grip upon successive truths, until the 
subject is mastered and it is his. 

As a pastor Dr. Enders has few supe-: 
riors. He lives for his people, knows 
them all intimately, visits among them 
constantly, is the sincere, faithful, and 
loving friend of them all; and, in re- 
turn, his people also are devotedly at- 
tached to him. His large-heartedness,' 
his deep sympathy with the sorrowing 
and suffering, his unselfish readiness to 
aid and befriend the needy, his sunny 
cheerfulness, his ringing laugh, his al- 
most child-like artlessness, his down- 
right genuineness and freedom from all 
mere ministerial pretense and profes- 
sionalism, render him an ever welcome 
guest in every home, and make him an 
object of almost idolatrous attachment 
to his parishioners. In the community 
at large, beyond his own immediate con- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



195 



gregation, he is as well known and has 
many friends. It must, however, as a 
matter of truth, be also added that Dr. 
Enders is about as well hated by some, 
and they are not a few, as he is thus 
loved by many. It could scarcely be 
otherwise. Positive in his convictions, 
loyal, unfalteringly, to his conscience, 
brave and unreserved in his utterances 
of divine truth, direct and faithful in 
his application of God's message, bold 
and terrific at times in his exposure and 
denunciation of sin, whether in the 
church or in the world, it is not strange 
that he enjoys the luxury of being 
soundly hated and spoken against as 
well as of being loved and praised. "Woe 
to you when all men shall speak well of 
you." This, however, must also be said: 
hated as by some he may be, for the 
truth's sake, no one, even of his worst 
enemies, can possibly despfse him. He 
is too manly a man to be ever held in 
contempt or be despised. "Let no man 
despise thee." 

Dr. Enders' executive energy and 
ability are marvelous. How he does it, 
I know not, but somehow, under his in- 
spiring and inciting genius, his great 
church in York, numbering several 
thousand souls, is indeed, as it is popu- 
larly designated in the community, a 
veritable "bee-hive," brimful of varied 
and intense Christian activity; liberal, 
social, and ready for any good work 
that their pastor may name. Somehow, 
he knows how to do it, and does it. 
This magic secret, which so many pas- 
tors have never learned and do not pos- 
sess, of stirring up and holding their 
people to earnest Christian work. 

It is especially as a preacher, how- 
ever, that Mr. Enders reveals himself in 
his greatest power. His pulpit is em- 
phatically his throne. Here he is a 
king, and sways a potent sceptj*e. His 
German is classic, and when be dis- 



courses in the grand language of the 
Fatherland, it is ^^ Luther us redevivusj' 
with the roll of Luther's thunder and 
the flash of Luther's lightning in his 
preaching. My German blood always 
goes bounding with warmer and faster 
beat through my veins when I hear Mr. 
Enders preach German, and the Gospel, 
as he there discourses it in that grand- 
est of modern tongues, falls always with 
increased preciousness and power upon 
my soul. Mr. Enders lacks in the pul- 
pit the fall and best mastery of the 
English, using at times infelicitous and 
unidiomatic expressions, and failing to 
make the same fine and happy discrim- 
inations in the use of language which 
so characterizes his preaching when ex- 
pressing himself in German. But his 
preaching in English is, even with this 
imperfection, so admirable and effective 
that the imperfection ought scarcely be 
mentioned, and we only wish that all 
ministers could preach in English or in 
any tongue as well as he. 

An admirable homiletician, using no 
manuscript in the pulpit, animated and 
impassioned in delivery, transparent as 
the day in his thinking and expression, 
expository and thoroughly scriptural in 
his subject matter, rich and apt in his 
illustrations, sparkling with humor and 
wit, abounding in tenderness and pa- 
thos, direct, earnest, bold in utterance, 
running at times into indiscreteness 
and recklessness, and yet always so evi- 
dently honest and manifestly sincere 
that one readily pardons such rhetoric- 
al offenses. Dr. Enders clearly possess- 
es many of the best qualities of pulpit 
oratory, and is, because of them, an 
attractive, edifying, effective, and fre- 
quently highly eloquent preacher of 
the gospel. 

Dr. Enders is, what every one who is 
enrolled in the ranks of our Lutheran 
ministry ought to be, thoroughly Luth- 



196 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



eran in both his theology and church 
order and usages. He accepts and 
preaches, without any wincing or adul- 
teration, our full confessional Lutheran 
faith, uses liturgical forms in worship, 
observes our church festivals, practices 
faithfully our time-honored system of 
catechization, is neither fanatic nor for- 
malist, but "durch und durch Luther- 
isch," pure and true to his Lutheran 
name, creeds, and cultus as we all 
ought to be. 

To those who personally know Dr. 
Enders it is not necessary to add that 
he is a man of sincere, consistent and 
ardent piety. And yet his is not piety 
of the kind that expresses itself in hol- 
low cant and pretentious sanctimoni- 
ousness. On the contrary, it is the 
piety of faith in God's word and 
obedience to that word. The piety of 
trust in Christ, of holiness of heart, of 
loyalty to conscience, of labor and 
sacrifice for the upbuilding of the 
church, of consistency in Christian pro- 
fession and life, of sober, earnest, 
genuine being and doing w^hat lies in 
his power for the glory of God. And 
with all this sociality of Christian char- 
acter there is also in Mr. Enders a 
singularly sweet and attractive sunni- 
ness and gladness of disposition. He 
knows how to laugh, and does laugh 
much and very heartily. He likes 
music, and flowers, and birds. He takes 
pleasure also in the horse. He enjoys 



the woods, and streams, and fields. He 
loves little children and enters like a 
boy into the innocent amusements and 
pleasures of the young. All in all, Dr. 
Enders is a well-rounded, symmetrical, 
genuine manly man, with faults and 
imperfections like the rest of us, and 
yet with so many virtues and gifts and 
graces superior to those of many of us 
that we might well wish that we were in 
many respects more like him and less 
like ourselves." 



Dr. Enders is one of those conse- 
crated workers who add a noble and 
generous disposition to the genius of 
tireless and well directed pastoral and 
pulpit service. He is a Christian gen- 
tleman of the first order and a man of 
superior ability who wins the battles of 
love in the rank and file of the ecclesias- 
tical brotherhood. The writer has a 
personal knowledge of the sacred beauty 
of his home life, and can say with all 
honesty that the old fashioned German 
ideal never had a better English dress 
than in his domestic circle. As a pas- 
tor Dr. Enders strikes the keynote of a 
scriptural shepherd. He preaches with 
all the power and simplicity of plain 
Gospel truth. As a worker his success 
in the face of many odds has been re- 
markable, and is an inspiration to those 
who fare the common lot of laborers in 
the Lord's vineyard. — Rev. J. E. BushnelL 




EEV. CHKISTIAN ENDEESS, D.D. 



Christian Endress, D. D.,* was born 
in Philadelphia on the 12th of March, 
1775. His sponsors at his babtism were 
Christian and Catharine Jausch. Fred- 



* MSS. from his son, Hen. Isaac L. Endress, and Rev. 
Dr. Baker. 



erick Lewis, one of the sovereign counts 
of Lowenstein-Wertheim had, by letter, 
a short time before, requested to be 
considered godfather to the expected 
child, and therefore his name is found 
upon the Baptismal Eecord of the 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



197 



Church of Zion and St. Michael in Phila- 
delphia, Christian Frederick Lewis, but he 
himself always wrote Christian only. 

His father, John Zachary Endress, 
was a native of Wortheim-on-the-Main. 
As an argument with his children not to 
uudervalue their Protestant Evangelical 
profession of faith, he was accustomed 
to tell them that he was a descendant of 
that Jacob Endress, who, as a repre- 
sentative of the city of Nuremberg, in 
the famous Imperial Diet, held at 
Augsburg in 1531, subscribed the Augs- 
burg Confession of Faith. His mother 
was Anna Maria Henrici, of a Huguenot 
family of that name, who had fled from 
France to escape persecution, and set- 
tled at Neuwied, a town in Khenish 
Prussia. 

The early intellectual developments 
of Christian Endress were somewhat re- 
markable, and his studies were directed, 
from childhood, with a view to a col- 
legiate education. When he was eight 
years old, he was sent to the Latin 
School connected with the University 
of Pennsylvania, and in due time be- 
came a member of the university, 
where he was admitted to the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, in July, 1790. Im- 
mediately after his graduation, he com- 
menced a course of theological study, 
under the direction of the Kev. Dr. 
Helmuth, then a pastor in Philadelphia, 
and at the same time prosecuted other 
branches of study, as Church History 
and Hermeneutics, under Pastor Schmidt 
of the same city. He preached his 
first sermon in Zion's Church, Philadel- 
phia, on the evening of Easter Sunday, 
1793. 

In November, 1792, he received the 
appointment of tutor in the university 
at which he had graduated, and he 
held this position until 1795, when he 
was elected principal of the congre- 
gational school of Zion and St. Michael. 



In this latter office he labored, with 
great expense of health, until the year 
1801, when he resigned it, and removed 
to Easton, — having received and accept- 
ed a call from the Lutheran church at 
that place. After the year 1793, he 
served the congregation at Frankfort, 
preaching every alternate Sunday; and, 
during the year 1800, he preached once 
a m(mth at Cohansey, Salem Co., N. J.; 
besides preaching frequently in differ- 
ent churches of Philadelphia, and in 
other places. Until 3799 he was sub- 
ject to the superintendence of the Min- 
ister of Ministers of the Church in 
Philadelphia, but, at the last mentioned 
date, he received a license from the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania, and was 
ordained at Reading in 1802. 

On the 22d of October, 1801, Mr. 
Endress was married to Margaretha, 
daughter of Jacob Fries, of Friesburg, 
Salem Co, N. Y. 

On the 21st of November, 1801, Mr. 
Endress preached his first sermon at 
Easton. During the next three years 
he ministered to the congregations of 
Easton, Williamstown, Plainfield, Moore- 
town, Upper Mt. Bethel, Hamilton, 
Smithfield, and Hardwicke, besides oc- 
casionally preaching at Greenwich, 
Knowlton, Hope, Newtown, and Wal- 
pack, in New Jersey, and Lower Saucon, 
in Pennsylvania, — these congregations 
being otherwise without the ministry of 
the Gospel. After 1804 the congrega- 
tions of Plainfield, Mooretown, Hamil- 
ton, Mt. Bethel, Smithfield, and Hard- 
wicke, were provided with a pastor, 
while he still retained the charge of the 
congregations of Easton, Williamstown, 
Lower Saucon, and Greenwich, oc- 
casionally visiting other cliurches in 
the region. 

Mr. Endress remained here until the 
year 1814, when, in the hope of benefit- 
ing the health of his wife, he was led to 



198 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



remove to Dansville, Steuben (now Liv- 
ingston) Co., N. Y. Here he resided 
twelve months, and then returned to 
Easton. 

= On the death of the Rev. Dr. Henry 
Ernst Muhlenberg, in 1815, he was 
chosen to succeed him as pastor of the 
Lutheran congregation at Lancaster, Pa., 
aftd entered at once with great ardor 
on the duties of that responsible po- 
sition. Here was opened a wide field of 
usefulness, in which his talents, learn- 
ing and piety found ample scope. For 
a short time he was subjected to serious 
difficulty, on account of his favoring the 
introduction of the English language 
into the exercises of public worship. 
The Germans, regarding all attempts of 
this kind as an infringement of their 
rights, strongly resisted the wishes of 
those members of the congregation who 
were desirous of making provision for 
the spiritual instruction of their fami- 
lies, unacquainted with the German 
language. Many injurious reports con- 
cerning Mr. Endress, in connection with 
this matter, were put in circulation, but 
their effect was only temporary. The 
Germans withdrew from the church and 
erected an edifice designed exclusively 
for German services. Mr. Endress, by 
the calm and yet fearless course which 
he pursued, greatly elevated himself in 
the estimation of not only his immediate 
friends bnt the community at large. 

Ill 1819 Mr. Endress was honored 
with the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
from the university at which he was 
educated. 



Dr. Endress died at Lancaster after a 
brief but painful illness, on the 30th of 
September, 1827, in the fifty-second year 
of his age and the thirty-foUrth of his 
ministry. He was buried in the old 
Lutheran burying ground in Lancaster, 
the Rev. H. A. Muhlenberg, D.D., of 
Reading, preaching the funeral sermon. 

Dr. Endress wrote the German and 
English languages with equal facility, 
and he had in contemplatioa several 
works for the press at the time of his 
death. He had prepared a commentary 
on the Epistle to the Romans for publi- 
cation, of which Bishop White, to whom 
it was subsequently submitted, expressed 
a highly favorable opinion. He was a 
liberal contributor to the pages of the 
Lutheran Intelligencer, and several of his 
sermons were published in the Lutheran 
Preacher after his death. In 1791 he 
published a duodecimo volume in the 
German language, entitled, "The King- 
dom of Christ not Susceptible of Union 
with Temporal Monarchy and Aristoc- 
racy." 

After the death of Dr. Endress his 
widow removed to Rochester, N. Y., and 
remained there until 1832, then taking 
up her residence in Dansville for the 
rest of her life. She died on the 11th 
of January, 1861, in the seventy-ninth 
year of her age. She was a member of 
the Episcopal church. They had six 
children — four daughters and two sons. 
One of the sons (Isaac L. ) is a lawyer; 
the other (Samuel L. ) a physician. — 
Sprague. 



REV. JOHN W. ELOHEIMO, Ph.D. 



John William Eloheimo was born at 
Sahalaks, Finland, Europe, on the 9th 
day of December, 1847. After having 
attended the primary schools at Tam- 



merfors, and the colleges at Abo and at 
Borga, he attended the Imperial Alex- 
anders University at Helsingfors, and 
matriculated on 4ihe 2d day of February, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



199' 



1872. After the preliminary examina- 
tions he was officially examined in the- 
ology on the 30th of May, 1874, and or- 
dained to the gospel ministry at Borga, 
Finland, Jime 16th, 1874 

After having served several congrega- 
tions within the diocege of Borga, he 
traveled in the Scandinavian countries 
and in Germany, pursuing theological 
and literary studies until 1885. By the 
government of the Church of Finland he 
was given the following testimonial: 
"Eloheimo has fulfilled his duties in the 
office of a minister of the Gospel with 
diligence and capacity, and, besides, has 
conducted himself well," — the testimony 
bearing date December 22d, 1887. 

He was pastor for the Finnish Evan- 
gelical Lutheran congregations at As- 
toria, Oregon, from January 1st, 1888, 



to September 1st, 1889; and at Calumet, 
Mich., since September 1st, 1889. 

He has published in the Finnish lan- 
guage several compositions and trans- 
lations of theological and literary works ; 
he has established (1888) the fund of 
the "Suomi Sjruod;" and composed the 
constitution which was accepted at the 
meeting of the "Finnish Evangelical 
Lutheran Church of America," or Suomi 
Synod, at Calumet^ Mich., March 25th, 
1890. 

He was married in 1885. His wife. 
Alma Eloheimo, was born at Enonkoski, 
Finland, May 3d, 1867. He has two 
sons: Nino, born at Wyburg, Finland, 
April 9th, 1886, and Immanuel George, 
born at Astoria, Or., November 21st, 
1888. 




KEV. PEOF. CAEL L. E. ESBJOEN. 



Prof. Carl Linus Eugene Esbjorn is 
the son of Eev Prof. Lars Paul Esbjorn 
and a younger brother of Eev. C. M. 
Esbjorn. He was born in November, 
1862, in Chicago, 111., where his father 
was at the time president of Augustana 
Theological Seminary. On his father's 
removal to Sweden in 1863 he accom- 
panied him to his fatherland, where he 
entered the first class of the college at 
Westeraas in 1872. The following year 
he returned with his mother to America, 
and in 1874 he entered Augustana Col- 
lege, located then at Paxton and later at 
Eock Island, 111. From this institute 
he graduated in 1880 with the first 
honors of his class. After his gradua- 
tion he served for several years as tutor 
at Gustavas Adolphus College, St. Peter, 
Minn., and at Augustana College, mostly 



in ancient languages. He took post- 
graduate courses at Augustana College 
in mathematics and Hebrew; at Ann 
Arbor, Mich., in ancient languages and 
French; and at the University of Leipzig, 
Germany, in German philology and lit- 
erature, gothic, Eoman archaeology and 
philosophy. After he had there pre- 
pared himself carefully by teaching and 
thorough studies for seven years, his 
alma mater honored herself by calling 
him to be Professor of Modern Lan- 
guages in 1887, and later by conferring 
the degree of A.M. on her worthy son.' 
Prof. Esbjorn is a born teacher and very' 
popular with his pupils. He has served 
one year as secrectary of the committee 
on education and is at present the secre- 
tary of the General Faculty. 

C. M. E. 



200 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REV. CM. ESBJDRN, A. M. 



Rev. Esbjorn was born at Princeton, 
Bureau Co., Ill, Feb. 14, 1858, and at 
baptism received the name Constantinus 
Magnus. His father. Rev. L. P. Esbjorn, 
**the Patriarch of the Swedish Lutheran 
Church in America," was at the time 
pastor at this place ; but later in the year 
he moved as professor to Springfield, 
111., and again in 1860 to Chicago, 111. 
In 1863, when the subject of this sketch 
was five years old, he returned to Swe- 
den and became pastor of the parish of 
Oster Vaala, in the middle part of Swe- 
den. The hills and firwoods, the brooks 
and lakes of this region, the first home 
of C. M. Esbjorn of which he has any 
distinct remembrance, have ever since 
been to him the chief features of the 
ideal beauty of a landscape. This parish 
of Oster Yaala is a noted place for hav- 
ing been a home of the childhood of the 
Swedish seer and saint Birgitta (tl373). 
Many a time during his young years did 
he look with reverence upon an old oak 
at the estate of Aspnas which tradition 
says that she had planted. His old 



friends tell stories of his having preached 
at the age of four or five years to his 
playmates; and he remembers, how he, 
at the age of nine or ten, sometimes 
wrote short sermons and showed them 
to his father. 

Having passed through the parish 
school and having commenced to study 
History, Latin, German, Botany, etc., 
under the direction of his father, he en- 
tered the Elementar-Laroverk (College) 
of the old University town Upsala in 
1869. In three years he passed four 
preparatory classes. Many a time dur- 
ing these years did he taste of that 
viking drink, the mead, served in big 
horns on the barrows of Oden, Tor and 
Trej at Old Upsala. In the meantime 
his father had died and his mother re- 
moved to the city of Westeraas, famous 
since the time of Swedish Reformation. 
The fifth class he passed, therefore, in 
the College of this place, where he had 
the pleasure of enjoying the special good 
will of Dr. D. A. Synden, the well known 
author of text-books in Swedish language 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



2C1 



and literature. In the fall of 1873 his 
mother returned to America, as had 
been the express wish of his father, and 
he entered the freshman class of August- 
ana College, the institution founded by 
his father and situated at this time at 
Paxton, 111. The influences of his 
father's early trainings, together with 
the spiritual interest that some of his 
teachers and fellow-students took in 
him, led to his conversion in the spring 
of 1875; and the little New Testament, 
from which his classmate on Good Fri- 
day read and explained to him Gal. iii, 
24, will always remain the dearest souve- 
nir in his possession. The college hav- 
ing been removed to Rock Island, 111., 
in 1875, his class graduated in 1877, 
being the first graduating class at 
Augustana College. The working of his 
teachers placed him at the head of the 
class. Of his fellow-graduates three 
were to become Presidents of institutions 
of learning. Rev. M. Wahlstrom, Pres- 
ident of Gustavus Adolphus College, St. 
Peter, Minn., Rev. C. A. Swensson, Pres- 
ident of Bethany College, Lindsburg, 
Kan., and Rev. C. J. Petri, President of 
Emanuel Academy, Minneapolis, Minn. 
His class were the founders of the 
Alumni Association of Augustana Col- 
lege, which honored Esbjorn one year 
with the presidency. 

Theology and philosophy having al- 
ways had special attraction for him, par- 
ticularly the former, he entered the Aug- 
ustana Theological Seminary in the fall 
of 1877, where he studied one year, dur- 
ing which he enjoyed the instruction of 
Prof. O. Olsson, D. D. Towards the end 
of 1877 he took part in the organization 
of the society of the Friends of the 
Young, which resulted in the establish- 
ment in 1889 of the Lutheran Augustana 
Book Concern, the publishing house of 
the Augustana Synod. In 1878 the Board 
of Augustana College called him to the 
26 



position of tutor in Latin, Greek and 
Swedish. This place he filled for two 
years, after which his theological studies 
were resumed in 1880 at the seminary of 
Philadelphia, Pa. The names of the 
venerable doctors at this institution are 
too well known throughout our Ameri- 
can church, that their names need not 
be repeated. To Dr. C. W. Schaeffer he 
looks up as to a father. If he owes 
special obligations to any of his teachers 
at this seminary for influence of a mould- 
ing character, it is to Drs. C. P. Krauth 
and A. W. Mann. The thoroughness of 
the former and the brilliancy of the lat- 
ter marked them as ideal . educators in 
his estimation. The markings of his 
teachers were again favorable to hi n, 
and Dr. Krauth once humorously de- 
clared in the class, after he had recited 
a portion of his "Theses on Pulpit and 
Altar Fellowship", that, "if these theses 
were in some mysterious way to disap- 
pear from the earth, Mr. Esbjorn would 
probably, next to the author, be the oue 
to restore them again"! Dr. Mann and 
A. Shaeth were pleased to see the Swe- 
dish student take notes of the lectures in 
German and write German skeletons 
and sermons. If there was anything 
lacking to make him a Lutheran, after 
he had grown up as a child of the Aug- 
ustana Synod, it certainly was supplied 
in Philadelphia; and the friendship 
formed with such classmates as Rev. 
Theo. Schmauk and Prof. G. W. Sandt 
will last for life. The beginning of the 
misssionary interest in the seminary 
commenced to show themselves at this 
time and in the Father Heyer Mission- 
ary Society he read a couple of papers 
on missionary topics. In the early part 
of 1881 he revisited his fatherland for a 
few months. During the vacation of 
1881 a call of the New York Conference 
caused him to commence a Swedish mis- 
sion at Worcester, Mass. 



202 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



Before graduating at the seminary in 
1883, the Board of Augustana College, 
Rock Island, 111., had extended a call to 
him as professor in Christianity and of 
the Swedish language and literature. 
In the summer of 1883 he married Miss 
H. E. Sward, of Stockholm, Sweden, in 
New York. The following fall he en- 
tered on his work as professor. The 
study which is called "Christianity" at 
Augustana College is a collegiate course 
of theology, consisting, as it was arranged 
about a year after his arrival, of Sacred 
History (in Freshman), Church History 
(in Sophomore), Dogmatics (in Junior) 
Apologetics (in Senior), Practical Exe- 
gesis of Swedish and English New Tes- 
tament (in Freshman and Sophomore), 
and the Greek Novum (in Junior and 
Senior). The professorship of Swedish 
at the oldest and foremost Swedish- 
American institution made him for the 
time the first public representative of 
this subject in America; and it must 
have been this circumstance that on a pub- 
lic occasion warranted his friend. Prof. 
Olsson, D. D., in stamping him "the 
most Swedish Swede in America." In 
the work of teaching he has always 
found pleasure; the study of a literature, 
extending back over a thousand years, a 
literature so rich, so noble, so grand as 
the Swedish, is fascinating; and he hopes 
that not all of his pupils, whom he sees 
one after another occupying places of 
usefulness and honor, have lost the in- 
spiration they once caught from the ven- 
erable Vala and the brilliant Tegner. 
It was his constant endeavor to advance 
the study of Swedish language and 
literature at the institution, by arrang- 
ing the course, increasing the number of 
essays, introducing new branches, induc- 
ing his pupils to a personal study of the 
literature itself, etc. In 1888 he lec- 
tured at Augustana College, Gettysburg 
College, and Emanuel Academy on a 



Swedish medieval philosophical work: 
"Um Styrilsi Kununga ok Hofdhinga," 
presenting pictures of medieval culture 
in Sweden. On his recommendation 
the faculty and the board conferred 
the degree of A. M. ex honore on one of 
his former pupils. Rev. A. Svard, for 
having published a collection of poems, 
"Wild Flowers from the Prairie," the 
first original literary work published 
among the Swedes in America. In the 
spring of 1890 he arranged a solid 
post-graduate course in Swedish lan- 
guage and literature. During his work 
at Augustana College he had the pleas- 
ure of having as colleagues a number of 
gentlemen whose acquaintance was alike 
a profit and an honor to him, such as 
Prof. O. Olsson, D. D., his former teach- 
er; Dr. J. Lindahl, at present State Ge- 
ologist of Illinois; Prof. A. O. Bersell, 
of Upsala, Sweden; Prof. G. W. Sandt, 
bis old class-mate, and others. 

Some years after his arrival at 
Augustana College, he was one of the 
first group of graduates on which his 
Alma Mater conferred the degree of A. 
M. One year he served as secretary of 
the General Faculty; another year as 
secretary of the Committee on Educa- 
tion; one year as vice secretary of the 
Augustana Synod, and at the General 
Council in Chicago he was sent as lay^- 
delegate of the synod. For a couple of 
years he served, by appointment of the 
synod, as missionary editor of Augustana, 
the official organ of the synod, and dur- 
ing the last synodical year as associate 
editor for the pedagogical department. 
In 1889 the synod placed him on a com- 
mittee to prepare a Swedish Bible His- 
tory for u?e in the schools of the synod, 
and this book, which his fellow-mem- 
bers of the committee are pleased to 
call mainly his work, is at present in use 
in the whole synod. In 1889 he was 
made a member of the Liturgical Com- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



203 



mittee. In the same year the idea was 
suggested by Prof. A. O. Bersell and 
himself to arrange for a meeting of all 
the educators of the synod (numbering, 
according to the latest statistics, seven- 
ty). A call was issued, the first meet- 
ing of Swedish-American pedagogues 
convened at Augustana College at the 
commencement, and he had the honor 
of being elected chairman. Shortly be- 
fore, he took part in the organization of 
the Swedish-American Historical So- 
ciety, at Chicago, 111., and was elected a 
director of the society. In 1888 the 
Mission Board of the New York Con- 
ference had called him to become mis- 
sionary pastor at Buffalo, N. Y. 

When yet a child he had promised 
his dear father to "fill his place in the 
ranks of the soldiers of Christ" ; and this 
promise was fulfilled, when, in 1888, the 
Augustana Synod ordained him at Gales- 
burg, 111., to be a minister of the gospel, 
on the call of the Swedish Lutheran 
Church at New Windsor, 111., of which 
church he had the pastoral care whilst 
continuing as professor. In the begin- 
niug of 1890 he resigned this charge, 
but was immediately recalled, and was 
about the same time called to become 
pastor of the Swedish Lutheran Church 
at San Francisco, Cal.; resigned the 
professorship, which he had occupied 
for seven years, but was unanimously re- 
quested by the board to withdraw his 
resignation; and at the end of July he 
took charge of the church he is now 
serving. The field of labor in a large 
city like San Francisco, with a Swedish 
population numbering about 10,000, 
offers special attractions and peculiar 
difficulties. The Pacific Conference at 
its last meeting elected him as Vice- 
President of the Conference and Eepre- 
sentative of the Conference in the Syn- 
odical Council. In December he was 
invited by Dr. A. Hazelius, Curator of 



the Northern Museum, Stockholm, 
Sweden, to become a charter member of 
"the society for the care of the Northern 
Museum." 

The sermon should, according to his 
ideal, be textual, doctrinal and practical. 
The Lutheran character of our church 
service requires a high development of 
the element of the beautiful. Let us 
have more of liturgy and more varied 
forms of it. Let the beautiful tunes of 
the old folk-songs be revived and adopt- 
ed for the music of the church. A 
Lutheran church without a parochial 
school he deems an absurdity. Would 
to God that we could get a little more of 
the German religious and devotional 
literature translated into Swedish and 
English, and read in the church in 
America. Perhaps we would then grad- 
ually have a new reformation that would 
tend to drive out a number of "reformed" 
customs that have crept into our church. 

What he has published has been 
mainly in the form of coutributions for 
paper and periodicals, such as Indieator, 
Augustana Observer, Ungdoms-Vannen, Hus- 
Vannen, Hemlandet, Augustana Luthersk 
Kuartalskrift, and others, sometimes in 
the capacity of editor or associate editor. 
The topics on which he has written have 
been mostly theological, literary or 
pedagogical. As specimens might be 
mentioned: "Christ all in all" (Swedish 
tract, 1878); Eomans 2:12 (textural 
criticism, in Quarterly Review, July, 1882, 
reprinted in England); "Life of Eev. 
Prof. L. P. Esbjorn" (in Augustana Ob- 
server, 1882-3, unfinished); "The Signifi- 
cance of the Lutheran Church among 
the nations of our times" (in the Swedish- 
Luther Kalendar, 1883) ; "The Ecumenical 
character of the Lutheran Church" ( Swe- 
dish oration at reformation festival, 1883, 
published in Hemlandet, Chicago); "The 
biblical import and use of the word 'Sal- 
vation'" (in Swedish, 1884); "Catalogue 



204 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



of Augustana College and Theological 
Seminary," 1884, (in co-operation with 
Dr. J. Lindahl); "Minutes of the Scan- 
dinavian Angnstana Synod," 1884, (in 
Swedish); "A. A. Afzelins" (biography 
of a Swedish author, in Ungdoms- Vannen, 
1885); "Swedish Americans" (address 
at opening of public library in Moline, 
111., 1885, reported in Moline Evening Dis- 
patch, published in Moline Republican, re- 
printed in Lutheran, Philadelphia, Pa., 
and Citizen, Holdrege, Neb., translated 
to Swedish in Skaffaren, St. Paul, Minn. ) ; 
"The heart of the Bible" (missionary 
meditation in Swedish on Ps. 117, 1885; 
translated to Finish in Wolwfja); "Bible 
history for the home and the school" 
(referred to above, 1887); "Hunding 



kung ock hading kung" (essay on, and 
remodeling of, one of the oldest Swedish 
historic folk-songs, in Kvartalskrift, 1888 ) ; 
"The banner of the cross" (a Swedish 
religious and literary annual, 1889); 
"The song of the sun" (essay in Swedish 
on a poem in the edda, in Kuariaiakrifi, 
1889); "Introduction to the biblical 
books" (pp. 1-32 in A. J. Holman's Swe- 
dish Bible, 1889); "The atonement" 
(Swedish sermon at the Augustana 
Synod, 1890, published in Augustana); 
Swedish translations of two Greek-Eng- 
lish hymns; "Christ calming tlie storm, 
by Anatolius" (in Kvartalskrift, 1888) 
and "Art thou weary?" by Stephen the 
Sabaite (in Augustana, 1890). 




EEV. ]»EOF. L. P. ESBJOEN. 



The man selected by Providence to 
lay the foundation of the Swedish 
Lutheran Church in America was Eev. 
Lars Paul Esbjorn. He was born on 
16th of October, 1808, in Delsbo, Hel- 
singland, Sweden.* At twelve years of 
age (1820) he began to study at the 
Hudiksvallss Trivialskola; five years 
later, at the Gefle Gymnasium (1825;) 
and at Upsala Academy in 1828. f On 

*Hi8 parents were Esbjorn Paulson, a tailor by profess- 
ion, aod Karin Lindstrom. His mother's parents, Lars 
Lindstrom and Marget, reached the exceptionally high 
age of 105 and 100 years respectively. When Lars Paul 
was five years old his mother died (181H), and two years 
later (1815) his father died. The seven-year-old orphan 
was then adopted by an old maid by name of Stina, who 
sustained the relation of a true mother to the child- 
Having discovered that the boy was highly gifted, she 
gave herself no rest before she got him to rule some 
school, 

t Concering this period of his life Rpv Esbjorn writes: 
"My foster-mother worked hard to provide me with the 
necessary means, and the people helped me in the same 
manner that Luther was helped when he was a student 
I was permitted each Christmas to go around among the 
peasants, and sing a verse in each house, and to accept 
such gifts as they might give me, such as money, etc." 



the eleventh of June, 1832, he was 
ordained in Upsala to the gospel 
ministry, probably by the Archbishop 
Carl von Eosenstein. After having 
served for three years as assistant pastor 
of Dr. Forsell, in Eastern Waahla, he 
was appointed pastor and scliool teacher 
at Hille, where he labored for fourteen 
years. 

At this time (1849) a considerable 
number of Swedes from Gestrikland and 
southern Helsingland, resolved to emi- 
grate to America. Among these there 
were a number of awakened Christians 
who deemed it necessary, that the emi- 
grants should be accompanied by some 
Christian pastor. Such a person was 
found in Eev. L. P. Esbjorn, who con- 
sented to join the company. According- 
ly, after having obtained the promise of 
some financial aid from the Swedish 
Missionary Society at Stockholm, Eev. 
Esbjorn, with his wife, Amalia Maria 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



205 




REV. PROF. L. P. ESBJOEN. 



Lovisa Gylleubaaga, and children, to- 
gether with a company of 140 souls, 
boarded the Swedish sail vessel "Cob- 
den", bound for America, on the 29th of 
June, 1849. Having reached Hels- 
ingborg, he was called to perform the 
sad office of following the lifeless re- 
mains of a dear child to the grave, Dr. 
P. Wieselgren officiating. 

They arrived at New York September 
6th. Having decided to settle in An- 
dover. 111., they left New York with the 
canal-boat for Buffalo, whence they took 
passage with steam-boat to Chicago, ar- 
riving there on the 30th of September. 
After they had passed Detroit, another 
child of Rev. Esbjorn died, which was 
buried on the shores of Lake St. Clair. 
Having reached Chicago, Rev. Esbjorn 
was taken sick with the cholera, and 
was obliged to remain there with his 
family, while the rest of the company. 



under the leadership of Capt. Viderstrom, 
proceeded to Andover. Esbjorn arrived 
at Andover with his family on the 24th 
of October. Though yet quite feeble, 
and obliged to sit in a chair while he 
preached, he conducted divine services 
in Francis' schoolhouse at Andover, 
on the first Sunday after their arrival. 
During the winter he lived on the well- 
known "Mix' Place." In the meantime 
he bought ten acres of land with a cheap 
dwelling near Edwards River, where he 
removed with his family in the spring 
of 1850. At this time he organized an 
Evangelical Lutheran church at An- 
dover, and later he organized churches 
at Princeton, Henderson, Moline, and 
Galesburg. From a letter dated Feb. 
28th, 1850, addressed to Dr. Badger, 
corresponding secretary of the "Amer- 
ican Home Mission Society," it appears 
that he also at this time regularly visit- 



206 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



ed his countrymen at Berlin and Eock 
Island. 

In his annual report to the American 
Home Missionary Society, March 1st, 
1850, he gives his average attendance in 
Andover at about seventy; in Gales- 
burg, eighty; in Eock Island, thirty; 
in Berlin, twelve. On the 18th of March, 
1850, the church at Andover was organ- 
ized with ten persons, which by the 
latter part of May had increased to a 
membership of twenty-eight, and in Sep- 
tember to forty, with an average attend- 
ance of fifty to sixty. 

A year later the congregation at An- 
dover had grown so large that it became 
necessary to build a church. The people 
were, however, unable to undertake this 
work without aid, the most of them be- 
ing poor new-comers, who could scarce- 
ly maintain themselves. Eev. Esbjorn 
therefore undertook an extensive journey 
in the spring of 1851, through Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachu- 
setts, traveling a distance of 3600 miles, 
attending a number of English and 
GermanLutheransynodica] meetings and 
conferences, everywhere zealously plead- 
ing the Swedish mission work, and solic- 
iting contributions for a Swedish Luth- 
eran church at Andover. On this can- 
vassing tour, which took him eleven 
weeks, he succeeded in gathering $2200. 
Of this sum the famous Swedish singer 
Jenny Lind, whom he met at Boston, 
contributed $1500. With this money a 
Swedish-Lutheran brick church, 45x30 
feet, with basement for school purposes, 
was built in Andover, and a small frame 
church at Moline. The two or three 
hundred dollars that were left were con- 
tributed to the building of a church at 
New Sweden, la. 

The new Andover church was dedica- 
ted on the 3d of December, 1854, dur- 
ing the meeting of a conference, which 
was held there. 



At the annual meeting of the Northern 
Illinois Synod in 1855, Eev. Esbjorn 
was elected to solicit contributions for 
the establishment of a Scandinavian 
chair in theology at Springfield. In 
March, 1856, he resigned his charge at An- 
dover, and accepted a call from Princeton, 
111., where he removed with his family 
during the summer. In the fall of 1858 
he accepted a call as Scandinavian 
professor at Springfield, 111. In 1860 
he removed to Chicago. At the organ- 
ization of the Augustana Synod, in June, 
1860, he was called by this body to the 
presidency of its seminary at Chicago. 
In 1862 he made a visit to Sweden, when 
he was appointed resident pastor of 
Eastern Waahla, which appointment he 
accepted and removed to Sweden in 
1863. He died at Eastern Waahla July 
2d, 1870. 

Mr. Esbjorn was married three times; 
the first time in Sweden to Miss Amalia 
Maria Lovisa Gyllenbaaga, with whom 
he had six children, five sons and one 
daughter; Paul, who was killed on the 
battlefield in Missouri during the Eebel- 
lion in 1861; Johannes, who returned to 
Sweden in 1863; Joseph, who advanced 
to the position of captain during the 
war, and lives at present in St. Paul, 
Minn.; Maria, who was married to a 
German Lutheran minister, and died 
a number of years ago; and two sons 
(twins) who died on the passage to 
America. 

His first wife died July lltli, 1852, in 
Andover, 111., and is buried in the ceme- 
tery at that place. Later he was 
married to Helena Catharina Magnus- 
son, born June 29, 1827, in Ostergotland, 
Sweden, who died at Andover, Septem- 
ber 15th, 1853. The third time he was 
married to Gustafa Albertina, Magnus- 
sou, a sister of Helena, born 1833, who 
still lives in Eock Island, 111., and with 
whom he had five children; C. M. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



207 



Esbjorn, and C. L. E. Esbjorn, both 
professors at the Augustana College, 
Rock Island, 111.; Oscar Esbjorn, who 
is a student at that institution; Maria, 
who is teaching school in Kansas, and 
Hanna who is attending school at Beth- 
any College, Kansas. 

Prof. L. P. Esbjorn's published works 
are: 

"Praktiskoch popular Afhandling om 
Yisirmaattet(Mateniatik)," Gefle, 1837. 

''Ny Ofversattning af Joh. Arndts 
Sanna Kristendom och Paradis Lust- 
gaard," Gefle, 1841-3. 

"En Ung Kristen af Jacob Abbot," 
Stockholm, 1845. 

"Den Svenska Psalmboken med alia 
psalmers melodier for forsto gaangen 
fyrstammigttecknade med siffror, enligt 



Kongliga Musikaliska Akad : s melodi- 
tabell och Hiiffner's Koralbok," Gefle, 
1846. 

"Samma Melodier sarskildt utgifna 
fyrstammigt i siffror med et betydligt 
tilliig melodier," Gefle, 1848. 

"Barometerns foljeslagare af P. Chris- 
tensen, sv. bearbetning, etc.," Gefle, 
1844. 

"Sinai och Golgatha resa i Oster- 
landet, ofvers.," Gefle, 1849. 

"Profpredikan i Soderhamn, 2 : a son- 
dagen i Advent 1845," Gefle, 1846. 

"Afskedspredikan, Annandag Pingst 
i Hille," Gefle, 1849. 

"Enchiridion, Dr. Martin Luther's 
Lilla Cateches, noggrann ofversattning 
paa svenska och engelska," Galesburg, 
111., 1856. — Norelius' History. 




REV. CARL A. EVALD. 



Rev. Carl A. Evald, paslor of the Im- 
manuel Swedish Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, was born in Kil Parish, near 
Orebro, Sweden, on May 25, 1849. From 
1859 to 1868 he pursued his studies at 
Orebro College, and from this time to 
1^71 he remained with his parents. He 
then emigrated to America, and in the 



autumn of 1871 entered Augustana 
Theological Seminary at Paxton, 111. 
He was ordained on September 29, 1872, 
at Galesburg, 111., by the Swedish Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, and 
appointed pastor of the Augustana 
Church at Minneapolis, Minn., where he 
remained from 1872 to 1875. In the 



208 



AMEBIC AN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



spring of that year he accepted a call to i tober 4, 1876. She died in Stockholm 



his present church, and was installed on 
April 4. In this position his work has 
been crowned with great success. 

Eev. Mr. Evald has been married 
twice, first to Miss Annie T. Carlsson, 
daughter of Rev. Erl. Carlsson, on Oc- 



Sweden, on November 27, 1880. He was 
married the second time to Miss Emmy 
C. Carlsson, a sister of his first wife. 
By the second wife he has two daugh- 
ters, Annie Tidelia Christina and Frances 
Lillian Charlotta. — History of Chicago. 



BEY. DAYID EYSTEB, A.M. 



The ancestors of the Bev. David 
Eyster emigrated to America from Ger- 
many, early in the eighteenth century; 
his grandfather, Elias Eyster, having 
been born in Berks Co., Pa., in 1732. 

Mr. Eyster' s father subsequently set- 
tled in Adams Co., Pa., where he was 
united in marriage to Mary M. Slagel — 
also of German ancestry, her grand- 
father, Christopher Slagel, having em- 
igrated from Saxony at the beginning 
of the eighteenth century. 

Bev. David Eyster, the youngest son 
of George and Mary Eyster, was born 
June 1st, 1802, in Adams Co., Pa. 

Having in his early years chosen the 
ministry of reconciliation for the great 
business of his life, he commenced the 
studies preparatory to his high calling 
in the Gettysburg Academy, and subse- 
quently continued them in the Academy 
of York, Pa., until qualified to enter 
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., from 
which institution he was graduated in 
1824, and soon after commenced his 
theological studies under the Bev. Dr. 
Lochman, in Harrisburg, Pa. 

After completing the regular course 
of theological study, Mr. Eyster was li- 
censed to preach the Gospel by the 
Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania. After his licensure he 
was appointed as missionary for three 
months, to the Lutheran church at 
Philadelphia, where he was instrument- 



al in keeping together the little fiock 
that has since grown into the church of 
St. Matthew. He was requested to re- 
main longer, but declined, and'accepted 
a call to several churches in the vicinity 
of Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, Ya. 

Having served these congregations 
for some time, Mr. Eyster resigned all 
but two, and in connection with these 
acted as principal of the Female Acad- 
emy of Martinsburg, Ya. 

In 1831 Mr. Eyster retired from his 
field of labor in Yirginia; and after 
making an extended tour among our in- 
fant churches in the Western states, he 
accepted a call to the Lutheran church 
at Dansville, N. Y. Mr. Eyster's stay 
in Dansville was not long, as he re- 
signed the charge in 1835. But short 
as it was, the church had become so 
much attached to him, that efforts were 
more than once made to induce him to 
return to them; although other engage- 
ments at first, and afterward declining 
health, prevented him from acceding to 
their wishes, he ever cherished a most 
affectionate remembrance of his friends 
in Dansville and its neighborhood. 

In January, 1835, Mr. Eyster received 
a call from the Evangelical Lutheran 
church of Johnstown, N. Y. 

In Johnstown it may be said that the 
lif^-work of Mr. Eyster commenced. 
The members of the congregation, 
though worshiping in the village, were 



AMEBIC AN LU THEE AN BIOGKAPHIES. 



209 



scattered over a large district of country, 
both north and south of the church, and 
it required great activity and persever- 
ance to visit from "house to house" to 
encourage the penitent, reprove the 
backsliding and lukewarm, and comfort 
the sick and bereaved, but all who knew 
Mr. Eyster at that time will acknowledge 
"to his power, yea, and beyond his 
power," he "gave attendance to these 
things." At an early period of Mr. 
Eyster's ministry in Johnstown, a colony 
was formed of the more remote mem- 
bers of the charge, who, with the active 
co-operation of the pastor, built a church, 
in which he preached for many years, in 
connection with his Johnstown church. 
This church has long since become self- 
sustaining, and is known as the Church 
of West Amsterdam. 

Kemaining for a period of twenty 
years in the same pastorate, Mr. Eyster 
was enabled to see the fruits of his la- 
bors in an eminent degree. The or- 
dinary means of grace and several 
precious seasons of revival were greatly 
blessed, and many, very many, souls were 
"born into the kingdom," who will be 
his crown of rejoicing during a blissful 
eternity. But twenty years of toil be- 
gan to tell upon the constitution of the 
faithful pastor. Nervousness and sleep- 
less nights, as a consequence, for years 
had been increasing upon him; and in 
1855 he tendered his resignation, which, 
while it was approved by most of the 
membership, was opposed to the last by 
friends who loved him too well to part 
with him, even when duty seemed to de- 
maud it. Mr. Eyster's last discourse 
was, no doubt, long remembered by his 
deeply affected people. It was based on 
the words of St. Paul: "Finally, breth- 
ren, farewell." He showed those to 
whom he had so long ministered that 
he wished them to fare well, in the best 
and highest sense of the word. From 
27 



Johnstown Mr. Eyster removed to Allen- 
town, Pa. 

After remaining for some time in Al- 
lentown, Mr. Eyster, in 1856, removed 
with his family to Gettysburg, Pa., prin- 
cipally with a view to the education of 
his two sons in Pennsylvania College, 
located at that place. 

Mr. Eyster never had a regular 
charge after leaving Johnstown, but he 
never refused an invitation to preach, if 
he thought duty was clear, and health 
permitted. His time was principally 
taken up with the duties devolving upon 
him as principal of the Gettysburg Fe- 
male Institute. It was hoped that 
change of climate and out-door exercise 
would recuperate his system and be of 
permanent advantage to his health ; but 
the All-wise Ruler of events willed 
otherwise; for, notwithstanding all that 
was done to arrest the progress of dis- 
ease, his health slowly declined, and 
after bein^ confiued to his couch for 
several weeks, he calmly fell asleep in 
Jesus, on the 7th of December, 1861, 
surrounded by his afflicted family and 
other kind relatives and friends, who had 
tenderly cared for him during his pro- 
tracted illness. His remains lie interred 
in the beautiful cemetery adjoining the 
town of Gettysburg. A simple marble 
headstone marks the place of sepulture, 
with the name and age of the deceased, 
and the all-consoling words of our 
Saviour (John xi, 25): "I am the re- 
surrection and the life: he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live." Mr. Eyster's natural reserve, as 
well as his deep humility, prevented 
him from alluding with frequency to his 
personal feelings on the near prospect 
of death, but his faith was firm, and his 
anticipations joyous. In repeated con- 
versations with the late Rev. Dr. 
Sch mucker, during the course of his ill- 
ness, he spoke, says the Doctor, with 



210 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



deep emotion of the fullness and free- [ acknowledge their fault, and promise to 



ness of the Gospel plan of salvation; 
and he adds : "A more peaceful end no 
one could describe or desire." 

Mr. Eyster united with the Hartwick 
Synod at its session in 1831, and until 
the close of his life retained a warm af- 
fection for it; and that the synod valued 
him, was shown by its conferring upon 
him, at different times, the offices of 
treasurer, secretary and president. He 
remained in connection with the Hart- 
wick Synod until a year or two before 
his death, when he united with the 
Synod of West Pennsylvania. As a 
preacher, Mr. Eyster was at the same 
time doctrinal and practical. He oc- 
casionally preached a whole course of 
doctrinal sermons, beginning with the 
existence of an Almighty Creator of all 
things, and continuing through the most 
important doctrines of our holy religion. 
Yet he never preached a sermon that 
he did not conclude with a practical 
application. He seemed to have the 
most interested and attentive of hearers, 
and it may be that his plain and in- 
structive way of preaching had much to 
do with their habit of attention. Those 
who heard Mr. Eyster but occasionally, 
and in the pulpits of other ministers, 
could not form a correct estimate of his 
ability as a preacher. Among his own 
people his discourses were ever of a 
highly evangelical character. Avoiding 
all controversy, he delighted to dwell 
on the plain doctrines of the cross — 
justification by faith alone, and a life of 
holy obedience as evidence of the real- 
ity of that faith — were ever prominent 
themes in all his discourses. He never 
feared to deliver the whole counsel of 
God; and so faithful was he in pointing 
out those sins which should exclude 
from the communion, that such as felt 
they were guilty would withdraw from 
the church, or, with penitential tears. 



guard against all sin for the future. 
But diffident even to a fault, Mr. Eyster's 
self-possession often failed him when 
preaching for others, or when ministers 
or others of superior abilities were 
present, and thus his sermons lost much 
of their power. But, under whatever 
circumstances he preached, all that he 
said was on the side of plain, practical 
godliness; and throughout the whole of 
his manuscript sermons (and he has 
left some hundreds of them) there runs 
the same strain of fervent piety. To 
quote from Dr. Kurtz, in the Lutheran 
Observer of February 28th, 1862: "Mr. 
Eyster was a classical, well-educated, 
unpretending, sound and sensible preach- 
er, * * * decided in his Christian 
faith, unaffected and unassuming in his 
manners, distrustful of his own abil- 
ities, though of a high order, modest 
and diffident perhaps to a fault, yet 
never afraid 1o avow his convictions 
when duty demanded it. 

"The prostration of his nervous sysr 
tem increased his timidity, and ren- 
dered him doubly sensitive to the try- 
ing occurrences of life, and if, at such a 
disadvantage, he was able to maintain 
a reasonable degree of equanimity, it 
is more than many good men, suffering 
under like ailments, have been able to 
do." 

Although Mr. Eyster was descended 
from a German ancestry, he did not 
understand the German language — 
at least, to any extent — until he com- 
menced his theological studies; but he 
then applied himself with so much ear- 
nestness to its acquisition, that he be- 
came a good German scholar; and al- 
though he was not obliged to preach 
German in his own charge while in 
Johnstown, he occasionally preached 
with great acceptance to the Germans in 
the neighboring town of Bluecher. Mr. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES, 



211 



Eyster has left a translation from the 
German of Semler, of Biblical and Jew- 
ish Antiquities, almost ready for the 
press. 

Mr. Eyster occasionally wrote for the 
Observer, and one of his sermons was 
published in the Lutheran Preacher. 

One of Mr. Eyster's striking charac- 
teristics was a remarkably clear and 
correct judgmeut. This led him to place 
the right estimate upon men and things; 
while in an age of extremes it kept him 
close to his Bible and his God, and 
made him a valuable counselor, both in 
ecclesiastical affairs and in the social 
and domestic circles. 

Another prominent trait was good 
taste. No one ever heard him speak of 
what effect he had produced, or what he 
had achieved. To quote again from Dr. 



Kurtz, '*He was no trifler, no retailer of 
stale and course anecdotes, nor dealer in 
slang or vulgar sayings; cheerful with- 
out levity, and habitually consistent in 
his walk and conversation, he was an 
ornament to his profession, and a man 
whom his acquaintances could not fail 
to esteem and love." 

At his death Mr. Eyster left a widow 
and two sons to mourn his loss, having 
been united in marriage, in 1840, to 
Miss Rebecca M. Reynolds, sister of the 
late Rev. Dr. W. M. Reynolds, then 
professor in Pennsylvania College. His 
two sons were carefully educated, and 
are both graduates of Pennsylvania 
College, and are at present engaged in 
literary and scientific pursuits. — Mrs. R. 
M. Eyster, in Hist. Hartwick Synod. 




REV. MICHAEL EYSTER. 



Michael Eyster was the fourth son of 
Adam and Elizabeth Eyster, and was 
born about six miles west of York, Pa., 
on the 16th of May, 1814. His parents 
were of German descent, and his father 
was a farmer. He remained at home 
until he had reached his thirteenth year, 
when he was placed in a mercantile 
house at York with a view to his being 
educated to that business. After re- 
maining here for three years, during 
which time he commended himself great- 
ly to the favor of his employers by his 
strict attention to business, he became 
deeply interested in the subject of per- 
sonal religion. Notwithstanding he had 
been trained by Christian parents, his 
thoughts seem never to have been di- 
rected seriously to higher interests until 
this period; but now the salvation of his 
soul became with him the all-engrossing 



concern. He fell upon his knees and 
besought the Lord to work in him the 
great change which he felt was abso- 
lutely essential to his being saved; at 
the same time solemnly promising that, 
if this should be his happy experience, 
he would devote the rest of his life to 
the preaching of the gospel. The bur- 
den that rested upon his spirit was re- 
moved; the light and hope that he had 
prayed for came; and, true to his promise, 
he at once relinquished his place in the 
store, and, turning a deaf ear to all the 
arguments that could be offered in favor 
of a contrary course, began his studies 
with a view to entering the ministry. 

At the time of Mr. Eyster's boyhood 
the German language was almost exclu- 
sively used among the rural population 
of York county. Owing to the fact that 
his early education had been conducted 



212 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOQflAPHIES. 



entirely in that language, he had but 
little knowledge of English when he 
commenced his preparation for the min- 
istry. H^e, however, very soon became 
as familiar with the latter as he was 
with the former, and he found his 
knowledge of the German of great im- 
portance to him in the prosecution of 
his theological course. 

He commenced his classical studies at 
Marshall College, then at York; but 
shortly after that institution was re- 
moved to Mercersburg, and he entered 
Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, 
with the design of completing his col- 
legiate course in it. He very soon 
gained a high reputation for diligence 
and success in his studies, and for an 
honorable and exemplary deportment, 
and this reputation he maintained as 
long as his connection with the institu- 
tion continued. After passing through 
the prescribed course in the college he 
entered the Theological Seminary in the 
same place, where he became at once dis- 
tinguished for both acuteness and depth 
of thought, and was regarded as giving 
promise, if his life were spared, of extra- 
ordinary usefulness in the church. His 
studies at the seminary being closed, he 
was licensed to preach the gospel by the 
West Pennsylvania Synod at its meeting 
in New Berlin, Somerset Co., in Oc- 
tober, 1838. 

In the fall of the same year Mr. Eyster 
accepted an invitation to take charge of 
the congregation at Williamsburg, Blair 
Co., Pa., and immediately entered upon 
the duties of the place. During a por- 
tion of the time he resided here he 
preached in Sinking Valley, some twen- 
ty miles distant, and also at the Yellow 
Spring school house, about five miles 
from Williamsburg. Here also he pros- 
ecuted his studies with great vigor, and 
this in connection with his very numer- 
ous pastoral duties, so overtasked his 



physical energies that he probably never 
fully recovered from the effect. In Jan- 
uary, 1839, he was married to Julia E. 
Eichelberger, of York, a young lady to 
whom he became engaged while he was 
there serving his clerkship. 

Mr. Eyster' s congregation soon be- 
came much attached to him, and he be- 
came a favorite in the whole surrounding 
community. He also came to be widely 
known in the church as an able, earnest 
and devoted minister. He remained in 
Williamsburg until March, 1846, when 
he received and accepted a call from the 
congregation in Greencastle, Franklin 
Co., Pa., and removed at once to this 
new field of labor. He also preached 
occasionally at Mercersburg, and afc the 
Grind Stone meeting house during his 
residence in Franklin county. Where- 
ever he preached he was always received 
with great favor, and the success of his 
labors was manifest as well in the in- 
crease of his congregation as in a more 
elevated tone of Christian feeling and 
character. 

Mr. Eyster was now subjected to a 
most desolating affliction in the death of 
his beloved wife. His attachment to 
her had been nothing less than absolute 
devotion ; and the thought of losing such 
a treasure seemed not to have occurred 
to him; and when the event actually 
came so overwhelming was the stroke 
that it was feared that it might mark the 
termination of his usefulness, and hasten 
the close of his life. But his trust in 
God did not forsake him. Though it 
may have given a somewhat sombre hue 
to his remaining years, it imparted an 
increased degree of spirituality to his 
character, and fresh unction and energy 
to his ministrations. He felt, however, 
that he could not remain in a place in 
which the associations had become so 
sad, and he accordingly sought relief by 
a change of location, and in October, 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



213 



1849, removed to Greensburgh. He 
now took charge of the congregations in 
Greensburgh, Salem and Adamsburg; 
but, finding the labor of serving them 
all too much for his health, which had 
now become seriously impaired, he re- 
signed the congregation at Salem to the 
care of another minister. This was 
about a year before his death. 

Here also he labored with much ac- 
ceptance and high ability, as was evi- 
dent from the flourishing condition in 
which the congregations were when his 
ministry closed. The last time he 
preached was on the 12th of June, 1853, 
during the meeting of the Pittsburg 
Synod at Freeport. He was then in 
such feeble health as to be scarcely able 
to ascend the pulpit stairs. But his 
friends were anxious to hear him, and 
he reluctantly consented. His text was, 
"This do in remembrance of me," and, 
though the sermon was quite unpre- 
meditated, it was thought to have been 
one of his most felicitous efforts. It 
seemed to the audience almost like a 
voice coming to them from the invisible 
world. From this period his strength 



rapidly declined, and he was unable to 
attempt any further public service. 

Soon after his return from Freeport 
he went, by the advice of his friends, to 
spend some time at Bedford Springs, but 
as he derived no benefit from the water 
he left very shortly, and, after paying a 
brief visit to his early home, returned to 
his family to die. He was confined to 
his room only one week before his death; 
the immediate cause of which was a se- 
vere attack of acute laryngitis, super- 
added to a great degree of physical pros- 
tration, induced by complicated chronic 
diseases. His sufferings were severe, 
but he endured them with utmost calm- 
ness and fortitude. It was a most af- 
fecting scene when, by his request, his 
children came and knelt about his death- 
bed, and, after giving them words of 
tender and solemn counsel he commend- 
ed them to the gracious guardianship of 
their Heavenly Father, as a preparation 
for the final parting. His last words 
which were addressed to one of the offi- 
cers of his church were: "I expect to 
meet you in Heaven." He died on the 
11th of August, 1853, in the forty-second 
year of his age. — Sprague. 



KEY. JACOB FABEICIUS, A. M. 



The Lutherans of New York, having 
obtained from the newly established 
English authorities permission to call a 
preacher of their faith, they forwarded 
their petition to the Classis of Amster- 
dam — the Dutch being still the domi- 
nant party in the congregation, though 
Lutherans from other countries had in 
the meantime united with it, — but four 
long and gloomy years were yet to pass 
by before their earnest entreaties for a 
shepherd were granted. And when at 
last, in 1668, more than forty years after 



the first Lutherans had settled in New 
York, and ten years after the banish- 
ment of Rev. Goetwater, they were to 
see their petition granted and their 
hopes realized, they, alas! found the 
fruit of all their efforts to be, like the 
apples of Sodom, a most grievous disap- 
pointment. A more unhappy selection 
could scarcely have been made for them. 
The Lutheran Consistory must have 
been ignorant, not only of the peculiar 
requirements of the situation in this 
New World, but they must have been 



214 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



totally unacquainted with the character 
of the man whom they commissioned. It 
would have been a sad day for the early 
Christian Church, if the congregation at 
Antioch had made a similar mistake 
when they sent forth Barnabas and Saul 
on the mission to the Gentiles. The 
man's name was Jacob Fabricius, who 
arrived in February, 1669. He was a 
sorry excuse for the spiritual head of a 
congregation that had languished so 
long without pastoral oversight, and had 
suffered so much from adversity and 
persecution. He proved to be utterly 
unadapted to the position. 

He had received university training 
and was a man of uncommon talents, 
and eloquent as a preacher. But he was 
of a haughty and violent temper, had 
neither tact nor prudence, and, saddest 
of all, was a victim of intemperance. 

At Albany, where, as well as in New 
York, Governor Lovelace had given him 
permission to exercise his office, he be- 
came seriously involved with the civil 
authorities and also with his congrega- 
tion. Eefusing to sanction civil mar- 
riage, which was at that time the law of 
the province, he proceeded, whether from 
conscience or from covetousness, to im- 
pose a fine of one thousand rix dollars 
upon one of his members, whose mar- 
riage had been solemnized by a civil 
official. The party complaining to the 
governor, the latter suspended the arbit- 
rary preacher from his functions in Al- 
bany for one year, allow him still to con- 
tinue his ministrations in New York, 
though in the course of another year he 
was there also authorized to preach his 
farewell sermon. 

The work of erecting a church build- 
ing in the latter place, which had been 
inaugurated prior to his coming, re- 
ceived at first, naturally, quite an im- 
petus from his presence, but he soon be- 
came an element of discord in the con- 



gregation, and his offensive, domineering 
behavior threw everything into confusion. 
The people became so much dissatisfied 
that they not only refused to contribute 
to his support, but they even declined 
to pay their subscriptions to the build- 
ing of the church. The civil authorities 
had to be invoked and it was ordered 
by the magistrates, that the subscrip- 
tions made for the church building and 
those for the salary of the pastor should 
be paid "up to the time of their late 
public disagreement." Compliance with 
this order was, of course, inevitable, but 
shortly afterwards certain members of 
the church, doubtless its trustees or 
office bearers, petitioned the governor to 
have their accounts settled, adding that 
they wished to have nothing more to do 
with the Pastor Fabricius. His brief 
and most unfortunate pastorate came to 
an abrupt close on August 11, 1671. 
Wolf's Lutherans in Ameriea. 



On the 24th of February, 1674, his wife, 
Anetje Cornelissen, sent in a complaint 
to the government charging her husband, 
the Eev. Fabricius, with inhuman treat- 
ment of her. In this complaint she 
states that he had often driven her out 
of the house that belonged to her and 
her children, and she prays that it may 
be given back again, as she is very sick 
and has been obliged to sleep in the 
garret all winter, which is very hard for 
her, an old woman, to endure. All this 
she has to suffer on account of a profane 
drunkard and unworthy Lutheran 
preacher, Jacob Fabricius by name, her 
wedded but unfaithful husband, who had 
driven her out of her house and apart- 
ments, which ought not to be tolerated 
in a land of law and order. She there- 
fore prays that she may be granted the 
key to the house, and that he be pro- 
hibited from entering her house, without 
her permission, as he was known to have 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



215 



stolen some articles from her. In the 
court his wife acknowledged that he had 
given her the key. But she again com- 
plained that on the 11th of July he had 
been in her house and brutally assaulted 
her, whereupon he was arrested and 
fined. How these deplorable domestic 
troubles, in which Fabricius was cer- 
tainly not the only blamable party, end- 
ed is not stated. 

Fabricius remained in this congrega- 
tion about eight years, when in 1677 he 
received a call from a Swedish congrega- 
tion in Philadelphia, which also con- 
tained a number of Hollanders of the 



Lutheran faith. On Trinity Sunday, 
1677, he held his inaugural sermon in a 
log house in Wicacoa (Philadelphia), 
which was originally intended for a fort, 
but was dedicated for a church on this 
occasion. In this charge Fabricius la- 
bored for fourteen years, being blind the 
last nine years. As pastor in Philadel- 
phia his record is good, being well 
spoken of, and hence it must be sup- 
posed that he repented of his fall and 
found grace with God. He died 1692. 
— R. Andersen's History of Eu. Liith. Church 
in America, 




EEV. JUSTUS FALCKNEE. 



The first German Lutheran congrega- 
tion organized within the limits of the 
United States was, undoubtedly, that 
of Falkner's Swamp (New Hanover), on 
the Manatawny, in Montgomery Co., 
Pa. Its first pastor was Eev. Justus 
Falckner, a man around whose name 
clusters more than ordinary interest. 
He belonged to a family of clergymen 
in Germany, his grandfathers on both 
sides and his father bains: Lutheran 
ministers, and he had himself been ed- 
ucated at Halle, under Francke, for the 
sacred oflice. On the completion of his 
studies he turned away from it with 
strong aversion, and in 1700 accom- 
panied his brother to America, where 
both of them held a power-of-attorney 
as land agents for William Penn. It 
was while making a sale of some lands 
to the Swedes that he came to regret his 
decision against entering the ministry — 
a change traceable no doubt to the 
Christian zeal and spiritual influence 
of his Swedish brethren in the faith. 

Thus by the guiding hand of a gracious 
Providence this gifted and learned man, | 



who had fled from his father's house to 
escape from the ministry to which he 
had been consecrated by parents and 
friends, now voluntarily assumes its re- 
sponsibilities, and devotes his talents to 
the saving of his countrymen whom he 
found languishing in spiritual destitu- 
tion. His name is honored as that of 
the flrst pastor of the first German 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amer- 
ica. He was likewise the first Luther- 
an minister ordained in this country, 
his ordination being conducted in the 
Swedish church at Wicacoa, November 
24th, 1703, by the three Swedish pas- 
tors Eudman, Bjork, and Sandel, who, 
although they had unquestionably in- 
herited the boon of Apostolic Succession, 
— whatever that may be, — held it in so 
little estimation, that they proceeded to 
the ordination of a man to the sacred 
office without any imposition of Episco- 
pal hands. The Archbishop of Upsala 
had wisely authorized these Presbyters, 
to perform such ordinations in his ab- 
sence. Had the Presbyters of the Ang- 
lican Church been similarly empowered 



216 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



by their bishops, the growth of the 
Episcopal Church in the colonies would 
have made a showing very different from 
that which has passed into history. 
Pastor Falckner proved a zealous and 
worthy minister; one of the purest and 
most efficient of the earlier ministers 



in the American Lutheran Church. He 
went after a brief pastorate to New 
York, where he ministered to many 
people, and in 1723 closed his earthly 
labors with congregations which he had 
organized in New Jersey. — Dr. Wolf. 



REV. PROF. OLE G. EELLAND. 



Ole G. Felland was born on the 10th 
of October, 1853, at Koshkonong, Dane 
Co., Wis, His father, Gunder G. Fel- 
land, who died in 1887, was a farmer. 
He came from Norway (Mo, Thelemar- 
ken) in 1846, settling with his wife 
and oldest son on Koshkonong. Nine 
children were born to them, of which 
the subject of the present sketch was 
the fifth. The parents took great pains 
to give their children a good education, 
and Ole attended both the parochial 
school and the common school, whenever 
they could be reached. Being of a puny 
size, he was not of much account on 
the farm, and as he evinced desire and 
aptitude for learning, his parents sent 
him, at 14 years of age, to Decorah, la., 
to attend Luther College. Here he 
was comfirmed in the Lutheran faith by 
Rev. N. Brandt of the Norwegian Luth- 
eran Synod. Having attended the college 
regularly for six years, he graduated in 
1874, being one of the first who re- 
ceived the diploma of that institution, 
admitting to the degree of A. B. 

At this time the graduates of Luther 
College went, almost without exception, 
to Concordia Seminary at St. Louis to 
study theology, and our young graduate 
was one of the first to deviate from the 
beaten path. He went to the North- 
western University at Watertown, Wis., 
where he took a post-graduate course 



for two years, applying hims&lf chiefly 
to classical studies and German, with a 
view to teaching. Here, however, he 
became interested in theology, and, un- 
der the spell of the famous Prof. Wal- 
ther, he selected Concordia Seminary, 
in which from 1876 to 1879, he studied 
theology, but as yet without the inten- 
tion of becoming a minister. Immedi- 
ately after his graduation, however, he 
received a call from Rochester and Kas- 
son, Minn., and being urged by older 
ministers, of whom he sought counsel, 
to accept, he finally consented and was 
ordained to the ministry by Rev. J. A. 
Ottesen, assisted by Profs. Schmidt and 
Stub of Luther Seminary, then located 
at Madison, Wis., on the 14th of Sep- 
tember, 1879. 

Entering upon his duties as minister, 
he took up his residence at Kasson, 
Minn., performing the regular routine 
work of a minister for two years. Be- 
sides the two congregations above men- 
tioned, he also had charge of a small 
congregation in the township of Sar- 
gent, Mower Co., and another in Hay- 
field, Dodge Co. At the beginning of 
1880 the controversy on predestination 
arose between Dr. Walther, of St. Louis, 
and Dr. Schmidt, then of Madison. 
Having become aquainted with the pe- 
culiar tenets of Dr. Walther while un- 
der his personal instruction at St. Louis, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



217 



he unliesitatingly rejected them and be- 
came an ally of what was later known 
as the Anti-Missourian party, to which 
he has ever since steadfastly adhered. 

In 1881 he was invited by Eev. B. J. 
Muus, founder and president of St. 
Olaf's School, to become a teacher in 
that institute. Finding that the old de- 
sire was still in him, and having ob- 
tained the consent of his congregation, 
he accepted the position which he has 
since held. He has taught various 
branches, as the exigency required, such 
80* English, Norwegian, German, and 
Latin, Mathematics, History, and Bot- 
any, to the last of which he became 
particularly attached, and still cultivates 
as one of his favorite studies. When, 
in 1886, a collegiate course was begun, 
he was placed in charge of the Greek 
Department, and thus a long cherished 
desire was satisfied, for he has, ever 
since his graduation, had a predilection 
for Greek literature. During the pres- 
ent year (1889-90) he has also given a 
coarse in Hebrew to the Seniors of St. 
Olaf College. 

His clerical duties did not end alto- 
gether when he became a teacher. One 
of his former congregations being un- 
able to sustain a minister alone, and 
not finding any congregation with which 
they would affiliate themselves, again 
called him to preach to them. He ac- 
cf^pted, and has paid them regular vis- 
its every three or four weeks, until the 
beginning of the present year, when 
his congregation succeeded in obtain- 



ing the services of Rev. O. Glasoe, of 

Austin. 

During the nine years he has been 
following the profession of teaching, he 
has applied himself closely to his voca- 
tion, not taking active part in the vari- 
ous controversies, political and religious, 
which have occurred. In the year 1888, 
during the summer vacation, he under- 
took a journey abroad, visiting England, 
France, Denmark, Germany, and Nor- 
way, returning much refreshed and in- 
vigorated, with many vivid recollections 
of the delightful trip, which he occasion- 
ally imparts to the students in special 
lectures. 

Books are his special favorites, as 
any one who visits his rooms will easily 
notice. His library contains about 800 
volumes, which are distributed about as 
follows : Theology and Philosophy, 160 ; 
History and Biography, 80; Classical 
Philology, 130; Science, 50; General 
Literature, 150; Bound Periodicals, 100; 
Miscellaneous, 130. Among the mis- 
cellaneous works are included art, med- 
icine, jurisprudence, books on travel, 
works of reference, etc. The following 
languages are represented, viz: Nor- 
wegian^ Danish, Swedish, English, Ger- 
man, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, 
Hebrew, Aramaic, and Sanscrit. 

He was married in 1888 to Miss Thea 
Johanna Midboe, of Vernon, Dodge Co., 
Mian. They have three children, a 
boy and two girls, all living. The fam- 
ily at present dwells in the Ladies' Hall 
of St. Olaf College. 




28 



218 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 




EEV. PETEE FELTS, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born in 
Ancram, Columbia Co., N. Y., November 
3, 1830, of parents engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits and who were of German 
extraction. He was baptized in infancy 
by Eev. Dr. Wackerhagen, who, al- 
though residing sixteen miles from An- 
cram, was at that time the most accessi- 
ble Lutheran pastor. Yery early m life 
he exhibited an intense thirst for knowl- 
edge, as many an hour devoted by his 
schoolmates to the sports of childhood 
was spent by him in close application to 
study. 

The spring of 1845 found him a stu- 
dent in Amenia Seminary, which was 
then regarded one of the best academic 
institutions in the state. The Eev. 
Joseph Cummings, D. D., LL. D., subse- 
quently President of the Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, Middletown, Conn., and the 
Northwestern University, Evanston, 111, , 
was at its head, and Bishops Gilbert and 
E. O. Haven were members of the faculty. 
Here he remained until prepared for 
college, when he contracted a severe 
cold which resulted in an affection of the 
lungs and was compelled to abandon the 



idea of prosecuting his studies. His 
ambition at this period of his life was to 
become a lawyer. With crushed hopes 
he went back to live on the farm, where 
he remained for two years. At the ex- 
piration of this time his health had thus 
far improved that he was enabled to en- 
gage in teaching school, which profes- 
sion occupied the two following years of 
his life. 

Just before reaching his majority he 
married Laura Ann Griswold, of Galla- 
tin, N. Y., and for the two years succeed- 
ing this event followed mercantile pur- 
suits in his native village. 

In the autumn of 1853 he was con- 
firmed as a member of St. John's Church, 
Ancram, and soon thereafter resumed 
study with a view to a preparation for 
the work of the gospel ministry. Al- 
though now married he had no inclina- 
tion of shortening his course of study, 
but for seven years pursued classical and 
theological studies, which brought him 
to the age of thirty at the time of his 
licensure. His theological course was 
taken at Hartwick Seminary under the 
learned Dr. Miller, whom Prof. Schmidt, 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES, 



219 



of Columbia College, New York City, 
said he considered "one of the best 
scholars, if not the best scholar, in this 
country." He was licensed by the Min- 
isterium of New York at Eochester, Sept. 
3, 1861, and ordained by the same ec- 
clesiastical body at Newark, N. J., Sept. 
9, 1862. Before his graduation he had 
conditionally accepted a call from Christ's 
Church, Ghent, and therefore immedi- 
ately after he was licensed assumed the 
duties of the pastoral office. Here he 
labored with marked success for eight 
years and eight months, when he re- 
signed this charge to accept a call from 
St. Paul's Church of Johnstown, Fulton 
Co., in which pastorate he still remains. 
Here for more than twenty years he 
has continued to preach without the 
least indication of a waning influence. 
Through these years his church has had 
a steady and healthy growth, he having 
been privileged to welcome to its com- 
munion nearly six hundred souls as the 
fruits of his ministry. Dr. Felts has 
had several invitations to other fields, 
but invariably have they been declined. 
In June, 1873, the Board of Trustees of 
Hartwick Seminary unanimously elect- 
ed him professor of theology in that 
institution, but as he preferred the pul- 
pit to the professor's chair, that call 



was also declined. He has served his 
synod in the capacity of secretary and 
treasurer for six successive years, and 
four times represented the same as del- 
egate to the General Synod. Since 1880 
he has been a trustee of Hartwick Sem- 
inary. In June, 1876, Pennsylvania 
College conferred upon him the honor- 
ary degree of Divinitatis Doctor. So busy 
has been his life in the pastorate, and 
so much of his time devoted to prepa- 
ration for the pulpit, that he has seldom 
given anything for publication to the 
press. Prof. Pitcher, principal of Hart- 
wick Seminary, writing of him, says: 
"Dr. Felts is a strong advocate of cate- 
chetical^ instruction, and for a consider- 
able time was the only pastor in the 
synod who regularly reported a class of 
catechumens. His membership is con- 
sequently educated to the duties and 
privileges of their high calling." The 
same, speaking of him as a preacher, 
says: "He is regarded as one of the 
most able and successful preachers in 
our Church." In the same article he 
further says: "The Doctor is still a 
student and keeps himself posted, not 
only in current topics, but also in the 
Hebrew and Greek Languages, and 
other literary and theological studies." 




220 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV, E. A. FINK, D. D. 



Eev. E. A. Fink was born in Fred- 
erick Co., McL, August 15th, 1824, and 
entered Pennsylvania College, Gettys- 
burg, in 1841. Graduating in 1847, he 
immediately entered the theological 
seminary at the same place, and grad- 
uated therefrom in 1849. He was li- 
censed to preach by the Maryland 
Synod at Hagerstown in the fall of 
1849, and took charge of the Newtown, 
Stevensburg, Ya., church, in the spring 
of 1850. After the lapse of two years 
he received and accepted a call from 
Martinsburg, W. Va. He remained 
there four years and a half, and during 
his stay the town was visited by the 
Asiatic cholera. During the awful 
scourge he rendered incalculably val- 
uable services in caring for both the 
physical and spiritual wants of the af- 
flicted. His next pastorate was at Lew- 
isburg. Union Co., Pa., whence he came 
to Johnstown, Pa. About ten years 
ago Eev. Fink received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Pennsylvania 
College, of which he is now one of the 
trustees. He is also a director of the 



Gettysburg Theological Seminary. He 
has an extensive acquaintance among 
authorities of Lutheran educational in- 
stitutions, and is frequently invited by 
them to deliver baccalaureate addresses. 
He has rendered this service at Hagers- 
town Female Seminary; at the Female 
Seminary at Marion, Va. ; at Eoanoke 
College, at Salem, Ya , and at other in- 
stitutions. 

After having spent about a quarter of 
a century of faithful and devoted ser- 
vice at Johnstown, the terrible flood oc- 
curred which destroyed his charch and 
scattered his people. His library, val- 
ued at $1500, was also lost in the flood, 
besides his other personal property be- 
ing considerably damaged. His zealous 
efforts to re-gather his scattered people 
were too much for him, and his health 
broke down during the spring of 1890, 
which obliged him to retire from the 
active ministry. His congregation at 
Johnstown having made him Pastor 
Emeritus, Eev. W. A. Shipman, of Hol- 
lidaysburg, Pa., was called as his suc- 
cessor. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



221 



REV. SAMUEL FINCKEL, D.D. 



Dr. Finckel was born at Jonestown, 
Lebanon Co., Pa., February 22d, 1811. 
In 1825 he commencod preparing for 
the ministry of the Gospel under the 
direction of Pastor John Stein in Jones- 
town. 

"In the spring of 1827," he said, "I 
repaired to Gettysburg, continued my 
preparation for the ministry under the 
direction of Rev. Prof. S. S. Schmucker, 
and Dr. E. L. Hazelius. In July, 1831, 
I was called to Harrisburg, where I 
was employed as tutor of the Dauphin 
Academy for several years, besides 
preaching at Greensburg and Middle- 
town, and occasionally at Harrisburg. 
At the meeting, in the spring of 1832, 
of the Lutheran Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania, convened at Wommelsdorf, 
Pa., I was licensed to preach the Gospel. 
At the Lueeting of the synod at Potts- 
grove, 1833, I was ordained and com- 
missioned as pastor of the churches in 
Middletown and Greensburg, Dauphin 
Co., Pa. I resided in Harrisburg, Pa., 
nearly three years; in Taneytown, Md., 
three and a quarter years; in Middle- 
town, Pa., three years and one month; 
German town and Philadelphia, Pa., 
four years; at Cumberland, Md., two 
years aud eight months; and have been 
twenty-three years o£ my ministry in 
Washington, D. C. December 27th, 
1869." 

The years spent in Washington were 
the most active and remarkable of his 
life. Taking charge of the German 
Evangelical church when it had dwin- 



dled down to a membership of only fif- 
teen, a small house of worship, and no 
parsonage, and a mere pittance of a 
salary, in a few years the church was^ 
refitted, the congregation increased t6 a 
membership of nearly three hundred, 
a parsonage was built, and a few years 
more the church building was doubled 
in size. During his ministry in his 
various charges he either built or en- 
larged every church he served. 

After preaching for twenty-thi-ee years 
to the Germans in Washington, he re- 
signed the German charge, it being too 
much for his advancing* years to think 
out a sermon in English, and transpose 
it into German ; he then felt that it could 
not be right for him to give up preach- 
ing entirely, knowing that he would 
have all eternity to rest in; he under- 
took the arduous work of gathering an 
English congregation, and to this end 
St. Paul's congregation tendered to him 
very magnanimously the chapel of 
Menorial Hall, to which place in a few 
years he attracted about one hundred 
hearers, but the infirmities of age and 
overwork made such inroads upon his 
health, that after two years he gave up 
preaching. While he served his con- 
gregation in Washington, be also held 
an ofiice under the United States gov- 
ernment. He was appointed clerk in 
the Quartermaster General's office in 
1848. 

He died at his residence in Washing- 
ton, D. C, February, 1873.— Z)r. Morris, 




222 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



EEV. M. J. FIEY, D.D. 



Dr. Firy was born in Washington 
Co., Md., August 16th, 1839. His father, 
a farmer, was Lutheran, and his mother 
Eeformed. They were both sincerely 
pious Christians. Dr. Firy was edu 
cated at Wittenberg College, graduating 
in 1862, and receiving one of the honors 
of his class. He was married in March, 
1864, to Miss C. A. Criley, a sister of 
Eev. Criley, D.D., of Findlay, O. He 
was ordained at Springfield, O., in Sep- 
tember, 1864, and is a member of the 
East Ohio Synod. The degree of D. D. 
was conferred upon him by his Alma 
Mater. His fields of labor have been: 
Townsend, Sandusky Co., O., three 
years; Mansfield, O., five and one-half 
years; Lock Haven, Pa., three years; 
Springfield, O , five years; Altoona, Pa., 
three years; and Akron, O., where he 
still remains. 

Dr. Firy has a brother prominent in 
Maryland politics, and has the credit of 



having done much to save the state 
from secession. Another brother was a 
physician and captain in the Union 
army; and another is a Lutheran minis- 
ter. 

Dr. Firy has added to the Church 
during his ministry over two thousand 
souls. He has labored much for tem- 
perance, prohibition, and the revival of 
earnest Christianity. While a member 
of the legislature in Kansas Dr. Firy 
introduced the House Bill 209 — a strong 
prohibitory measure, which passed the 
house but failed to pass the senate be- 
cause it was too low on the calendar to 
be reached before adjournment. Eev. 
J. B. McAfee, of Topeka, Kan., has 
said that the agitation this bill caused 
was the means of bringing about the 
prohibition that now exists in that 
state. His style of preaching is exper- 
imental and practical rather than what is 
technically styled doctrinal. 




EEV. GEOEGE D. FLOHE. 



George Daniel Flohr was born in 
Germany in 1759; but of his parentage, 
or the history of his very early years, 
we have no information. The first we 
hear of him is, that, in 1793, he is en- 
gaged in the study of medicine in Paris, 
under the direction of an uncle. He 
lived in France during the appalling 
scenes of the Eevolution, and mingled 
in the throng that witnessed the execu- 
tion of Louis XVI. On this occasion, 
the accidental but terrible death of an 
individual who stood near him in the 
crowd, part of whose mangled body was 
thrown upon his person, affected him 



most deeply, and led ultimately to a 
complete revolution in the plans and 
purposes of his life. He at once gave 
up the idea of entering the medical 
profession, and shortly after migrated to 
the United States. 

Not long after his arrival in this 
country he found his way to Madison 
Co., Va., where he prosecuted the study 
of theology, under the direction of the 
Eev. William Carpenter. Subsequent- 
ly he engaged in teaching a school in 
Culpepper, and continued in this em- 
ployment until his preparation for the 
ministry was completed. He was then 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



223 



licensed to preach the Gospel by the 
Synod of Pennsylvania, and engaged 
for a season in missionary services in 
southwestern Virginia. Here some of 
the most successful labors of his whole 
ministry were performed ; and he had an 
experience also which had an important 
bearing upon his future usefulness. 
In 1799 he accepted a call from several 
congregations in Wythe county, and 
immediately entered upon his duties. 
Here he continued, laboring most dil- 
igently and faithfully, for many years. 
It was a field requiring a great amount 
of labor. It embraced five organized 
congregations, to which he statedly 
preached, not only on the Sabbath, but 
frequently during the week. His church- 
es lay in three different counties, and 
four of them were distant from his res- 
idence nine, twenty-two, thirty, and for- 
ty-seven miles. As his health declined 
during the latter part of his life, he was 
obligtd to relinquish a considerable 
part of his charge, but the congregation 
near his home he retained to the last. 
He could never rest unemployed, even 
after his health had become much re- 
duced, and he ceased not to deliver his 



weekly message in the sanctuary until 
within a few weeks of his death. The 
illness that finally terminated his life 
was brief. He died in 1826, in his six- 
ty-seventh year, in the most serene and 
joyful Christian triumph. His death 
produced a profound sensation of grief 
throughout the whole region in which 
he had ministered. Two sermons were 
preached on the occasion — one in the 
German language, by the Rev. Mr. 
Hcuck, of the German Reformed Church, 
and the other in English, by the Rev. 
Mr. Chut, of the Presbyterian Church. 

A volume of his sermons was publish- 
ed after his death. 

The widow of Mr. Flohr, who was a 
lady of great moral and Christian 
worth, survived her husband upwards of 
thirty years. The minister who offici- 
ated at her funeral gave utterance to 
the following sentiment, which met 
a warm response from many a heart, — 
^'We now consign to the grave the ven- 
erable partner of that great and good 
man, to whose faithful ministry and 
holy life the Christian Church and 
community are more indebted than per- 
haps to any other man, living or dead." 



REY. E. A. FOGELSTROM. 



Rev. E. A. Fogelstrom was born in 
Sweden June 20th, 1850. His father, 
being a sea captain, took him out with 
him in the world at eight years of age. 
After confirmation in the State Church, 
he soon went out upon the high waters. 
At the age of eighteen he was convert- 
ed in England, but continued to sail 
from different countries and among al- 
most all nations, until he was twenty- 
one years of age Then, having come 
to America, he commenced to study for 



the ministry at Augustana College and 
Seminary, then located at Paxton, 111. 
Continuing for six years, he graduated 
at Augustana Seminary, at Rock Island, 
111., in 1877. He was ordained the same 
year by the Augustana Synod, at its 
convention in Burlington, la., and soon 
after took charge of the Swedish Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Bethlehem congrega- 
tion at Brooklyn, N. Y. 

During the two years he labored 
there he started the immigrant mission 



224 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




KEY. E. A. FOGELSTROM. 



of the Augustana Synod at Castle Gar- 
den, and also for some time had charge 
of the Gnstavtis Adolphas Church, at 
New York City. In August, 1879, he 
moved to Omaha, Neb., then a city of 
2500 inhabitants. The Swedish Luth- 
eran Church in that city was at that 
time in a most deplorable condition, 
both financially and spiritually. But 
Mr. Fogelstrom, foreseeing the great 
future of this city, determined to do his 
very best. In his ten years' work in 
this congregation he lifted the debt 
from the old church property, built a 
new, large brick church, with a seating 
capacity of one thousand, costing over 
$30,000. Eesigning the charge in 1889, 
he left the large congregation in a 
flourishing condition, and without debt. 
He then devoted himself to building the 
Immanuel Hospital, a general Protest- 
ant institution, of which he is president 
and manager. This hospital was open- 
ed in November, 1890. In connection 
with his hospital work, his intentions 
are to have a Lutheran Motherhouse of 
Deaconesses. Such a house will be 



built this year (1891). The five Dea- 
conesses now doing the charity work at 
Immanuel Hospital Mr. Fogelstrom had 
trained in the Philadelphia Mother- 
house of Deaconesses and at the older 
institutions in Europe. 

Eev. Fogelstrom was married to Miss 
Ida C. Larson, at Galesburg, in June, 
1877. He is the father of six children, 
five of whom are living. 

The following is adapted from Evan- 
gelical Deaconess Work : 

"From early childhood he was brought 
up as a sailor. His father, being a 
Swedish sea-captain, took him out in 
the world very young. At eighteen 
years of age, in England, he was con- 
verted and, soon after coming to Amer- 
ica, not as an immigrant, but as a Chris- 
tian sailor, he commenced to study for 
the ministry of the gospel. During va- 
cations in college and seminary he al- 
ways labored as missionary in some large 
city. Having already seen a great deal 
of misery elsewhere in the world, he now 
had the best opportunity to get an inside 
view of the conditions of the poor and 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



225 



suffering in the great centers of popula- 
tion in this country. His first two years 
as a pastor he was stationed in the cities 
of New York and Brooklyn. In the 
work among the immigrants of Castle 
Garden he was forced to seriously con- 
sider the destiny of America and the 
conditions of the lower grades of society 
in this great and good Republic. Then 
and there he was convinced that extra- 
ordinary efforts must be made in work 
among the masses, if this wonderfully 
great and glorious country should not 
some time be ruined by all kinds of evil 
influences. 

Feeling himself as but a drop in the 
bucket, and considering it impossible 
for him to do much in these large cities, 
he decided (1879) to move to Omaha, 
the geographical center of the United 
States, and there to "grow up with the 
country," and to establish himself so as 
to be able to do something for suffering 
humanity, outside the regular duties of 
the pastor. Since then over ten years 
have passed. His expectations in every 
way have been more than fulfilled. He 
has now left a large and beloved congre- 
gation and the most promising field for 
a pastor, and he has entered the way 
which he considers necessary in order to 
carry out the aim of his life. 

Such a great and wonderful country 
as America and such an age as the pres- 
ent seems to him to demand great ef- 
forts and sacrifices. Although he has 
had very good opportunities to make 
money for the use of his own pleasures, 
yet he has considered it his duty to sac- 
rifice all such things, and instead, to 
adopt the strictest and strongest princi- 
ples of economy. If in order, to be a 
successful Deaconess, it is necessary for 
a woman to sacrifice everything, he must 
do so himself, if he should be able to be 
a leader among such workers. No one 
can lead others farther than he will go 
29 



himself. Recognizing the truth of this 
axiom some years ago he sold all luxur- 
ies in his possession at public auction, 
paid his debts and renounced his salary. 
Personally he will have no property, no 
debt and no salary. For the support of 
himself and family he is depending on 
God only. He considers himself simply 
as an agent of God and man. Every 
dollar with which he is intrusted, he 
will conscientiously endeavor to use, as 
desired by the donor, for the most pos- 
sible good among the suffering masses, 
always being ready to account for all his 
actions before God and the community. 

Having in this way been prepared and 
forced to adopt such principles, the work 
for the deaconess cause was commenced. 
The first thing to do was to ascertain if 
the community where he is best known 
would assist him. Fifteen leading citi- 
zens of Omaha pledged themselves for 
$1,000 each, and one for $2,000 to this 
cause. Others followed, so that he soon 
had $25,000 subscribed from a few lead- 
ers of different classes of society. Many 
more prominent citizens have promised 
to do all they can as the work develops. 

Then he had to organize a society to 
hold the property. The 31st day of Jan- 
uary, 1889, the Evangelical Immanuel 
Association for Works of Mercy was in- 
corporated in Omaha, Douglas Co, 
Nebraska. Among the eleven incor- 
porators and trustees of this association 
are some of the most prominent and re- 
sponsible citizens of Omaha." 



The special feature of this project is 
worthy of serious attention. The grand 
old mother church of Rome with farsee- 
ing insight, has made one of its strong- 
est claims on the affection and continu- 
ous regard of mankind, in the establish- 
ment of its wonderful organization, "The 
Sisters of Mercy." When Whittier 
wrote his splendid poem, "The Angels 



226 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of Buena Yista," lie touched a chord of 
sympathy that reached around the world, 
for the Sisters of Mercy on the hills of 
sunny Mexico were succoring the New 
England boys serving under Gen. Scott 
as tenderly as those who were reared in 
the shadow of their own cloisters in 
Mexico. Protestant Christianity has 
learned the great lesson and a mighty 
work has been accomplished in Ger- 
many. The Protestant Sisters of Char- 
ity are known as "Deaconesses." The 
gentleman in charge of this great work 
in this city is Eev. E. A. Fogelstrom. 
After ten years of a successful career as 
pastor of the Immanuel Church of this 
city, the gentleman has resigned his po- 
sition to take exclusive charge of this 
enterprise, in whose behalf he means to 



work for the rest of his life. The Eev. 
Mr. Fogelstrom is a gentleman of extra- 
ordinary energy and faithfulness to any 
task entrusted to his hands, and has 
justly secured the unlimited confidence 
of the community. Mr. Fogelstrom is 
eminently an American, and an organ- 
izer with cosmopolitan training. This 
is perfectly illustrated in the character 
of the charter, and the trustees chosen 
to manage the institute. Eev. Mr. Fo- 
gelstrom is particularly fitted by his ex- 
perience as a pastor, and from the 
special bias of his mind, to carry this 
great enterprise to completion. His 
whole heart is in it, and few could have 
accomplished what he has under the ex- 
isting circumstances. — Omaha Herald. 




EEV. ALFEED J. FOX, M. D. 



Dr. Fox was born September 6th, 
1817, in Chatham Co., N. C, his parents 
being David Fox and Elizabeth Moretz. 
He was baptized in early infancy by 
Eev. Jacob Shearer of the Lutheran 
Church. Later his father moved to 
Eandolph county, where Dr. Alfred 
Fox received his youthful training and 
education. In his seventeenth year he 
attended Eichland's Church, near his 
father's home, to receive catechetical in- 
struction from the Eev. Philip Henkel, 
and later by the Eev. Henry Goodman, 
who confirmed him. After his confirm- 
ation he engaged in teaching schools in 
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ala- 
bama. Having acquired a good knowl- 
edge of Lutheran theology, he was or- 
dained deacon by the Tennessee Synod, 
in September, 1837, at Koiner's Church, 
Augusta Co., Va. At the next session 
of this synod in Lincoln Co., N. C, 



September 13th, 1838, he and Jacob 
Stirewalt were ordained pastors. His 
first charge consisted of the Morning 
Star, Bethlehem, Union, St. Martin's 
and Flat Eock Churches, where he la- 
bored for four years with remarkable 
energy and the highest devotion to the 
work. Owing to poor health he was 
obliged to resign his charge at the close 
of 1841, when he retired to a farm in 
Eandolph county. He was married 
April 5th, 1842, to Miss Lydia Bost. 
His health having improved, he accept- 
ed a call, in 1844, to Tennessee, con- 
sisting of congregations at Blue Spring, 
Sinking Spring, Cove Creek, and a 
country church. 

After two years' labor at this place 
he accepted a call to Jacksonville, Ala., 
where he labored for one year, when he 
entered upon the study of medicine un- 
der the direction of Drs. Francis and 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



227 



Clark, of Jacksonville. Having pur- 
sued his medical studies privately for 
one year, he entered the medical College 
of Augusta, Ga., where he took rank at 
once as aroong the best posted men of 
the institution. After his graduation 
from the college he practiced medicine 
at White Plains for one year, and at 
Mount Polk for two years. In 1854 he 
received a call from Grace Church, 
Catawba Co., N. C, Daniel's and Trin- 
ity in Lincoln, and Christ's in Gaston 
county. 

In 1855 he resigned Christ's Church, 
and accepted a call from Salem, where 
he had been ordained and in whose 
cemetery he is buried. Among the 
congregations in North Carolina to 
which he has ministered are the follow- 
ing: In Catawba: Grace, St. Peter's, 
Holy Trinity; at Hickory: Newton, 
Sardis; In Iredell: Sharon, St. Martin; 
In Lincoln: Salem, Daniel's, Trinity, 
Bethpage; in Gaston: St. Mark's, 
Christ's; in Cleveland: St. Matthews, 
and a mission point. His charge at 
the close of his life consisted of Grace, 
Salem, Holy Trinity at Hickory, and 
St. Matthews, at King's Mountain. 

He was President of the Tennessee 
Synod for a number of years. He was 
a member of the committee to plan the 
establishment of a Literary Institution 
under the control of the Synod in 1852. 
He was the most active leader in the 
missionary cause, and exerted himself 
more than any other to break the fetters 
by which the Synod was bound by her 
first constitution from engaging in mis- 
sion work and beneficiary education. In 
1857 he was active in organizing a Mis- 
sionary Society in North Carolina, and 
preached the first sermon before it, 
which was published by request. He 
advocated a revision of the Constitution 
with great earnestness, was a member of 
the committee, and contributed in no 



small degree to its final adoption in 1866. 
He first awoke the Tennessee Synod 
from her lethargy in the cause of mis- 
sions, and taught her the necessity of an 
educated ministry. He was appointed to 
write a "Pastoral Letter" to the churches 
on the subjects of Missions and an Edu- 
cated Ministry. In 1878, he drafted and 
read the "Regulations for the Govern- 
ment of the Evangelical Lutheran Ten- 
nessee Synod in the Work of Beneficiary 
Education." 

He was a member of the committee to 
write By-laws and Rules of Order in 
1861. He was chairman of the commit- 
tee in 1863 to propose a plan of opera- 
tion for Army Missions, and in accord- 
ance with that plan visited the Lutheran 
soldiers a few times in 1863 and 1864. 
He prepared a "Form of Licensure of 
Candidates for the Ministry," which was 
adopted by the Synod in 1865. And in 
1877, he was chairman of the committee 
on the "Probation of Candidates for the 
Ministry" which recommended the ab- 
rogation of the "Form of Licensure," 
which then appeared inexpedient, and 
the adoption of the "Probation" system 
which is in operation in the Tennessee 
Synod to-day. 

He introduced the resolution to dis- 
trict the synod into conferences, and the 
result was the formation of the Virginia, 
North Carolina, and South Carolina 
Conferences of the Tennessee Synod. 
He was one of the originators, if not the 
prime mover, of the confessional spirit 
in the Synod. As early as 1855, he wrote 
a letter to the Synod, whose convention 
that year he could not attend, in which 
"he gave it as his opinion, that the 
Synod should clearly define her position 
in reference to the Symbolical Books of 
the Church." At that time the Doc- 
trinal Basis of the Synod included only 
the Augsburg Confession and Luther's 
Smaller Catechism. It was not, how- 



228 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ever, until 1859, that the Synod em- 
braced in her Doctrinal Basis the entire 
collection of S}'mbols in the Book of 
Concord. 

He was chairman of the committee to 
submit a form of Church Discipline in 
1868. In 1873 he introduced the stand- 
ing resolutions on catechisation. He 
was among the active workers for the es- 
tablishment of Our Church Paper in 1872 
and 1873. He represented the Tennes- 
see Synod in visits to Mount Pleasant, 
N. C, to confer with committees of the 
North Carolina Synod in the election of 
a board of editors and in the selection 
of a place of publication. 

The subject of union among Luther- 
ans, not only in the South, but through- 
out the Uaited States, was one that lay 
very near his heart, and for which he 
always exerted his utmost ability. He 
hailed with joy the return of all the 
synods to the standard of true Luther- 
anism, as he knew that this was the 
only possible basis of external unity. 
AVe find union recommended and sought 
for in almost all his presidential reports. 
He was prominent on all the committees 
for this laudable object. It was the 
burden of the message that he carried 
often as delegate to other bodies. It 
was a consummation he devoutly sought 
by private correspondence and com- 
munications to Church journals. And 
even when all his efforts seemed to meet 
with defeat "he hoped against hope." 
He anticipated the day when in God's 
own good time all who professed to be 
Lutherans would be one in the unity of 
faith. He endeavored greatly to culti- 
vate a friendly spirit and establish a 
congenial relation between the North 
Carolina, Tennessee, and Holston Syn- 
ods, not only by propositions of union, 
as president of the Tennessee Synod, 
but as delegate to the other two, and by 



extensive correspondence with the lead- 
ing ministers. He labored for the 
union of the whole Southern Lutheran 
Church. He was chairman of the com- 
mittee to meet the convention called at 
Salisbury, in 1862, for the organization 
of the Southern General Synod. He 
was the commissioner who met that 
body in Staunton, Va., in 1867, and 
had the entire Southern General Synod 
stood to the doctrinal platform and 
agreement of their committee, Eev. 
Drs. A. E. Eude, D. F. Bittle, and T. 
W. Dosh, who held a colloquium with 
him, the union of that synod with the 
Tennessee Synod would have been the 
satisfactory result. 

He was not only chairman of the 
committee of the Tennessee Synod that 
met the committee of the North Caro- 
lina Synod at Mount Pleasant, N. C, 
on the 27th day of April, 1871, to agree 
upon a basis of union between the two 
synods, but was chairman of both com- 
mittees at this meeting. 

But he was not permitted to see the 
day of the happy prospective union for 
which he so ardently wished. His 
eyes were closed upon the results of the 
struggles for this grand accomplish- 
ment for which he had so loug contend- 
ed. From the prospect of unity in the 
church militant he was removed to the 
CDJoyment of the perfect union of the 
church triumphant. 

He died June 10th, 1884, aged 66 
years, 9 months, and 4 days. He was 
an earnest and faithful Lutheran min- 
ister for forty-seven years, and for 
thirty-three years a successful physician. 
The following are his sons : Eev. L u ther 
A. Fox, D.D.; Eev. Junius B. Fox, A. 
M., Ph. D.; Albert C. Fox, M. D.; J. 
Frank Fox, M. D.; and C. P. Fox, M. 
D. — Adapted from Biography of Rev, A, 
J, Fox, M, D, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



229 



REY. LUTHER A. FOX, D.D. 



Rev. Liither Angiistine Fox, D. D., 
was born August 3, 1843, in Randolph 
Co., N. C. Parents, Rev. Dr. A. J. Fox 
and wife Lydia (Bost). Baptized Oc- 
tober 21, 1843, by' Rev. P. 0. Henkel, 
D. D. His early life was spent in Ran- 
dolph Co., N. C; Greene Co., Tenn.; 
Jacksonville, Ala., and in Lincoln Co., 
N. C. His education preparatory to 
college was received in the schools in 
the vicinity of his father's residence, and 
in Concord, N. C. He entered the 
sophomore class at North Carolina Col- 
lege, Mt. Pleasant, N. C, in 1859, and 
remained until the exercises were sus- 
pended by the war in the following 
spring. In 1860, he entered the junior 
class of Newberry College, Newberry, 
S. C, and remained nntil the college 
was closed because of the war. Return- 
ing home he continued his theological 
studies under the direction of his father, 
and took charge of a pastorate in Stan- 
ley and Cabarrus counties, N. C, as a 
Licentiate of the Tennessee Synod. He 
was afterwards pastor of several congre- 
gations in Lincoln and Gaston counties. 
North Carolina. 

He was ordained in St. Mark's Church, 
Gaston Co., N. C, in 1864, by the Ten- 
nessee Synod. In 1867 he entered 
the senior class- of Roanoke College, 
Salem, Ya. , and graduated in 1868. After 
graduating he received and accepted a 
call to the church at Big Lick (now 
Roanoke City), Ya., where he remained 
a year. 

On September 9, 1869, he married 
Miss Henrietta C. Glossbrenner, of Bal- 
timore, Md., daughter oE Bishop Gloss- 
brenner, of the United Brethren Church. 

In 1870 he accepted a call to the 
church at Stroudsburg, Pa., and contin- 
ued as pastor there for nearly two years. 



Receiving a call to the congregation at 
Bethlehem, Augusta Co., Ya., he re- 
turned to Yirginia in 1872, and remained 
pastor of the church for ten years. He 
was elected one of the first editors of 
Our Church Paper, when it wa^established 
in 1873. The degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity was conferred on him by Roanoke 
College in 1881, being the first alumnus 
of the college to receive that title. 

In November, 1881, he received calls 
to the church at Newberry, S. C, and to 
the Chair of Mental and Moral Science 
in Roanoke College, Salem, Ya., and, 
after careful consideration, accepted the 
latter, and entered upon his work as Pro- 
fessor in January, 1882. This position 
he has filled with great acceptance and 
efficiency for eight and a half years. In 
1887 he was made Chairman of the Fac- 
ulty, and in 1890 he was elected by the 
board of trustees Yice-President of the 
College, and vested with power to exe- 
cute discipline, and to superintend the 
local management of the institution. 

In 1884 he was called to the Chair of 
Professor of Systematic and Historical 
Theology, in the Evangelical Lutheran 
Theological Seminary of the South, at 
Newberry, S. C, but felt unable to ac- 
cept. He is the author of a number of 
articles in the Lutheran Quarterly; among 
which are: "God's Sovereignty," "The 
Final Judgment," "Miracles of the New 
Testament," "Early History of the Ten- 
nessee Synod," "Private Confession and 
Absolution," "Descensus ad Inferos." A 
number of his sermons have been 
published. He wrote the Introduction 
to the Biography of Rev. A. J. Fox, 
M. D., published in 1885 by the Lu- 
theran Publication Society, Philadel- 
phia; also the author of "History of 
Sunday-schools." "The Evidences of 



230 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the Future Life" is a book now in press 
in Philadelphia; and "The Intermediate 
State," a book which he has in course of 
preparation. 

Since 1886 he has been a member of 
the Southwestern Virginia Synod, and 
has represented his Synod as Delegate 
to the United Synod at its conventions 
in Savannah, Ga., in 1887, and in Wil- 
mington, N. C, in 1889. 

Dr. Fox is a patient, earnest and in- 
dustrious student; a strong, forcible and 



eloquent preacher; a modest, warm- 
hearted, unselfish man. He is greatly 
beloved as Professor, and respected by 
all for his ability and learning. His 
historical knowledge is broad and minute ; 
his acquaintance with philosophy pro- 
found and thorough; and his ability as 
a theologian is recognized throughout 
the entire American church. He has 
made a special study of eschatology, as 
the books of which he is the author will 
show. J. B. 



REV. JUNIUS B. FOX, Ph.D. 



Dr. Fox was born in Lincolnton, N. 
C, June 17th, 1860. His parents are 
Rev. Dr. A. J. Fox and Lydia (Bost). 

He e:raduated at Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, Gettysburg, in 1880. 

He was Professor of Mathematics and 
Natural Sciences at King's Mountain 
High School, King's Mountain, N. C, 
1880-82. He occupied the same po- 
sition in Macon School, Charlotte, N. 
C, and also that of County Principal, 
from 1882 to 1884 

He was licensed for the ministry in 
1881, and served congregations at King's 
Mountain and at Mount Holly, N. C. 
From 1884 to 1886 he was pastor of a 
char.2:e in Greene Co., Tenn , where he 
went to recuperate his health. 

In^ September, 1886, Mr. Fox accept- 



ed the chair of Professor of Mathemat- 
ics and Natural Sciences in Newberry 
College, Newberry, S. C, which position 
he still occupies. He was elected by 
the South Carolina Synod in October, 
1889, to give instruction in theology at 
the Seminary of that synod at New- 
berry. 

His publications are: Biography of 
Rev. A. J. Fox, M. D., Luth. Pub. So- 
ciety, Philadelphia, (150 pp.) 1885; 
Lectures on "The Experimental Sci- 
ences," 1887, and "Modern Spiritualism," 
1889; "Historical Sketch of the Pastors 
of the Newberry Lutheran Congrega- 
tions," 1888; Sermon on "Religion of 
Principle," Lutheran Home, January, 1890; 
— besides numerous newspaper and sev- 
eral magazine articles. — J. C. J. 



REV. PROF. JOHANNES B. FRICH. 



Prof. Johannes Bjerch Frich was born 
in Nannestad Parsonage, Norway, July 
15, 1835. In 1861 he was graduated 
from the Chris tiania University, Nor- 
way, and emigrated as theological candi- 



date to America in 1862, having received 
a call from La Crosse, Wis., and other 
neighboring congregations. 

He has served for several years as 
secretary of the Norwegian Synod, and 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



231 



since 1876 as President for the eastern 
district of the Synod. In 1888 he was 
called by the Synod to the Chair of 



Theology in its Theological Seminary 
at Madison, Wis., now at Minneapolis, 
Minn., at which post he still labors. 




KEV. WILLIAM K. FKICK, A.M. 



The subject of this sketch was born in 
Lancaster, Pa., February 1st, 1850, and 
was the son of William and Barbara 
(Keller) Frick. In 1865 he graduated 
with first houor at Lane High School. 
Beared in Trinity Parish under Drs. 
Krotel, Laird, and Green wald, he, in 
1867, entered Muhlenberg College as 
one of its first students, graduating with 
honor in 1870. After the usual course 
in the Philadelpliia Theological Semin- 
ary, he was ordained to the holy office 
of the miuistry in 1873, by the Minis- 
terium of Pennsylvania, having been 
called to be the first missionary pastor 
of St. Paul's English Lutheran Church, 
at Philadelphia, Pa. During his ten 
years' pastorate at this place he erected 
a chapel on twenty-first street, and suc- 
ceeded in building up a strong congre- 
gation. In 1883 he resigned his charge 
at Philadelphia, having received a call 
to the chair of English Language and 
Literature at Gustavus Adolphus Col- 
lege, St Peter, Minn. While at the col- 
lege he developed its library from one 
thousand to five thousand volumes, and 
in addition to his work as professor 
performed pulpit and Sunday School 
work in English, and aided in bringing 
forward the General Council mission 
work in the Northwest, besides writing 
numerous articles on various subjects 
for The Lutheran and other church pa- 
pers. A number of his published ar- 
ticles show that one of the objects fore- 
most in the mind of the author has been 
to acquaint the English portion of the 



Lutheran Church with the foreign por- 
tion and to present the claims of the 
West and western missions upon the 
Eastern churches. 

When the great Minneapolis General 
Council determined on a more vigorous 
prosecution of Western English home 
mission work, Bev. Frick was recalled 
to the mission field. After having 
spent the summer of 1889 in Portland, 
Tacoma, and Seattle, as General Coun- 
cil Home Missionary, he entered the 
Teutonic city of Milwaukee, Wis., Sep- 
tember 17th, 1889, for the purpose of 
organizing, if possible, an English 
Lutheran Church at this large city so 
densely populated with German Luth- 
erans, but still without a single purely 
English Lutheran pulpit within its lim- 
its. Bev. Frick applied himself to the 
work of his new field with exemplary 
fail hfulness and energy, generally spend- 
ing six days of the week in missionating 
around the city, and devoting a consid- 
erable part of the nights to study and 
meditation. 

Through the grace of God and the 
generous co-operation of a large-hearted 
layman, he determined with his small 
and newly organized congregation to 
build a chapel, and on the 14th of Sep- 
tember, 1890, the corner-stone of the 
"English Lutheran Church of the Be- 
deemer" was laid with appropriate cer- 
emonies by the Home Missionary Super- 
intendent of the General Council, Bev. 
W. A. Passavant, Jr. 

The chapel, which has been erected 



232 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



at the cost of 16000, is built in one of 
the choicest locations in the city of 
Milwaukee, and on a lot said to be pur- 
chased cheap at $12,000. 

Besides preaching twice every Sunday 
in the chapel, and attending to the Sun- 
day School, he also preaches in the 
chapel of the Milwaukee Hospital, pop- 
ularly known as the "Passavant Hos- 
pital," every Sunday afternoon. He 
has shown great interest in Sunday 
School work, and serves at present as 
member of the General Council's Sunday 
School Committee. For nearly twenty 
years he has served as correspondent 
and contributor of practical and news 
articles to the Lutheran and several other 
Church papers. He has made the 



English translation of the 95 Theses 
used by the General Council, and has 
rendered material assistance in the edit- 
ing of the Helper, The Little Children's 
Book, etc. He was married October 7th, 
1873, to Miss Louise F. Klump, of Al- 
lentown, Pa. His family consists of 
wife, three sons, and a daughter. 

As a preacher Eev. Frick is exception- 
ally fluent, animated, and instructive, 
and he seldom fails to bring his earnest 
appeals home to the hearts of his hear- 
ers. He delivers himself with great 
ease, and, although he seldom speaks 
louder than is necessary to fill his 
audience room, his voice is pleasant and 
of considerable compass. J. C. J. 




EEV. GOTTFEIED W. L. FEITSCHEL, D.D. 



Eev. Gottfried "William Leonhard 
Fritschel, D. D., was born at Nuremberg. 
Germany, Dec. 19, 1836. He was blessed 
with pious parents who gave him to God 
in Holy Baptism and trained him in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. In 
due time he ratified his baptismal vows 
and was confirmed a member of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

He spent a number of years in the 



gymnasium of his native city and then 
engaged in business; but the spirit of 
God wrought within his serious, earnest 
spirit; his secular engagements did not 
satisfy his soul; his mother's prayers 
were heard, and he entered a missionary 
institution to prepare himself for the 
work of Foreign Missions. 

Having completed his studies at the 
missionary school, he finished his course 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



233 



at the University of Erlangen, and, in- 
fluenced not a little by the counsels of 
his highly esteemed teacher, the late Dr. 
Loehe, he accepted a call to America, 
and having been ordained to the ofiice of 
the holy ministry, in the same year, 1857, 
he entered upon his duties as Professor 
in the Wartburg Seminary of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa, and 
adjacent states. 

This school of the prophets was then 
located at Dubuque, la. ; in 1858 it was 
removed to St. Sebald, in the same state, 
and again in 1874, to Mendota, Ills. 
Throughout these years, and at these 
places, Dr. Fritschel performed his oner- 
ous labors as Professor of Church His- 
tory, Exegesis and Dogmatics with un- 
faltering diligence and fidelity. And 
now when the Iowa Synod has but com- 
pleted its beautiful buildings and will 
shortly re-open the Wartburg Seminary 
at Dubuque, la., the place where it was 
founded in 1857, the Lord of the Church, 
in his infinite wisdom calls his faithful 
servant from the toils of his earthly life 
to his eternal reward. 

It was a cause of special thanksgiving 
to Almighty God, on the part of our de- 
parted brother, that from his early youth 
he had been favored with the health and 
strength which allowed him to perform 
his manifold and great labors for nearly 
thirty- two years. In the summer of 1888 
the disease, which eventually ended his 
days, made itself distressingly manifest. 
But with astonishing energy he re- 
mained at his post of duty, continuing 
his lectures in the Seminary until a 
short time before Christmas, when he 
was confined to the house and shortly 
afterward to his bed, whence despite the 
best medical skill and the tender minis- 
trations of his devoted wife and family, 
he was summoned to his heavenly home, 
Saturday, 9:30 p. m., July 13, 1889. 
30 



Dr. Fritschel was married at St. Se- 
bald, la., in 1858. Two daughters and 
a son have preceded him to the world 
above. His mourning wife and seven 
sons, the youngest now in his ninth year, 
weep the untimely loss of a loving hus- 
band and a tender father in the fifty- 
third year of his age. One of his sons, 
Eev. Geo. J. Fritschel, A.M., is a grad- 
uate of the class of '87, Thiel College. 

Dr. Fritschel wielded a ready and able 
pen. The necessities of the Iowa Synod 
required the issue of several publica- 
tions, the editoral work and supervision 
of which fell to his care. Of most irenic 
spirit and tastes, the controversies and 
discussions in which the Iowa Synod 
was compelled to engage, forced him 
also into polemics, in which he bore a 
powerful hand. It fell more in the line 
of his gentle soul, to instruct, comfort 
and edify the household of faith. To 
these ends the publications of the Iowa 
Synod contain many articles from his 
busy brain; his "Passion Sermons" were 
written, and from his very death-bed, 
"Theophilus," a book for confirmed 
youth, has gone forth to lead the young 
in the way of the Lord when the teach- 
er's voice is silent. 

Diligent as a student of the Word and 
of the faith and history of the Lutheran 
Church, Dr. Fritschel' s great natural 
abilities were used to such advantage 
that he was willingly accorded a fore- 
most place in the hearts and minds of 
his brethren whether in meetings for 
conference, on the floor of the Synod, at 
the professor's desk, or in the sacred 
pulpit. Diffident almost to a fault and 
retiring in his disposition, he preferred 
an inconspicuous place; in modesty and 
true humility accounting others better 
than himself. Yet his real power and 
worth made themselves known and felt. 
In Germany he was recognized as Par 
nohile fratrum, one of the principal repre- 



234 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



sentatives of the Lutheran Church in 
America. 

In 1879 when the Synod of Iowa cele- 
brated its twenty-fifth anniversary, Muh- 
lenberg College, AUentown, Pa., con- 
ferred upon him the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity, as a testimony, so the 
accompanying letter of the late Dr. B. 
M. Schmucker said, ''to his great labors 
of every kind, so nobly done for Christ 
and our Lutheran faith." 

In the Synod of Iowa, he was called 
to fill a number of offices as secretary 
and on committees, and became one of 
its most eminent representatives and 
leaders. With unselfish devotion he 
gave his rich gifts zealously and cheer- 
fully for the advancement of the Synod, 
and in the service of his Lord, for 
whom it always was to him a special 
joy and privilege to be allowed to work. 
In all the churches whither his mission- 
ary activities carried him, he was be- 
loved as a preacher and during his 
weary months of suffering, the many 
tokens of sincere sympathy from the 
congregations made his heart to sing 
with joy, though he so humbly deemed 
himself unworthy the kindly interest 
thus shown toward him. 

The prosperity which has attended 
the Wartburg Seminary and the great 
growth of the Iowa Synod, under God, 
are due in large measure to the unpre- 
tentious and quiet but solid and faithful 
work which he did as professor and teach- 
er of the work of God. Two hundred and 
fifty students completed their theolog- 
ical training under his instruction; and 
including those now in the seminary, at 
least one hundred and fifty more have 
for various periods sat as learners at 
his feet. His ripe scholarship, profound 
attainments and devout enthusiasm for 
the Lutheran Church and her pure 
faith, have left an impress upon all these 
minds which the Lutheran Church in 



America will never cease to feel. In 
her faith he lived, for her he gave all 
the long and busy years of his beautiful 
life, and when near death he received 
the blessed supper of his Lord, with 
solemn earnestness he declared that 
in that faith for which he lived he 
would also die. When his hour came, 
with unshaken confidence, he passed 
painlessly, quickly, victoriously into his 
Redeemer's holy presence. 

On Tuesday, July 16th, the funeral 
services took place. Notwithstanding 
the short notice of his death, and the 
I great distances to be traveled, nearly 
'forty of his bereaved yet venerating 
brethren in the ministry united with the 
great multitude that came to the place 
of mourning to weep with them that 
wept. 

At half-past one the solemnities be- 
gan at the house; Rev. Wittig con- 
ducting the liturgical acts. Then the 
silent throng moved to the shade of 
the wide-branching trees in the campus 
of the seminary, where a platform, robed 
in black, and seats, had been provided 
for the public services. Rev. Geo. 
Weng read a sketch of the life of Dr. 
Fritschell; Pastor Bredow, from John 
9 : 4, delivered an address which show- 
ed his work for the Synod of Iowa and 
the Lutheran faith. Prof. Richter, 
from Hebrews 13 : 7, set forth his work 
as a teacher; Rev. Roth, of Chicago, 
presented, from Rev. 13 : 13, 1, A word 
of comfort; 2, A word of warning; 3, 
A word of encouragement; the choir 
and people also singing at suitable 
times appropriate hymns and musical 
selections, according to program. 

The great audience with tears looked 
for the last time upon the face, peaceful 
and sweet even in death, of this honored 
man of God, and then the casket was 
carried to the church, where from Rev. 
12 : 11, Pastor Foelsch spoke most com- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



235 



fortiDgly and feelingly of the departed 
as a Christian pastor and parent, Eev. 
C. Ide ministering at the altar, and the 
choir and congregation in noble music 
and song giving expression to the heart 
of every weeper. And as the sun closed 
his course in the gorgeous western sky. 



to the "Gottes Acker" at Mendota, 111., 
was borne the body of the beloved dead, 
and after liturgical service by Rev. C. 
Pfoehl, was laid to rest in the cool 
bosom of mother earth. 

H. W. Roth. 



REV. PROR S. FRITSCHEL, D.D. 



Rev. Prof. S. Fritschel, D. D, elder 
brother of the late Prof. G. Fritschel, 
was born December 2d, 1833, at Nurem- 
berg, Bavaria, of a family which (ac- 
cording to an old epitaph on the family 
tomb) lived there at the time of the 
Reformation. Both of his parents were 
pious Christians. The father, Martin 
Heinrich Fritschel, was a member of 
the well-known Kiestling Circle ( Kiest- 
lingsher Kreis), by which, among other 
Christian endeavors, also the foreign 
mission of Basle, the very first in Ger- 
any, was supported. 

At the age of ten years he was sent 
to the old Gymnasium of Nuremberg, 
already established by Melanchthon, in 
order to pursue a literary career, one of 
his teachers having given this advice. 
After his confirmation, however, he lost 
sight of his aim for a while, but in con- 
sequence of his early conversion, the 
desire to serve in the mission among 
the heathen took hold of his heart. 
Accordingly, in 1850, he entered the 
Mission School at Nuremberg, then un- 
der the direction of Rev. Fr. ' Bauer, 
the friend and co-worker of Rev. W. 
Loehe, where he remained for three 
years. While there he also enjoyed the 
instruction of Dr. W. Hopf, the author 
of the revised German Bible, in Hebrew. 
When the institution was moved to 
Neuendettelsau, he went for another 
year to this place. 



It was at this place Loehe exerted a 
decisive influence on him by instruction 
and example. Till the fall of 1853 it 
had still been his intention to go to the 
heathen. It was understood that after 
having finished his seminary course, 
Loehe was to send him, together with 
with Rev. Fleischmann (afterwards of 
the Missouri Synod), as missionary to 
the Chinese in California. But now he 
was induced by Loehe to serve in the 
home mission work among the Germans 
in the Northwest of the United States, 
which Loehe, after his disagreement 
with the Missourians, at that time com- 
menced in Iowa. He was to be second 
instructor in the seminary which had so 
far served as a teachers' seminary for 
the Missouri Synod under the direction 
of Tnsp. G. Grossmann at Saginaw, Mich., 
and now, being changed to a theological 
seminary, and removed to Dubuque, la., 
was to become the starting point of an 
independent work of home missions by 
Loehe's Home Mission Society of Ba- 
varia. In April, 1854, having passed 
his examination, he was ordained at 
Hamburg as pastor of a small congre- 
gation, which was to reinforce Loehe's 
newly founded Christian colony St. 
Sebald, Clayton Co., la. But a railroad 
disaster occurring in the night of July 
6th, near St. Catherines, Kas., in which 
seven persons were killed, dispersed the 
little flock, which had at first consisted 



236 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of about one hundred persons, and only 
a few arrived in Iowa. 

At Dubuque he worked together with 
Eev. G. Grossmann in the seminary, and 
at the same time looked after the Ger- 
man Lutherans in Dubuque and vicin- 
ity, at Sherill's Mount, Fetes des Mortes, 
etc. In September of the same year, 
the Eev. Grossmann, Eev. Fritschel, 
Eev. Deindoerfer of St. Sebald, to- 
gether with the delegate of the congre- 
gation of St. Sebald, and Cand. theol. 
Schueller, joined, forming the Iowa 
Synod, of which Eev. Fritschel was 
chosen the first secretary. 

A short time afterward, on account of 
want of means, the society in Bavaria 
wag obliged to release Grossmann and 
Fritschel of their obligations and turn 
over the seminary to the newly estab- 
lished synod. The synod, however, 
having scarcely any resources, and be- 
ing unable to support the professors, he, 
in the fall of 1855, removed to Plattville, 
Grant Co., Wis., where he had succeed- 
ed in organizing a Lutheran congrega- 
tion. From this place he gathered and 
served congregations in Hazelgreen, 
Menominee, Galena, and Brush Creek, 
the latter place being about fifty miles 
from Platteville. In the fall of 1856 he 
had to follow a call to the Lutheran St. 
Matthew's congregation at Detroit, as 
successor to Prof. Winckler, newly 
elected professor to the Martin Luther 
College at Buffalo. From this place he 
organized congregations at Swan Creek, 
at Newport (now Marine City), and St. 
Clair, thereby planting the Iowa Synod 
in the more eastern States. In the fall 
of 1858 he returned to the theological 
seminary, which had meanwhile been 
re-established as Wartburg Seminary 
at St. Sebald, and where his brother, in 
1857, had become professor. In connec- 
tion with him he directed the institution 
since that time. By the graduates of 



this seminary and the candidates which 
the mission school at Neuendettelsau 
continued to send, the synod steadily 
gained ground, and the seminary grew 
constantly. It was removed in 1874 to 
Mendota, 111., and again in 1889 to 
Dubuque, la. 

The removal of the seminary to St. 
Sebald in 1857, had, on account of the 
panic of that year, involved the semin- 
ary in a great debt which threatened to 
destroy it. The synod therefore sent 
Prof. Fritschel to Europe in 1860, to 
solicit help for its work. This journey 
brought him as far as St. Petersburg 
and Moscow in Eussia, and created in 
many hearts of the old fatherland an 
interest for the seminary and the mis- 
sion work of the synod. In 1866 he 
was sent for the second time by the 
synod to get the opinions of the most 
prominent theologians of the Lutheran 
Church on its doctrinal position regard- 
ing the controversy with the Synod of 
Missouri, and to represent the Synod 
of Iowa at the second anniversary of the 
Society of Home Mission at Neuendet- 
telsau. The third time he was sent in 
1870, in order to make arrangements in 
different parts of Germany for the pur- 
pose of obtaining able young men for 
the seminary; while on this journey he 
also represented the General Council in 
S. Krauth's place at the Lutheran Con- 
ference at Leipzig. 

When the General Council formed, 
in 1868, he belonged to the delegation 
of the Iowa Synod at the meeting in 
Fort Wayne, and although the synod 
did not fully join the General Council, 
he was for a long time its constant rep- 
resentative at the meetings of the Gen- 
eral Council, and visited nearly all its 
conventions. He was also a member of 
the Church Book Committee. 

In the doctrinal controversies of the 
Iowa and Missouri Synods he took a 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



237 



prominent part, and wrote many of the 
reports and essays in the defense of the 
Iowa Synod. He was also one of the 
representatives of the Iowa Synod at the 
Milwaukee Colloqiiiiim, 1868. He con- 
tributed largely to Theologische Monats- 
hefte, edited since 1869 by the late Rev. 
Brobst. In connection with his brother 
he edited the Kirchliche Zeitsehrift, a bi- 
monthly journal, which has been pub- 
lished since 1876 by the Iowa Synod. 
In 1879 he and his brother received from 
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
In 1856 he was married at Dubuque, 
la., to Miss Margaretha Prottengeier, 
with whom he had eleven children. All 
of his sons prepared for the ministry. 
The oldest, Gottfried, having finished 



his studies at the seminary, graduated 
also from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, Philadelphia, and studied after- 
wards for three years in Europe. Hav- 
ing returned to America he was ordained 
at the meeting of the Iowa Synod, 1879, 
and died March 25, 1880. The second 
son, Sigmund, having caught the disease 
of his brother, whilst nursing him, died 
in 1885, having worked only a short 
time in the ministry. The third son, 
John, graduated at Thiel College, 
Greenville, Pa., after having completed 
his course in the seminary, studied two 
years at Leipzig and Erlangen and is at 
present Professor at the Wartburg Col- 
lege, Waverly, la. The youngest son, 
Max, is at present pursuing his studies 
in Germany. 




REV. JACOB FRY, D. D. 



Dr. Fry was born at the Trappe, Mont- 
gomery Co., Pa., February 16, 1834 His 
early education was received at the 
Washington Hall school of his native 
town, and at the age of sixteen years he 
graduated from Union College, Schenec- 
tady, N. Y. In 1853 he graduated from 
Pennsylvania College, and was immedi- 
ately ordained at Gettysburg to the holy 
office of the ministry. Going to Car- 



lisle first in February, 1854, he remained 
there eleven years, and then accepted a 
call from old Trinity Lutheran Church, 
at Reading, Pa., in 1865, as the successor 
to Rev. C. Rightmyer, where he still con- 
tinues his pastoral labors. Besides nu- 
merous articles in various church papers. 
Dr. Fry is the author of ''Catechism for 
the Jubilee," and "The Church Book 
Explained." 




238 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REY. ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D. 



Isaac Kauffman Funk, D. T>., was born 
at Clifton, O., September 10, 1839. He 
was graduated at Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, O., in 1860, and in 1861 en- 
tered the Lutheran ministry in Indiana, 
subsequently holding pastoral charges at 
Carty, O., and in Brooklyn, N. Y., until 
1872, when he resigned and traveled 
through Europe, Egypt and Palestine. 
On his return he became associate editor 
of the Union Advocate. In October, 1876, 
he began the Homilectie Review, then 
called Metropolitan Pulpit, and is editor- 
in-chief both of that Review and of The 
Voice, a weekly political paper of the 
Prohibition party begun in 1884. He 
is senior member of the publishing house 
of Funk &, "Wagnalls. 

The firm of Funk & Wagnalls was 
formed in 1877. Mr. Wagnalls had been 
a lawyer previously in Atchinson, Kan. 
Both he and Dr. Funk were born in 
Ohio, and hence are both representatives 
of Western go-aheaditiveness. They 
commenced business on a small scale in 
1877, in a room where they simply had 
desk room at 21 Barclay street on the 



third floor. They remained there in 
that room until they crowded all other 
tenants out — then filled an adjoining 
room, and when that was full they had 
to rent a regular store at 10-12 Dey 
street, where they filled three floors, 
continued there seven years, and had 
their force and stock in three different 
buildings, and then had to enlarge and 
move to present quarters, at 18 and 20 
Astor Place. Almost from the start 
they were heavy publishers of books as 
well as periodicals. 

About the year 1880 they began the 
publication of cheap, paper covered, 
standard books, which had a great run. 
One of the first heavy works they under- 
took was the re-publication of Spurgeon's 
"Treasury of David" (having gained 
permission from the author). This 
standard work on the Psalms has had 
immense sale. 

Over 500 different works now bear the 
imprint of Funk & Wagnalls, as publish- 
ers. For the last eight or ten years 
they have issued, on an average, about 
500,000 volumes a year! 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



239 



Among these Yolumes are siicli stand- 
ard books as Knight's History of Eng- 
land, Young's Analytical Concordance, 
The Schaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia of 
Keligious Knowledge, (the production 
of this work cost over $30,000), Meyer's 
Commentary, complete, Butler's Bible 
Work, Parker's Bible, comi^lete, etc. 

The Voice was started in 1884— first as 
a campaign paper, on a trial trip of eight 
weeks. The publishers yielded to a 
growing demand for its continuance. 
As a permanent periodical it began its 
career January 2, 1885, with 6,000 sub- 
scribers. The paper now has a weekly 
circulation of over 120,000. Of course 
stereotype plates are made to save the 
type. It is printed, pasted and folded 
by the same press, at the rate of 10,000 
an hour. This press is one of those 
marvels produced by the Hoe Company. 

During the late campaign. The Voice 
was sent to all ministers in the nation 
whose addresses could be obtained, 
and for five weeks 500,000 extra num- 
bers were sent to as many farmers ! You 
see that this Prohibition paper is a "big 
thing"; and yet it is only a sort of "ap- 
pendix" to the business of these enter- 
prising book publishers. 

Two years ago the firm outgrew their 
old quarters and moved into the capa- 
cious building which they now occupy 
at 18 and 20 Astor Place, located in the 
most desirable business part of New 
York city. 

In January, 1888, "Funk & Wagnalls" 
assumed the publication of the Mission- 



ary Eeview of the World. In a single 
year its subscription list had grown 
more than three-fold. In fact, every- 
thing the}^ touch seems to be successful 
from the start. 

About five years ago they opened a 
branch office at 44 Fleet street, London, 
where they are transacting an encoura- 
ging amount of business. 

These publishers occupy a conspicu- 
ous place in the literary and business 
world. They now have sixty persons 
on their regular pay-roll in their busi- 
ness offices, to say nothing of the large 
force of compositors, pressmen, and 
bookbinders, employed in getting their 
various books ready for the market. 

Dr. Funk is distinguished for his 
great energy — he is a steam engine and 
does not seem to tire, no matter how 
hard he works. He is never at a loss in 
resources, as to argument in contro- 
versy, nor for expedients in pushing- 
business enterprises. Indeed, that is 
his great power. He does originate plans 
and in the commercial world, where they 
are practicable, they are worth more than 
almost any other quality. As an editor 
his instinct for news is of the highest 
order. His ideal of a paper is ever far 
beyond realization — not because it is 
Utopian (for such it is not), but because 
of the difficulty of organizing a staff of 
competent, practical editor.**, and hav- 
ing business partners commensurate 
with his energy and breadth of ideas. — 
The Journalist. 



m 




5<-i^.iS^ 



240 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



EEV. DANIEL GAEYEE. 



The subject of the present nf^rative, 
was the youngest son of Samuel and 
Margaret Garver, and was born in 
Washington County, Maryland, on the 
9th of January, 1830. In the autumn of 
1832, his parents removed to Scotland, 
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, which 
was the home of his childhood, and the 
scene of his most cherished associations. 
He often spoke of it as a hallowed spot, 
and when traveling, in subsequent 
years, surrounded by objects of interest 
and grandeur, in his native country, or 
in foreign lands, busy memory invaria- 
bly reverted to this eventful period in his 
life's history, to the home of his child- 
hood and the friends of his youth. Here 
he was carefully trained, and carefully 
watched and guided. Here he found a 
place of genial nurture. Here was ex- 
erted an influence which moulded the 
elements of his character. During the 
critical period of youth, his morals were 
faithfully shielded. He was the subject 
of religious influences from his earliest 
years. He was, also, a sprightly boy, 
quick in his perceptions and affection- 
ate in his disposition. He became a 
general favorite in the neighborhood, 
and at school was usually at the head 
of his class. In early life he showed, 
too, a spirit of manly independence, 
which so forcibly marked his character 
in later years. 

In the spring of 1845, soon after he 
had entered his sixteenth year, he com- 
menced his studies in the Preparatory 
Department of Pennsylvania College. 
His literary course was continued with- 
out interruption, until his graduation in 
1850.* He was a dilligent student, and 



*The class consisted of eighteen, six of whom, viz. : J. 
M. Eichelberger, Esq., Rev. Dr. Garver, Rev. W. F. 
Greaver, R. G. Harper, Rev. O. Nitterauer, and Dr. 
Btroh, have passed away. 



always acquitted himself with credit in 
the recitation room. His natural love 
of study led him to improve his oppor- 
tunities to good purpose, so that he at- 
tained a very respectable measure of in- 
tellectual culture. On the completion 
of his Collegiate course he entered the 
Theological seminary of Gettysburg, 
where he pursued his studies, till the 
spring of 1852. He, then, returned to 
his home, at Scotland, and spent some 
months in private study. He also as- 
sisted the brethren in the vicinity in 
their pulpit services, and at communion 
seasons, and protracted meetings, and 
thus an opportunity was afforded to him 
for the exercise of his gifts as a public 
speaker. 

Mr Garver was licensed to preach the 
gospel by the Synod of Pennsylvania, at 
its meeting, in the month of June, 1852. 
The greater part of the summer he spent 
in traveling, in visiting a brother in 
Illinois, and examining the condition of 
our Church in the West. In the fall 
he was elected Professor of Ancient 
Languages, and in the Illinois State 
University, at Springfield, and imme- 
diately entered upon his duties. The 
position he occupied for three years 
with honor to himself and advantage to 
the Institution. The Board of Trustees 
reluctantly accepted his resignation. 

Professor Garver now determined to 
devote some time to the gratification of 
his taste for traveling. He journeyed 
through Iowa, Minnesota, and other 
portions of the Great West, and finally 
consented, for a season, to take charge 
of a 'Mission church at Davenport 
which was unsupplied with a pastor. 
Here he labored for nearly one year 
with great fidelity, although surrounded 
by many discouragements. He then 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



241 



returned to Pennsylvania, and after a 
brief visit to his friends at Scotland, lie 
spent the greater part of the winter of 
1856 — 7 with the Eev. Dr. Passavant, 
aiding him in the office of "The Mission- 
ary," and temporarily supplying the 
pulpits of several vacant churches in 
the vicinity of Pittsburgh. 

In the spring, he decided to make a 
foreign tour. He had long wished to 
cross the Atlantic. His travels through 
this country, his high enjoyment and 
rich experience had awakened in his 
mind an increased desire to visit the 
scenes of interest in the Old World. 
He, accordingly, sailed, on the 27th of 
May, 1857, for London, where he ar- 
rived on the 10th of June. Thence he 
traveled through England, France, 
Switzerland and Germany, down the 
Danube into Turkey, through Syria, 
Palestine, Egypt, the Ionian Islands, 
Greece and Italy, and, returning by 
way of Liverpool, landed at Boston, 
March, 12th, 1858, and reached his old 
home, at Scotland, on the 17th. "The 
time," he remarks, "spent in these trav- 
els, has been decidedly the richest and 
most useful period of my life." The 
summer after his return he passed in 
Easton, filling the pulpit of Eev. B* 
Sadtler, who was absent in Europe for 
the benefit of his health. The follow- 
ing winter he devoted to the delivery, 
in various places, of a course of Lec- 
tures on the Holy Land, with a view of 
raising funds for the Institution at 
Springfield, 111., in whose welfare he al- 
ways felt a deep interest. 

In the spring of 1859, he received and 
accepted a call from the English Lu- 
theran Church in Canton, Ohio. In 
this field, the daily duties of which de- 
manded all his powers, he continued to 
labor with diligence and success for 
nearly five years. But a division hav- 
ing arisen in the congregation, and some 
31 



disaffection existing among the mem- 
bers, he concluded that it was best to 
dissolve the relation, that another in the 
same position might be more useful. 
For the people of the charge, however, 
he cherished the warmest affection un- 
til his death. The church at Greens- 
burg, Pa., being vacant, and having re- 
ceived an unanimous invitation to as- 
sume the pastorate, he accepted the 
call, and at once entered upon his la- 
bors, which were abruptly terminal ed 
by death, September 30th, 1865, in the 
second year of his ministry at this 
place. He died with the harness on, in 
the midst of his usefulness, whilst en- 
gaged in preaching the gospel, visiting 
the sick, and presenting the consolations 
of religion to the dying. Disease was 
contracted during his ministrations to a 
member of the church, who was pros- 
trated with typhoid fever, and whom he 
subsequently buried. Although he felt 
the premonitary symptoms, and his ap- 
pearance and manner indicated the ex- 
istence of the disease in his system, he 
continued at the post of duty, lecturing, 
preaching, and performing pastoral la- 
bor. The last time he officiated in pub- 
lic, it was with extreme difficulty he 
spoke, yet he delivered the message 
with great earnestness, and deeply im- 
pressed his hearers. His text was, "The 
master is come and calleth for thee." 
He left the church in a state of extreme 
exhaustion. Fever of a malignant type 
was speadily developed. The best 
medical skill was employed for his res- 
toration, friends with sleepless vigi- 
lance watched around his couch, and 
furnished every comfort which loving 
hearts could suggest, and, for a time, it 
seemed as if these efforts would prove 
successful — the power of the fever was 
broken, and the hopes were fondly en- 
tertained that his useful life would be 
spared— bnt the disease suddenly took 



242 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



an unfavorable turn ; it was soon ap- 
parent that death had marked the pa- 
tient as a victim. His work on earth 
was done — The Master had need of him 
for a higher service. The last struggle, 
the last sigh, was over, and our be- 
loved brother slept sweetly in Jesus. 
His lifeless remains were born to the 
church, of which he had been the faith- 
ful and cherished pastor, where, in the 
midst of sorrow-stricken friends and a 
weeping congregation, appro j^riate exer- 
cises were held, conducted by Kev. W. 



A. Passavant, D. D., Eev. H. W. Both, 
and the clergymen of the Christian de- 
nominations of Greensburg. Thence 
they were conveyed to their final resting 
place in Franklin County, in obedience 
to his wishes, and placed beside those 
of his revered and sainted parents, 
where they will quietly repose until the 
resurrection of the just. The occasion 
was still further improved by religious 
services, in which Rev. W. P. Eyster 
and Pev. S. McHenry participated. — 
Ev. Quarterly Review. 




REV. HEZEKIAH R. GEIGER, Ph. D. 



In the veins of Prof. Geiger flows the 
mingled blood of his German and 
Scotch ancestry, for his father was of 
German and his mother was of Scotch 
stock. His early ancestors are found 
settled near Philadelphia, in the middle 
of the last century. The father of He- 
zekiah, the subject of this sketch, — who 
took also his mother's name, Ruebush, 
— was born near what is now German- 
town, on the Schuylkill, in 1789. His 
mother was a native of York Co., Pa. 

Hezekiah Ruebush was born in 



Greencastle, Franklin Co., Pa , January 
10th, 1820, being one of a family of 
eleven sons and one daughter. With 
his parents, at the age of eleven years, 
he went to Holmes Co., O., then the far 
West, a new and sparsely settled coun- 
try, where the family settled upon a 
farm. Physically, our embryo profes- 
sor by daily work developed^a compact, 
strong, ruddy physique, which has 
served him well during his many years 
of necessarily sedentary life in the lec- 
ture room. 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



243 



Fifty years ago school advantages, of 
course, were very meagre. The com- 
mon school had not yet been born, and 
our Ohio boy then may have heard of a 
college, but as our now venerable pro- 
fessor says, he did not know what a col- 
lege was, nor the difference between 
Latin and Greek, having no knowledge 
of either. Embracing the opportunities 
at hand, the ruddy youth soon displayed 
his thirst for knowledge and his aptness 
in study. Especially had he a fondness 
for mathematical studies. 

In common with so many men the 
work of school teaching was resorted to 
by the studious boy as a help to higher 
educational advantages. During his 
after college course the self reliant youth 
was obliged to supplement his scanty 
support by again resorting to the school 
room, at the same time losing no ground 
with his college classes. 

Religious impressions were early 
made upon the mind and heart of our 
Western boy. The Rev. John Reck, 
one of the godly pioneers, then the 
Lutheran pastor of Canal Dover, Ohio, 
would at long intervals preach at the 
home of the Geigers, in Holmes county, 
using the barn for a church. But while 
early impressed with the thought of his 
personal salvation, Hezekiah did not 
make a public profession of his faith in 
Christ until the winter of 1840 — 1, in 
Mt. Vernon, Ohio, whither he had gone 
in search of employment. 

The young disciple was at once moved 
toward the work of preparing for the 
gospel ministry. With this purpose he 
was about entering a then new college, 
now Ohio Wesley an University in his 
own State, but at the suggestion of Rev. 
Henry Bishop, a Lutheran minister, his 
attention was turned toward Pennsyl- 
vania College, at Gettysburg, Pa., an in- 
stitution of his own faith, and the faith 
of his fathers. He had no money, but 



encouraged by his father, who gave him 
a horse, he, in company with Christian 
Uhl, also a candidate for the ministry, 
set off upon the long journey of 400 
miles over the mountains in search of 
Gettysburg. The journey occupied a 
month, for they tarried from time to 
time, to greet their friends by the way. 

Such was the diligence of the West- 
ern boy that after one year in the pre- 
paratory department, he was admitted 
to the Freshman class, at once taking a 
front rank. By reason of his special 
mathematical aptness, he soon became 
the friend of Prof. Jacobs, who was al- 
ways especially kind to students suc- 
cessful in mathematics. 

The then infant Wittenberg, without 
buildings or endowment or anything 
else save the indomitable purpose of Dr. 
Keller and a few students, sought the 
Senior at Gettysburg, who in the 
spring of 1846, was called to Wittenberg 
as professor of mathematics. The Fac- 
ulty of Gettysburg could see no need for 
a Lutheran college in the West, to most 
of them a country unknown, save as 
they found it on the maps. Flattering 
offers of employment in Pennsylvania 
college were made to the young pro- 
fessor elect, and his alma mater opposed 
very emphatically to his acceptance of 
the western professorship. With the 
resoluteness of purpose which has 
marked his whole life, he set his face 
determinedly toward the frontier work 
for Christ and his church. How wise- 
ly he decided the future soon began to 
tell. Upon the nominal salary of $300 
a year, in the spring of 1846, with Rev. 
Michael Diehl, who had just completed 
his theological course at Gettysburg, he 
entered upon his work at Springfield. 
The unfinished basement of the Luther- 
an church was the school room. The 
young professor taught about eight 
hours a day, whilst president Keller de- 



244 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



voted his time largely to a class of the- 
ologues, besides serving as financial 
agent for the college, pastor of the 
young church of the town and Lutheran 
Bishop of all that region. Such was 
the incipiency of Wittenberg College. 
After twenty-two years of faithful ser- 
vice the Eev. Michael Diehl fell asleep 
in 1869, honored, beloved and esteemed 
by all who knew him. 

The now growing and enterprising 
city of Springfield, was then a quiet 
town of 2,500 people. Our church in 
the great west was weak. In Spring- 
field there were not enough male mem- 
bers to constitute a vestry. The col- 
lege must educate both the ministry and 
the church, creating the very environ- 
ment upon which it depended for life. 
But few of the pioneers had themselves 
enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate 
education. Patient waiting and dili- 
gent, prayerful labor could alone pre- 
pare the soil, scatter the seed and 
gather the harvest. 

For many years Professor Geiger 
taught mathematics and physics and 
the natural sciences, besides for several 
years the higher classes in Latin. By 
the Wittenberg Synod, of which he is 
yet a member, he was set apart to the 
gospel ministry and in 1869, his alma 
mater, having forgiven him, conferred 
upon him the honorary degree of Doc- 
tor of Philosophy. 

In 1873 our Professor resigned the 
chair of mathematics, after twenty- 
seven years of the most devoted service, 
and was given sole charge of the depart- 
ment of natural science, for which he 
had developed a special fondness and 
fitness. Thoroughness marked the 



work of Prof. Geiger in all his under- 
takings. By extensive travel he famil- 
iarized himself with our western States 
and Territories, more than once reali- 
zing the dreams of his youth in ram- 
bling among the canons and peaks of 
the "Eockies." 

In 1874 some months were spent up- 
on our Pacific coast and in a voyage to 
the Sandwich Islands, an account of 
which has been published for the gratifi- 
cation of the friends of the tourist. 

In 1882 Prof. Geiger resigned his 
connection with the college with which 
more than thirty-six years of his 
thoughtful, vigorous, growing useful- 
ness had been engrafted. In the minis- 
try of the churches as in the other pro- 
fessions and in the various busy cur- 
rents of life are found many who know, 
honor and revere him as the painstak- 
ing teacher, the sympathizing friend 
and exemplary Christian. 

After a short period of rest a posi- 
tion was tendered Prof. Geiger in the 
United States Geological Survey, for 
which especially his familiarity with 
Geological science had fitted him. 
Since the summer of 1883 his headquar- 
ters has been in Washington City. His 
summers are spent among the moun- 
tains of Virginia, Maryland and West 
Virginia, the winters being used in put- 
ting into permanent form the results of 
investigations in the works of the Geo- 
logical Department. We congratulate 
the Professor upon his honorable and 
useful position in our government, and 
are glad to know that he enjoys the vig- 
or of a matured manhood. Long may 
he yet live to bless the church and the 
world. — History of Wittenberg College. 




AMEKICAN L'UTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



245 



EEY. A. T. GEISSENHAINER, Jr, D.D. 



Augustus Theodosius Geissenliainer 
was the son of Rev. Henry Anastasius 
Geissenhainer and Anna Maria, daugh- 
ter of Valentine and Anna Maria 
Schaerer, of Whitpain Township, Mont- 
gomery Co., Pa. He was born at the 
residence of his father, on a farm and at 
a mill inherited by his mother, in Whit- 
pain Township, on Stony Creek, five 
miles from Norristown. 

His ancestors were for several genera- 
tions persons of distinction, whose home 
was at Muhlheim-an-der-Ruhr, now in 
Rhenish Prussia, where his great-grand- 
father. Rev. Frederick William Geissen- 
hainer, was pastor and rector of the 
Gymnasium, at which his son, Henry 
Anastasius, received his liberal training. 
This son, the grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch, was a resident of Muhl- 
heim, and gave to his two sons in their 
earlier years the opportunities of study, 
but dying early in life, they came under 
the care of their grandfather, the rector 
of the Gymnasium, and enjoyed the 
most liberal training attainable at Muhl- 
heim. When but thirteen years of age, 
the elder of these sons, Frederick Wil- 
liam, who died in 1838 as pastor in New 
York, was sent to the University of 
Giessen, where he spent three years, and 
to Gottingen, where he studied two 
years, after which for two years he was 
Privat-docent at Gottengen, then for 
two years teacher at some place un- 
known, and finally for two years unor- 
dained assistant, or vicar, in two village 
congregations. 

In 1792 the fires of the French Revo- 
lution were ablaze, and the armies of 
Germany united for the invasion of 
France.. Escaping from this turmoil, 
their grandfather being now dead, the 



two sons emigrated to America, reaching 
Philadelphia in 1793. Frederick Wil- 
liam became pastor of New Goschenh op- 
pen, and in 1794 was licensed as Candi- 
date by the Ministerium, and ordained 
in 1797, or 1798. The yoanger brother, 
Henry Anastasius, who was twenty 
years old when they came to America, 
pursued his studies and was prepared 
for the ministry by his elder brother. 
He was licensed as Catechet. in 1797, 
for North Wales, Whitpain, and Upper 
Dublin, and in 1799 as Candidate. In 
1801 he became pastor of St. Peter's 
Church, Pikeland Township, Nice's in 
East Nantmeal, and Amity, Chester Co. 
From 1806 he was pastor of the Jordan 
Charge, Lehigh Co., until 1814, when 
he was elected pastor of the Trappe, 
Limerick and Pottstown congregations. 
He resided at first at the farm where his 
son, Augustus, was born until April 
1817, when he removed to a farm which 
he purchased just below the limits of 
Pottstown, where he lived until in Janu- 
ary, 1821, he resigned the charge and 
intended to journey southward, but 
went first to Pittsburgh, where he was 
persuaded to settle and become pastor. 
In January, 1823, he was taken sick 
while on a visit at Philadelphia, was 
taken to the Trappe by his son, Henry, 
who resided there, where he died Feb- 
ruary 9, 1823. When he removed from 
the Trappe, his brother, Frederick Wil- 
liam, and his son, Frederick William, 
Jr., had jointly taken charge of his con- 
gregations, and were with him in his 
last illness. Before his death he re- 
quested his brother to take charge of 
and educate his son, Augustus, and 
should he prove to be so disposed, to 
prepare him for the ministry. 



246 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Augustus Theodosius Geissenliainer 
was born July 11, 1814, baptized four 
weeks later, his grandmother, Sophia 
Wilhelmina Henrietta Geissenhainer, 
being sponsor, and spent the first three 
years of his life in Whitpain Township, 
the next four years on the farm below 
Pottstown where his father lived until 
his removal to Pittsburgh, and where 
Dr. Frederick William lived from that 
time until his removal to New York in 
1823. He accompanied his father to 
Pittsburgh, and remained there until 
after his death. 

In the fall of 1823 he was sent to 
New York to become a member of the 
family of his uncle, who from that time 
on until his death treated him as his own 
child, both fulfilled the duties and gave 
him the affection of a father. Here, 
henceforth, all the years of his life were 
passed until after he had entered into 
the office of the ministry. His fellow- 
student. Rev. C. F. Welden, has fur- 
nished the following account of their 
student years: "Our regretted friend, A. 
T. Geissenhainer, and the other students, 
at the time of Eev. Dr. F. W. Geissen- 
hainer, Sr., including myself, received 
our preliminary English education in 
the Philomathean Academy, in William 
Street, New York. The other stu- 
dents then were Lewis Smith, and 
Frederick William Miller, son of 
Dr. Jacob Miller, of Eeading. Our 
purpose was to become fitted for Colum- 
bia College, and after graduation to en- 
ter on the study of theology. Our tutor, 
in the first stages of Latin, under Dr. 
Geissenhainer' s supervision, was J. C. 
G. Schweitzerbarth, afterwards pastor 
at Zelienople. The instruction was con- 
tinued by Dr. Geissenhainer, and when 
we were so far advanced as to be able to 
use the Oxford Latin Grammar, we 
were inducted into the Greek. Our 
text-books in the study of Greek all 



used the Latin language, even the Lexi- 
con. We read the prescribed Latin and 
Greek authors as far as required in the 
junior class of Columbia College at that 
time. Dr. Geissenhainer' s health be- 
ginning to fail, he suggested the advis- 
ability of our resigning the college 
course and entering at once on the study 
of theology while he still was able to in- 
struct us. Dr. Miller insisted on the 
full collegiate course for his son, who 
then entered Columbia College, at the 
same time sharing our theological course. 
To our class was added William A. Fet- 
ter, Principal of St. Matthew's Academy, 
in Walker Street. Fetter, Smith, and 
myself were examined and licensed in 
St. Matthew's Church in 1833." 

Dr. Geissenhainer was of most schol- 
arly, even distinguished attainments, 
and of peculiar abilities as a teacher. 
From an early period of his ministry 
he had trained young men in almost un- 
interrupted succession. He was the 
theological instructor of the following 
pastors, and probably of others: Henry 
Anastasius Geissenhainer, John George 
Eoeller, Jacob Miller, Frederick Waage, 
J. C. G. Schweitzerbarth. John W. Star- 
man, Ernst Ludwig Brauns, William J. 
Eyer, Mark Harpel, Frederick W. Geis- 
senhainer, Jr., Christian F. Welden, 
William A. Fetter, Lewis Smith, Augus- 
tus T. Geissenhainer, and Frederick 
William Miller, who was a young man 
of great promise and much beloved, 
but was not allowed to enter the minis- 
try, having died in 1834. The training 
of these students was very complete in 
all their studies, and that of Augustus 
especially so in Hebrew, for which the 
Doctor had a special love. 

At the meeting of the New York 
Ministerium at Palatinf^, Montgomery 
Co., N. Y., he was licensed Sept. 15th, 
1835, when twenty-one years of age. 
He had no pastoral care, but ^cted as 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPfllES. 



247 



assistant to his uncle, whose health was 
feeble, from his licensure until the 
death of Dr. Geissenhainer, May 27th, 
1838. In August of that year he be- 
came pastor of St. Paul's Church, Wur- 
temberg, Dutchess Co., N. Y., of which 
one congregation he had charge until 
1840, when he took charge, in August, 
of St. John's, Orwigsburg, Schuylkill 
Co., Pa., a union church, from which 
the Lutherans withdrew and built St. 
Paul's Church in 1844, Friedens at New 
Kin gold and McKeansburg. He united 
with the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 
June, 1841. In 1843 he began also to 
preach in English at Hamburg, where 
Gottlieb F. laeger was German pastor. 
At his -removal to Orwigsburg he was 
married to Amelia S., daughter of Wil- 
liam Havemeyer, of New York City. 

In 1845 he removed to Reading and 
took charge of the Oley and Friedens- 
burg congregations, and for a short 
time of Womelsdorf, retaining also, un- 
til 1847, the English service at Ham- 
burg. He lived on Penn St., below 
Eighth. In August, 1847, by appoint- 
ment of the Synod, he removed to Nor- 
ristown and laid the foundation of the 
congregation in which the Synod is now 
assembled. But he was not allowed to 
prosecute the work to any extent, as 
within a year the infirm health of Mr. 
Havemeyer made him very anxious to 
have his daughter with him, and in 
April, 1848, before the meeting of 
Synod, the family went to reside with 
Mr. Havemeyer in New York, and Mr. 
Geissenhainer soon afterward went to 
Reading, where he assisted Rev. Dr. 
Jacob Miller during part of the last 
year of his life, and until his death, 
from October, 1849, to May 16, 1850, 
after which he returned to New York 
and remained until after the death of 
Mr. Havemeyer. 
C Early in 1852 he settled at Trenton, 



N. J., for the purpose of organizing a 
congregation in that place, having visit- 
ed Trenton regularly since October, 
1851. He purchased ground, commenc- 
ed the erection of a church, furnishing 
most of the money needed, to be repaid 
afterward by the congregation, as was 
faithfully done. The church was dedi- 
cated October, 1852. There he remain- 
ed until he accepted charge of St. Paul's 
German Church, Allentown, where he 
began his labors May 3, 1857, but re- 
mained only until August 8, 1858, when 
he returned to Trenton and formed an 
English congregation, erecting for them 
also a church, but the material was at 
that time very limited, and the effort 
was afterward given up. In August, 
1861, Mr. Geissenhainer removed to 
Bethlehem, where soon afterward he 
organized St. Peter's congregation and 
assisted them in erecting a church. 
While living at Trenton the second 
time his wife died. While at Bethle- 
hem he was married to Elconora, the 
daughter of Dr. S. S. Schmucker, of 
Gettysburg, Pa. In 1869 he removed 
to Philadelphia. From 1872 to 1875 he 
had charge of St. Thomas', German- 
town, and for a short time of St. Pe- 
ter's, Rising Sun. In 1877 he took the 
charge of St. Paul's, Hainesport, N. J. 
During this period of his residence in 
Philadelphia, since 1864, he had served 
as treasurer of the Ministerium, and his 
pastoral labors were of a missionary 
character in congregations unable to 
support a pastor. Of the little congre- 
gation at Hainesport he continued to 
have charge as long as he was able to 
labor, and for part of a year he took a 
house in Mount Holly so as to be near 
them. During the last winter of his 
life he was confined much to the house, 
but his death came suddenly soon after 
midnight on the third of March, 1882. 
His remains were interred in a private 



248 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



cemetery in New York. The burial 
services were atteiided by a large nuni- 
ber of his brethren in the ministry. 
The Eevs. S. Laird and D. H. Geissin- 
ger conducted the burial services. 

A large part of the ministerial labor 
of Mr. Geissenhainer was devoted to 
the formation of missionary congrega- 
tions and to feeble pastorates which 
were able to furnish but a small part of 
the income necessary to the support of 
his family. The present flourishing' 
congregations at Norristown, Trenton, 
and South Bethlehem were begun by 
him, and St. Thomas', at German town, 
taken when very feeble. 

H^e served as assistant secretary of the 
Ministerium, and translated the minutes 
into English from 1850 to 1852, as sec- 
retary from 1853 to 1855, and as treas- 
urer from 1864 to 1877, a period of four- 
teen years. At the meeting of Synod 
at which he was elected treasurer it was 
decided to establish the seminary at 
Philadelphia, and with the inception of 
that work began the serious responsibil- 
ity and burden of the treasurer's office. 
The seminary had to be carried on and 
its expenses met when as yet the income 
was very iu adequate, and the money 
subscribed had to be collected and in- 
vested, so that the cares, anxieties, and 
responsibilities of the treasurer's office 
were very great, and he frequently ad- 
vanced of his own moneys, at times even 
to the extent of several thousand dollars, 
in order to tide over times of embarrass- 
ment. It may well be that in increas- 
ing infirmity of health he allowed these 
cares to worry him needlessly, but he 
guarded the property and trusts of the 
Ministerium with tender and jealous 
care and the strictest fidelity. 

He rendered eminent services to the 
Church in the preparation of the Church 
Book. The committee charged at first 
with the translation of the German 



Agenda of 1855 held its first meeting at 
his house in Trenton in the fall of 1855. 
There were present, Eevs. C.W. Schaeffer, 
C. F. Schaeffer, A. T. Geissenhainer, C. F. 
Welden and B. M. Schmucker. Each 
member consented to present a translation 
of the Morning Service, and I think 
that each one had prepared a translation. 
The first translation read was that of the 
venerated Dr. C. F. Schaeffer, then pas- 
tor at Easton. He was himself very 
much dissatisfied with it, and after hear- 
ing some of the other translations, af- 
firmed that his style was utterly unsuit- 
ed to such work, and I do not think that 
he at any time afterward translated a line. 
It was agreed, at that meeting, I think, 
that the first translation of the succes- 
sive parts of the Liturgy should be pre- 
pared by Eevs. A. T. Geissenhainer and 
B. M. Schmucker in co-operation, and 
submitted for most careful supervision 
to the committee at its meetings. And 
in that manner the work was carried on 
until the publication of the Liturgy of 
1860. In the sub-committee of prepara- 
tion the first draft was usually made by 
Mr. Geissenhainer, and worked out by 
his co-laborer. 

During the many years which were 
devoted to the work which resulted in 
the publication of the Church Book in 
1868, Mr. Geissenhainer was ever a 
most diligent worker, and at his home 
from year to year the larger number of 
meetings of the committee was held. 
None of us will ever forget the generous 
and elegant hospitality of that house. 
The books also which were required in 
the researches of the committee were 
usually purchased by him. In the re- 
storal of the beautiful, scriptural, ancient 
service of our Lutheran Church he took 
a deep interest, and his labors in this 
respect claim grateful remembrance. 

From his uncle, in the years of his 
preparation and early ministry, he had 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



249 



received a profound reverence for the 
pure faith of our Church, as set forth in 
her Symbols, and his conviction of its 
accordance with Scripture grew ever 
stronger. He had an abhorrence of all 
compromises and concealments. No 
more loyal Lutheran ever lived. 

Now that he has been taken from us 
and we call to mind the many years of 
his membership in the Synod, his un- 
selfish labors in the cause of his Lord, 
his unswerving attachment to the 



Church of his inheritance and love, his 
genial, kindly amity of spirit and char- 
acter, his warm personal attachment to 
his intimate friends, his generous lib- 
erality, his free-hearted hospitality, we 
put away from us all remembrance of 
any infirmities which resulted from 
stealthily creeping disease, and remem- 
ber only our noble-hearted brother, now 
gone to rest in the peace of the Lord. — 
Beale M. SehmuGkcr. 




EEY. F. W. GEISSENHAINEE, Se., D.D. 



Frederick William Geissenhainer, the 
son of Henry A. and Sophia J. H. Geis- 
senhainer, was born on the 26th of June, 
1771, at Muhlheim, (now belonging to 
Prussia) Germany. He lost his father 
when he was about three years old, a7id 
was indebted for his education to his 
grandfather, the Eev. Dr. Frederick 
William Geissenhainer, one of the more 
distinguished Lutheran clergymen of 
his day. When he was thirteen years 
old, he entered the University at Giessen, 
and, at the age of sixteen, had completed 
his course of theological study. But, as 
he was too young to enter the ministry, 
he went to the University of Gottingen, 
where he remained two years; and then, 
having reached the age of eighteen, he 
received and accepted an appointment as 
Professor in a Seminary. When he was 
twenty he was advised to apply for Ordi- 
nation as a minister of the gospel; and, 
on account of his extraordinary qualifi- 
cations for the office, there was made in 
his favor an exception to the rule, which 
required that he should be twenty-five 
years of age. He was, accordingly, or- 
dained; and, shortly after, took charge 
of two village congregations, with which 
32 



he continued for about eighteen months. 
Meanwhile, his grandfather had de- 
ceased; and, not long after, tidings came 
to him that his mother also was dead; 
and this latter circumstance, of which 
he had no reason to doubt, in connec- 
tion with the distracted state of things 
incident to war, led him and his only 
brother, who was then on a visit to his 
place of residence, to form the purpose 
of migrating to the United -States. They 
made their arrangements accordingly; 
not giving themselves time even to visit 
their native town; and, though they 
were aware that there was some prop^^r- 
ty in the family, they left it, as they 
supposed, to a maiden aunt, — their only 
surviving relative in those parts, who 
had lived with their mother. 

In the year 1793 they arrived at Phil- 
adelphia, Pennsylvania, and, soon after, 
the subject of this sketch accepted a 
call to labor among several congrega- 
tions in Montgomery County, Pa. On 
the 27th of May, 1794, he was married 
to Anna Maria, daughter of Michael 
and Eve Eeiter. They had six children, 
one of whom was married to the Eev. 
Dr. Jacob Miller, deceased, late of Eead- 



250 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ing, Pa., and another has succeeded his 
father, as minister of a German Luther- 
an congregation in the city of New 
York. 

In the spring of 1807 Mr. Geissen- 
hainer learned from a Jew, who came 
from his native place, that his mother 
was still living and in good health, and 
that it was his aunt who had died, when 
it was reported to be his mother. Trans- 
ported by this most unexpected intelli- 
gence, he immediately made arrange- 
ments for bringing her to this country; 
and, in the succeeding autumn, after hav- 
ing been separated from her for nearly 
fifteen years, he had the pleasure of 
meeting her at Philadelphia, and wel- 
coming her to the land of his adoption. 
She lived with her sons nine years after 
her arrival, and died, at the age of sixty- 
four, in the joyful confidence of enter- 
ing on a better life. 

In conformity with the recommenda- 
tion of the Eev. Dr. John Kunze, pre- 
vious to his death, Mr. Geissenhainer 
was called to the German Lutheran 
Churches in the city of New York, in 
1808. He accepted the call, and re- 
tained this charge until the spring of 
1814, when he resigned it, and went to 
preach to the congregations of Potts- 
town and the Trappe, Montgomery 
County, Pa. Here he continued till 
Decenaber, 1822, when he was recalled 
to his former charge in New York, at 
the old Swamp Church, corner of Wil- 
liam and Frankfort streets. This con- 
gregation removed to St. Matthew's 
Church, in Walker street, in 1830, where 
he continued to ofiiciate till the close of 
1837, though his health was feeble dur- 



ing several of his last years, and he was 
often assisted by his son, and his broth- 
er's sons, whom he had educated for the 
ministry. About the first of March, 
1838, his strength began very percepti- 
bly to fail, and, from this time, it was 
manifest that his labors were finished, 
and that but little of life remained to 
him. In the prospect of his departure, 
he was perfectly tranquil and self-pos- 
sessed, declaring his undoubting confi- 
dence in his Eedeemer's merits. "Dur- 
ing my life," said he, "I have put my 
trust in my Saviour— He never did for- 
sake me, and I am sure He never will." 
A short time before he expired, his son 
asked him whether he should leave him 
to officiate in the church, the hour for 
public service having arrived; and he 
pressed his hand most warmly and said, 
— "Go, in God's name, my son, and do 
your duty," — The last words that he 
ever addressed to him. To his wife he 
said, — "Weep not — I must go to the 
other portion of my family." He died 
on the 27th of May, 1838; it being ex- 
actly, not only to the day of the month, 
but to the very hour of the day, forty- 
four years after his marriage. He was 
within less than a month of sixty-six 
years of age. 

He received the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity, from the University of Penn- 
sylvania in 1826. He educated a num- 
ber of young men for the ministry 
among whom was his son-in-law, the 
Eev. Dr. Jacob Miller. He wrote very 
extensively on various subjects, but 
published nothing except a few hymns. 
— Sprague. 




AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



25 



REV. F. W. GEISSENHAINER, Jk., D.D. 



Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Geissenhain- 
er Jr., is a son of Dr. Geisseuhainer Sr., 
and was born the 28th of June, 1797, at 
New Hanover, Montgomery county. Pa. 
When his father in 1808 came to New 
York pursuant to a call as Dr. Kunze's 
successor, young Geisseuhainer came 
for the first time to the great western 
metropolis, where he was to labor for 
more than fifty years. He was con- 
firmed in the old Christ's Church, at 
New York, the family occupying the 
residence No. 210 William street. He 
was licensed to preach by the Pennsyl- 
vania Synod in 1817, and served con- 
gregations in Chester County, Pa. In 
1826 he accepted a call from St. Mat- 
thew*s church in New York, (located on 
Walker St.). 



In 1840 he established St. Paul's 
church on the West Side, having re 
signed St. Matthew's. At first he 
preached in a hall on 18th Avenue, but 
in 1842 a frame church was bniit on the 
corner of 6th Avenue and 15th street. 
He began this mission with only eleven 
poor families, but in 1860 the congrega- 
tion was able to erect a beautiful church 
at the cost of $28,000. The degree of 
Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon 
him by the University of the city of 
New York. He was one of the princi- 
pal movers in the establishment of the 
Philadelphia seminary, and was presi- 
dent of the first Board of Directors. He 
died on Pentecost Sunday, June 2, 1879, 
at the age of 81 years, having served in 
the ministry for 62 years. 




REV. G. D. GERBERDING. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Pittsburg, Pa., Aug. 21, 1847. His 
father, J. G. H. Gerberding, was born 
in Germany, but came to this country 
in his sixteenth year. His mother was 



a native of the United States. Her 
maiden name was] Josephine Lustenber- 
ger. Her parents came from Switzer- 
land. 

Rev Gerberding grew up on his 



252 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



father's little farm between Allegehany 
City and Perryville. There he attended 
a district school for a few months in 
each year, always ranking high in his 
classes. Up to his twentieth year he 
assisted his father on the farm. Then, 
for two winters he attended an academy 
in Pittsburg walking four miles back 
and forth most of the time. In the fall 
of 1869, he entered Thiel Hall at Phil- 
lipsburg, Beaver Co., Penn., where he 
enjoyed the instruction of Prof. H. E. 
Jacobs, now Dr. Jacobs of the Philadel- 
phia Seminary, as also of Eev. Dr. H. 
W. Eoth, the writer of this sketch. In 
1871, with two other class mates, he en- 
tered, ad eundem, the junior class of 
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., 
where he graduated in 1873. On ac- 
count of the financial embarrassment of 
his father his college studies were fre- 
quently interrupted. During the four 
years' course he lost forty-three weeks, 
by absence, necessitated by labor at 
home. 

He took his theological course in the 
Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of 
Philadelphia. There he enjoyed the 
instruction of the^^^sainted Drs. C. P. 
Krauth and C. E. Schaeffer. As he paid 
his own expenses through the semin- 
ary, his course there was more or less 
irregular. During the vacations of 
1874 and 1875 he assisted the Eev. Dr. 
Passavant in several churches near 
Pittsburg, which the Doctor was then 
supj^ying. In the latter summer, with 
the assistanc of Dr. Passavant, he raised 
funds, secured a lot and had a church 
built in the tenth ward, Allegheny, near 
his father's home. In the spring of 
1876 he was called as pastor to the 
Mount Calvary English Lutheran 
Church, at Chartiers, three miles below 
Pittsburg. He was ordained April 19, 
at Greenville, Pa., by the Examining 
Committee of the Pittsburg Synod. 



In connection with Mt. Calvary 
church, he labored across the river, 
where he had built the church during 
the previous summer. There he or- 
ganized the English Lutheran church 
of Mt. Zion and built up a prosperous 
Sunday school and congregatiou. The 
following year he began to labor at 
Pine Creek, ten miles out from Mt. 
Zion. Here was an abandoned Luther- 
an field. Eev. Joseph Muhlhauser had 
recaptured the dilapidated old church, 
which had been used by various denom- 
inations, and had remodeled it for a Lu- 
theran church. On the removal of Eev. 
Muhlhauser to Eochester, N. Y., Eev. 
Gerberding gathered together the avail- 
able fragments of the former Lutheran 
congregation, and whatever new materi- 
al could be found and organized St. 
John's English Lutheran church, with 
a live Sunday school. Ere long he be- 
gan to preach in a school house in 
Butcher's Eun, and worked up a Lu- 
theran Sunday school. This afterwards 
became Memorial Evangelical Luther- 
an Church. His labor on the north 
side of the river, along the Perrys- 
ville road, had now increased to such 
an extent that he found it necess- 
ary to resign Mt. Calvary, at Chartiers, 
and give his whole time to the three 
new points. A parsonage was also 
completed at Mt. Zion. Thus, where 
five years ago the Lutheran church had 
nothing, there were now two churches 
and congregations, three Sunday schools 
and a brick parsonage. Not a dollar 
had been asked or received from the 
mission fund, and the whole debt was 
$400. 

In the spring of 1881, Eev. Gerber- 
ding accepted a call to the Jewett, O., 
charge, which he served acceptably for 
six years. During his pastorate the 
charge was divided and thus the almost 
abandoned church at Bowling Green 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



253 



was again enabled to enjoy the services 
of a pastor. While at Jewett he also 
made a beginning toward establishing 
an English mission in Stenbenville, 
O. In the spring of 1887 he accepted 
an urgent call from the English Home 
Mission Committee of the General 
Council to the English mission of Fargo, 
N. D. At that difficult post, where 
there was not a single person who had 
ever been an English Lutheran, he has 
built up one of the largest Sunday 
schools in the city, and is slowly building 
up a substantial congregation in the 
beautiful church built by the able and 
self-sacrificing labors of Rev. F.W. Ulery. 
The influence of Rev. Gerberding has 
not been confined to the Fargo mission. 
He has won the confidence and created 
an interest in English work among the 
Germans and Scandinavians. He has 
called their attention to their losses, in- 
duced them to look after their children, 
to start English teaching in their Sun- 
day schools and preaching in their 
churches. He took a hurried mission 
trip to the Pacific coast in the spring of 
1889, and kept the General Council from 
losing the North West coast as a mis- 
sion field. 



Rev. Gerberding was married Oct. 31, 
1876, to Miss Annie E. Danver, of Al- 
legheny City, Pa., whom he learned to 
know and love while attending Prof 
Gourley's academy in Pittsburg, Pa. 
Their happy union has been blessed 
with seven children, five of whom are 
living, two having preceded them to the 
home beyond. 

He is an earnest and forcible speaker. 
He aims to get the truth into the heart 
of the hearer, rather than to please the 
intellect by the beauty of the setting. 
He wields a strong and living pen. He 
is the author of "The Way of Salvation 
in the Lutheran Church" and "New 
Testament Conversions." The former 
has proved the most popular and suc- 
cessful work published in the English 
Lutheran church, almost 9,000 copies 
having been sold in three years. By 
giving to the church which he loves 
these two works, Rev. Gerberding has 
not only done a work which his church 
appreciates and which will bless it, but 
he has made for himself an enviable 
place among the authors of the Luther- 
an Church in America. 



REV. E. F. GIESE, D D. 



Rev. E. F. Giese, D.D., is the son of 
the late Rev. Heinrich August Giese, 
Superintendent in the Church of the 
State of Prussia, was born in Schwane- 
beck, Pomerania, May 16th, 1832. Re- 
ceived his preparation for the Gym- 
nasium at home under the instruction 
of a tutor. At the age of fourteen en- 
tered Kloster Rossleben in Thuringia 
and remained there till he entered the 
University at Halle, studied under Dr. 



Tholuck with whom he was quite inti- 
mate. After graduating at Halle, studied 
several years privately, one year at 
Berlin. In the year 1861 was appointed 
teacher of natural sciences in the Royal 
Cadet school at Potsdam near Berlin 
where he remained over two years, when 
in answer to an appeal of Rev. Muehl- 
haeuser from Milwaukee, who was then 
visiting Germany in behalf of the Wis- 
consin Synod and of the newly organ- 



254 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



ized Seminary of that body, he was sent 
by the Berliner Verein in 1863, to pre- 
side over the newly organized Theolog- 
ical Seminary of the Synod of Wiscon- 
sin, but not being of the ultra Lutheran 
convictions of the ruling party of said 
Synod was rejected. Upon which he was 
sent to do missionary work in the north- 
eastern part of Wisconsin, and served 
four congregations in connection with 
that work. After serving nearly two 
years in the capacity of Home Mission- 
ary was called to Milwaukee and taught 
in the Milwaukee Academy and at the 
same time preached in the northwestern 
part of the city, and for the Howell's 
Road congregation. 

From 1865-67 organized under Dr. 
Passavant's supervision Thiel Hall 
Academy in Philipsburg, Beaver Co., 
Pa., which soon after was removed to 
Greenville and chartered as Thiel Col- 
lege. In 1868 he was called to take 
charge of a mission field in Brooklyn, 
N. Y., and was soon engaged as principal 



of St. Mathew's Academy, at the game 
time continuing the work at Brooklyn. 
The academy was soon recognized as 
the institution of the New York Minis- 
terium, and privileged to dismiss its 
graduates to the Theological Seminary 
in Philadelphia. In 1873 accepted a 
call to organize Newark Academy in 
Newark, Wayne Co., N. Y., in connection 
with the same Ministorium. In 1875, 
resigned and was called to the chair of 
Prof, of Greek and German in Carthage 
College, Carthage, 111. Withdrew from 
this with the title of D. D. in 1882 in 
order to devote his whole time to the 
foundation of a German Theological 
Seminary in connection with the General 
Synod in Chicago, but was unsuccessful 
for various reasons and in the year 1885 
accepted a call to the German Lutheran 
congregation at Cumberland, Maryland. 
Owing to being overburdened with 
work his literary productions are not 
very extensive. 




BEY. WILLIAM GERHARDT, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
October 28, 1817, at Beuern, in Hesse 
Darmstadt, Germany. His parents, Balt- 
zer Gerhardt and Anna Maria, having 



been reduced in their circumstances 
through the eifects of the war with Na- 
poleon, and the hard times following in 
the wake of the war, emigrated to Amer- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



265 



ica during his infancy. From the age 
of eleven to sixteen he was hired out to 
farmers. By going to school during the 
winter months and by dint of close ap- 
plication he acquired an ordinary com- 
mon school education, and at the age of 
sixteen commenced teaching, which he 
followed several winters, performing 
manual labor during the summer. This 
was in Somerset County, Pa. He was 
very anxious to obtain a liberal educa- 
tion to fit him for a higher sphere of 
work in life. His parents, being poor, 
were not able to give him any pecuniary 
aid. He was therefore dependent en- 
tirely upon his own resources; but by 
great self-denial, determination and 
ent^rgy he accomplished his object. 
He entered Pennsylvania College at 
Gettysburg, Feb. 22, 1836, and was grad- 
uated from that institution in 1841. His 
object being to enter the ministry, he 
studied theology at the Lutheran Semi- 
nary at the same place, and made 
preaching and teaching his profession 
and work of his life. For the latter he 
seems to have been peculiarly fitted, 
and consequently has taken a high rank 
among the educators of our country. 

In 1844 he was married to Miss Lu- 
cinda A. Riley, and in 1887, his first 
wife having died, to Mrs. C. A. Mantz. 

As a minister he has had under his 
charge the following pastorates: Eliza- 



bethtown, Bloomfield, Mt. Bethel, and 
Jonestown, in Pennsylvania; Mt. Car- 
mel in North Carolina, and Martinsburg 
in West Virginia. In this work he was 
untiring, preaching in both languages; 
in some charges preaching three times 
a day, and often traveling from twenty 
to thirty miles the same day. In 1880 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
conferred upon him by the North Caro- 
lina College. 

As a teacher he has been enga2:ed in 
the educational work in Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, Ohio, North. Carolina and 
West Virginia, from common schools to 
institutions of college standing. Since 
1867 he has been actively identified 
with tbe schools of Martinsburg, W. Va., 
and chiefly as superintendent of the city 
schools and principal of the high school. 
The following tribute, from Hardesty's 
Historical Atlas and History of Berke- 
ley County, shows the character of his 
work and the measure of his abilities: 
"The schools of the city now enjoy the 
reputation of being as thorough and 
efficient as any in the state. Much of 
their present prosperity is justly due to 
the faithful and efficient services of 
Rev. William Gerhard t, D. D., who has 
been employed as Principal of Ward 
Schools, and latterly of the High School, 
since 1867." 




256 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. D. M. GILBEET, D.D. 



Eev. D. M. Gilbert, D. D., second son 
of the late David Gilbert, M. D., a dis- 
tinguished physician and surgeon and 
for many years a Professor in the medi- 
cal department of Pennsylvania College, 
in the city of Philadelphia, was born 
Feb. 4th, 1836, at Gettysburg, Pa. He 
received his early education at Pennsyl- 
vania College and the Theological Sem- 
inary, in Gettysburg, Pa., graduating in 
the former institution in 1857 and the 
latter in 1859. He was licensed as a 
minister of the gospel by the Synod of 
West Pennsylvania, at Hanover, October 
1859, and ordained by the Synod of Vir- 
ginia at Bridgwater, Ya., October, 1860. 
He received the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Eoanoke Col- 
lege, Salem, Va., 1880. 

Dr. Gilbert has been pastor at Staun- 
ton, Ya., 1859-63; Savannah, Ga., 1863- 
71; Staunton, Ya., 187L 73; Winchester, 
Ya., 1873-87; and since December 1st, 
1887, pastor of Zion Evangelical Luther- 
an Church, Harrisburg, Pa. 

The ministry of Dr. Gilbert up to 
this time has been almost wholly in the 
Southern Church, where he took a deep 
interest and, from the beginning of his 
ministerial life, had a prominent part in 
the Church's general work. He was a 
representative of the Yirginia Synod at 



the organization of the General Synod 
of the Southern Church, at Concord, N. 
C, in 1863; was regularly elected dele- 
gate to all its subsequent conventions, 
had a leading part in the Diets held at 
Salisbury, N. C. and Eoanoke, Ya., to 
pave the way for the more general 
unification of our Southern Church in 
the present United Synod of the South; 
and upon the organization of the latter 
body at Eoanoke, Ya., in June, 1886, 
was chosen its first President. 

Dr. Gilbert's publications have been 
A Fast Day Sermon, 1864; "The Luther- 
an Church in Yirginia, 1776-1876", Cen- 
tennial Historical discourse before the 
Yirginia Synod, in 1876; "The Praises 
of the Lord in the Story of our Fathers", 
being a historical sketch of Grace 
Lutheran Church, Winchester, Ya., 
1877; "The Synod of Yirginia: its His- 
tory and Work", being a discourse^ p^e- 
fore that Synod at its Semi-Centennial 
Celebration, in 1879. "The Annihilation 
Theory Briefly Examined". "Muhlen- 
berg's Ministry in Yirginia", being a 
discourse delivered at the laying of the 
corner stone of Emanuel Church, Wood- 
stock, Ya., 1884 "The Eelation of the 
Church to Questions of Governmental 
Policy", and numerous sermons and 
articles published in Church periodicals. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



257 



KEY. JACOB GOEKING. 



Jacob Goering, a son of Jacob and 
Margaret Goering, was of German ex- 
traction, and was born in York Co.. Pa., 
Jan. 17, 1755. His father was a farmer 
on a small scale, but of a strong mind 
and an amiable disposition. The son, 
while yet a school -boy, manifested, in 
all the classes which he passed, extraor- 
dinnry talent, and shared, in a high de- 
gree, the favorable regards both of his 
school fellows and his teacher. He 
early discovered a disposition for the 
Gospel ministry, and would sometimes 
call the children together to listen to 
his stump orations or sermons, with 
which he was accustomed also to associ- 
ate prayer and singing, insomuch that 
the neighbors used to call him *^the 
Young Parson." He had also a great 
fondness for reading; and, after he had 
read through the small library of his 
father, he borrowed books from all his 
neighbors who had any to lend. He not 
only occupied himself in this way dur- 
ing the evening, but usually took a 
book with him to bed, that he might use 
it by the earliest morning light; and 
when he was sent into the field to work, 
his book was still very likely to be his 
companion. He had a decided taste for 
Natural History; and, indeed, he was an 
attentive observer and diligent student 
of all the objects of nature around him. 
He was naturally curious and inquisi- 
tive, and always disposed to find out the 
causes of things where it was possible. 

These favorable and somewhat pre- 
cocious developments induced his par- 
ents to consent that he should study 
Divinity. His father, therefore, went 
with him to Lancaster, to consult with 
Dr. Helmuth, who, after he had heard all, 
immediately expressed himself willing 
33 



to receive him into his house, "and^to 
become his tutor. Here he remained, 
devoting himself assiduously to his pre- 
paratory studies, until in his twentieth 
year,, he was publicly examined and li- 
censed by the Synod of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church to preach the Gospel. 

From this period he preached occa- 
sionally, and with great acceptance, un- 
der the direction and superintendence 
of his theological instructor. After a 
sufiicient trial, he accepted a call from 
the Lutheran congregations in Carlisle 
and the immediate vicinity. About this 
time also he was married to Elizabeth 
Syng, of Lancaster, but his wife, within 
about eighteen months after their mar- 
riage, fell a victim to consumption. She 
died without issue. 

His attachment to his wife had been 
one of uncommon strength, and he was 
well-nigh overwhelmed by the bereave- 
ment. The effect of it was to lead him 
to take much more spiritual views of re- 
ligion than he had ever taken before, 
and finally, as he believed, through the 
power of Divine grace, to work in him 
an effectual conversion. He was the 
subject of the most severe inward trials 
and conflicts, and sometimes on the very 
border of despair. He read and medi- 
tated and prayed, and sought relief by 
conversation with Christian friends of 
different denominations; and still the 
burden continued as oppressive as ever. 
At length, however, the days of comfort 
and hope came, and in proportion to the 
depth of the darkness in which he had 
been involved, was the brightness of 
the light that shone into his soul. His 
protracted, painful experience qualified 
him, in an eminent degree, to be a coun- 
sellor and guide to other afflicted souls; 



258 AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 

and there is no doubt that in this re- life; late in bed, early to rise, and never 
spect, he reaped a rich advantage from idle. He had gathered a large amount 
it during the whole subsequent part of of information in connection with almost 
his ministry. After this, his preach- every branch of science. He was in- 
ings assumed an unwonted f erver and timately acquainted with the Latin, 
earnestness, and was listened to by Greek, Hebrew and its cognates, as I 
great crowds with intense interest, and, have good reason to know from having 
in many instances, with evident sanctify- studied Hebrew with him a year and a 
ing and saving effect. Jesus Christ and half. The Syriac and Chaldaic he read 
Him crucified was always the burden of with all ease, and possessed the Bible and 
his message; and no one could listen to other books in all these languages. He 
him without being convinced that he was also well acquainted with the early 
had a deep inward experience of every Fathers of the Christian Church, and 
sentiment that he uttered. j had formed an intelligent and accurate 

In 1782 he was married again, — to estimate of their respective merits. 
Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John He was "rough and ready" in con- 
Nicholas Kurtz. There were ten chil- trover sy, and had some public disputes 
dren by this marriage, — two sons and with the German Baptists, Mennonists, 
eight daughters. Mrs. Goering died on Tunkers, and others, in all of which he 
the 31st of May, 1831. evinced both skill and courage. He 

Shortly after his second marriage he published two Treatises on the subject 
received a call to the congregations in of Baptism, — one in 1783, the other in 
and . about York, which he accepted. \ 1790, and also "An Answer to a Metho- 
Here he continued to labor for twenty- ' dist's Eemonstrance;" but I believe they 
six years, with the exception of one year are now rarely to be met with, 
and a half, during which he was absent i I ought to state that, about the time of 
from York upon a call from Hagerstown, I the election of Jefferson to the Presi- 
Md; but his congregations were unwill- dency, he took a somewhat active part 
ing to dispense with his services, or to in politics, by means of which he made 
have any other minister in his place, for himself many enemies, some of whom 
And no wonder; for he was really a truly retained their hostility to him as long as 
faithful and powerful preacher. On . he lived. Though he was certainly con- 
the great themes of repentance, justifi- , scientious in the attitude which he as- 
cation, redemption, he was often so bold sumed, he became satisfied, before his 
and fervent that his words would seem death, as many of his friends were at 
to penetrate the hearts of his whole , the time, that Christian prudence would 
audience. In pastoral visitations also, | have dictated a somewhat different 
few men have been more indefatigable. 
He was mighty in prayer, too, especially 



course. 

In person he was rather slenderly 
among awakened sinners; and was an built, and was a little more than five feet 



efficient comforter, as well as a skillful 
guide, to the sick and dying. In short, 
he was a workman that needed not to be 
ashamed. 

In respect to his learning, — he might 
be said to be a thorough book-worm. 
He was an indefatigable student all his 



in height, with a pallid but expressive 
countenance, and a large Boman nose. 

He died after a protracted case of 
consumption, in 1807, at the age of fifty- 
three. In the approach of death he 
manifested all his wonted intellectual 
vigor, and a most cheerful and humble 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



259 



confidence in his Redeemer's merits. 
His family and his visitors received his 
dying benediction. His funeral services 
were conducted by the Rev. George 



Geistweit, of the German Reformed 
Church, and the Rev. Emanuel Rond- 
thalor, of the Moravian Church. — J. G. 
Sehmueker, in Sprague's Annual, 




REY. J. P. GOERINER. 



Rev. Goertner, a son of George and 
Mary Catherine (Westerman) Goertner, 
was born at Canajoharie, N. Y., on the 
26th of April, 1797. Uader the care of 
excellent parents, he was trained up, not 
ouly to habits of industry, but to a deep 
reverence for religion. From his early 
childhood he seems to have been the 
subject of religious impressions, which 
were gradually matured into a sound 
and healthful Christian experience. 
Though the neighborhood in which he 
lived afforded few opportunities of in- 
tellectual culture, yet his naturally vig- 
orous mind and intense desire for knowl- 
edge overcame the difficulties incident 
to his situation, and put him very early 
upon a course of successful mental ap- 
plication. Some of his early years were 
spent upon a farm, and, for a short time, 
he was engaged in mercantile pursuits; 
but, as he became more deeply im- 
pressed with the spiritual destitution of 
the land, he could not resist the convic- 
tion that it was his duty to devote him- 
self to the Christian ministry. Having 
made his worldly arrangements with 
reference to this, he left his father's 
house on the day that he reached his 
twentieth year, and went to Schenectady, 
where he entered the Grammar School 
of Union College, then under the care 
of that eminent teacher, the Rev. D. H. 
Barnes. 

What his standing was in the school 
may be inferred from the following tes- 
timony which Dr. Barnes, at a later 



period, rendered concerning him: — "I 
soon found that Mr. Goertner was a 
young man of unusual strength of char- 
acter: ere long he was the pattern of 
my school, and the admiration of my 
acquaintances." While he was an un- 
commonly diligent and successful stu- 
dent, he was eminently faithful in the 
keeping of his own heart, and in the 
discharge of all his religious duties. 

In fif teeen months after his admission 
to the Preparatory Department, he en- 
tered the Freshman class of Union Col- 
lege; and, during his whole collegiate 
course, was distinguished alike for his 
rapid progress in study and exemplary 
Christian deportment. He graduated 
in the autumn of 1822. 

In October succeeding his graduation 
he entered, as theological student, the 
Hartwick Seminary, of which Rev. Dr. 
Hazelius was at that time principal. 
Here he remained one year, and then 
removed to the city of New York, with 
the view of completing his studies un- 
der the direction of the Rev. F. C. 
Schaeffer, D. D., whom he, in turn, aid- 
ed in his official duties. Dr. Schaeffer 
writes thus concerning him: — "He de- 
clared, with all the fervor of pious elo- 
quence, the counsel of God, and gave 
the most edifying manifestations of his 
improvement and promise as a Minister 
of the Gospel. Justly did he excite 
warm expectations in the hearts of 
many zealous laborers in our Lutheran 
Zion." 



260 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



At the close of the winter he was 
called home by the dangerous illness of 
a younger brother, and arrived in time 
to minif*ter to him the consolations of 
the Gospel and witness his peaceful de- 
parture. A short time before this he 
had followed to the grave two much 
loved sisters. But, though his heart 
was deeply smitten by these bereave- 
ments, occurring in such rapid succes- 
sion, he was evidently growing in spir- 
itual wisdom in this school of affliction. 
About this time also some symptoms of 
pulmonary disease appeared in himself, 
which it was impossible that he should 
overlook; but he resolved to go forward 
to his work with whatever of health and 
strength might be spared to him, and to 
hold himself in readiness to be with- 
drawn from it at the will of his Master. 

He was received as a licentiate of the 
New York Ministerium at its meeting in 
1824. His first official labors were per- 
formed on a missionary tour within the 
bounds of the New York Ministerium. 
On this tour he visited parts of New 
Jersey, and many of the Western and 
Northern Counties of the state of New 
York, and also many persons belonging 
to the Lutheran Church, scattered in 
various parts of Upper and Lower Can- 
ada. He was engaged on this mission 
for one year, and his labors were at- 
tended by a rich blessing. 

On Jan. 3, 1827, Mr. Goertner was in- 
stalled as pastor of the church in Johns- 
town, N. Y., the Kev. Drs. Hazelius and 
Lintner performing the services on the 
occasion. This church he found in an 
extremely depressed state; but, under 
his faithful and laborious ministry, it 
very soon began to recover itself, and to 
evince more and more of both activity 
and spirituality. Meanwhile, his own 
heart was greatly refreshed and comfort- 
ed by the manifest blessing of God up- 
on his labors. 



But the bright hopes that were 
formed in respect to his continued use- 
fulness here were not destined to be rea- 
lized. His health soon began very per- 
ceptibly to fail. Within a few months 
after he had entered upon his labors, it 
became apparent that he was the sub- 
ject of a very serious malady; and, in ac- 
cordance with the best medical advice, 
he determined to intermit his labors for 
a season, and try the effect of foreign 
travel. He was himself doubtful 
whether he should be spared to return 
to his congregation; and, in view of this 
uncertainty, he took leave of them in a 
very pathetic and impressive discourse 
from the words: — "Only let your con- 
versation be as becometh the Gospel of 
Christ; that, whether I come and see 
you, or else be absent, I may hear of 
your affairs, that ye stand fast in one 
spirit, with one mind, striving together 
for the faith of the Gospel." The Dis- 
course was listened to with the deepest 
attention and solemnity, as being prob- 
ably the last that would ever be pro- 
nounced by the same lips in their hear- 
ing. The parting between him and 
them was characterized by the utmost 
tenderness; and so deeply was he inter- 
ested for their spiritual well-being, that, 
on his arrival in the city of New York, 
prior to his embarkment, he addressed 
to them a most affectionate letter, full of 
wise and Christian counsel, urging them 
to recognize the hand of God in the af- 
fliction that had overtaken them, and to 
be faithful in the discharge of all their 
duties, especially those which their pe- 
culiar situation devolved upon them. 

Agreeably to his previous arrange- 
ments, he sailed from New York in the 
ship Josephine for Belfast, where he ar- 
rived safely, though his health, during 
the passage was very precarious. But 
neither his bodily infirmities nor the 
perils of the ocean ever caused his confi- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



261 



dence in God to falter for an hour. The 
diary which he kept during this period 
shows that he was habitually in a happy 
frame of feeling, and never failed to rec- 
ognize God's gracious Providence even 
in the most common passing events. 

After making a short visit to Great 
Britain, he proceeded to the Continent, 
where he passed a little time at several 
of the most important points, and then 
went to spend the winter 1827-8 at 
Eome. Here, notwithstanding his 
great physical debility, he was coustant- 
]y employed in curious investigations, 
the results of which were published in a 
series of letters in the New York Com- 
mercial Advertiser, and attracted great 
attention. 

Mr. Goertuer left Rome April 28, 
1828, with his health apparently some- 
what improved, intending to return, 
with as little delay as possible, to his 
native country. But before he had pro- 
ceeded far, there was a return of his un- 
favorable symptoms, in view of which 
he felt obliged to give up all hopes of 
recovery. On his arrival in France, be- 
ing assured that his increased prostra- 
tion was simply the result of fatigue. 



he expressed the hope that he might at 
least be able to reach his native land 
and die among his kindred. This de- 
sire was mercifully granted to him. He 
availed himself o^ an early opportunity 
to embark for the United States, and, 
after a long and tedious passage, arrived 
at New York, Aug. 5. He was imme- 
diately taken to the house of his friend 
and former instructor, the Rev. -Dr. 
Schaeffer, and, under the kind atten- 
tions which he there received, he soon 
rallied so far as to make a journey to 
the home of his youth. He had so much 
strength as to be able that fall to attend 
the meeting of Synod; but this was the 
last time that he ever ventured to go 
any distance from home. After this he 
declined rap' 'ly, and it became mani- 
fest to himself and his friends that he 
must soon put off the earthly house of 
this tabernacle. He contemplated the 
prospect with calm satisfaction, and 
showed clearly that he regarded dying 
as nothing less than going home. His 
brief career was closed at his father's 
house in Canajoharie, Feb. 27, 1829.— 
Sprague. 




REY. JOHN ERNEST GOETWATER. 



Notwithstanding the implacable and 
indefatigable opposition of the clerical 
bigots in New Amsterdam, and to their 
infinite chagrin and dismay, the long- 
suffering Lutherans had, in June, 1657, 
the inexpressible joy of welcoming their 
promised pastor. It was the Rev. John 
Ernest Goetwater, who was the first Lu- 
theran minister to visit the banks of the 
Hudson. He had been sent out by the 
Lutheran Consistory of Amsterdam to 
minister to their suffering brethren in 



the New Netherlands, two congregations 
having been by this time organized, one 
at New Amsterdam (New York) and one 
at Beverswycke (Albany). 

The reception accorded by the civil 
and ecclesiastical authorities to this ser- 
vant of Christ, coming into this vast 
wilderness on the sole peaceful mission 
of dispensing the Gospel to humble 
souls whose cry had gone across the sea, 
was infamous, not to say inhuman, and, 
even for that day, without the shadow 



262 



AMEEIGAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of an excuse or extenuation. And it is 
strange that while every popular his- 
toid expatiates on the wrongs endured 
by the Quakers and Baptists of Massa- 
chusetts about this time, so little refer- 
ence is made to the more cruel, unre- 
lenting and utterly indefensible perse- 
cutions inflicted upon the Lutherans on 
the Hudson. This anomaly may in a 
measure be accounted for by the quiet 
patience with which, according to the 
spirit of Christianity, they bore their 
sufferings, seeking redress with the gen- 
eral government rather than resorting to 
reckless agitation or revolution. 

An impartial historian, O'Callaghan, 
gives the following account: "Reli- 
gious excitement now took the place of 
political. * * * The Dutch clergy- 
men immediately informed the authori- 
ties. Dominie Goetwater was cited be- 
fore them and forbidden to exercise his 
calling. Messrs. Megapolensis and 
Drisius demanded that he should be 
sent back to Holland in the same ship 
in which he had arrived. He was or- 
dered to quit the province accordingly. 
Sickness, however, prevented his com- 
pliance with this harsh and unchristian 
mandate. He was, therefore, put 'on 
the limits of the city,' and finally forced 
to embark for Holland," which decree 
went into execution Oct. 16, the Luther- 
ans protesting in vain. 

Though not allowed to conduct any 
public services, the presence of a pas- 
tor for several months among the dis- 
tressed and desolate flock of Lutherans, 
must have in various ways proved a 
blessing to them. It is doubtful, as he 
was not allowed to exercise his calling, 
whether he could even baptize their 
children, as the law required those to 
be presented by their parents in the Re- 
formed Church, and he was closely 
watched with the suspicion and fear bred 
of bigotry, yet he could not be prevent- 



ed from visiting the peole at their homes, 
holding domestic worship with them 
and in personal ministrations offering 
them the counsels and consolations of 
the Grospel. For even this boon the 
hearts of the Lutheran confessors would 
feel unutterably grateful. 

Their bitter persecutors were neither 
ashamed of their heartless procedure, 
nor content with the success of the ef- 
forts they had instigated to prevent the 
settlement of a Lutheran pastor. An 
exulting report of it must be forwarded 
to the home authorities. In this they 
glory in their shame and gloat over the 
triumph by which it was crowned at the 
hands of the provincial government. 
No Lutheran minister should be al- 
lowed to preach the faith of the Refor- 
mation within the limits of their juris- 
diction, nor even by his presence to 
pollute this soil sacred to Calvinism. 
This report, dated Aug. 6, 1657, is pre- 
served in Volume III. of the Docu- 
mentary History of New York," pages 
103-108, and is an interesting speci- 
men of the malignant spirt of persecu- 
tion. It is addressed to the Classis of 
Amsterdam, "fathers and brothers in 
Christ Jesus." It acknowledges their 
fatherly care "and the trouble taken by 
them to prevent the injuries which 
threatens this community from the en- 
croachments of heretical spirits." "We 
being animated and cheered by your let- 
ters," it proceeds to state, "hoped for 
the best, though dreading the worst, 
which even now has arrived, to the 
especial discontent and disapprobation 
of the congregation of this place, yea, of 
the whole land, even of the English." 
"We have already the snake in our bo- 
They certainly had not warmed 



som. 



it. "We demanded also that the noble 
Lord's Regent should send the Luther- 
an minister back in the same ship in 
which he arrived * * * in order to 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



put a stop to their work, which they 
seemed disposed to push forward with 
a hard Lutheran pate." To their credit 
be it recorded these malign zealots had 
some appreciation of the qualities of a 



Lutheran head, which may have been 
one cause of their consternation when a 
Lutheran minister set foot on Manhat- 
tan.— Z)r. Wolf. 




KEY. J. G. GOETTMAN, D.D. 



Dr. Goettman was bom at Chambers- 
burg, Pa. He graduated at Pennsylva- 
nia College in 1859, finished his theo- 
logical course at the Gettysburg Semin- 
ary in 1861, and was ordained by the 
West Pennsylvania Synod the following 
year. He served for a short time a Lu- 
theran congregation at Dickinson, Pa., 
and on the last Sunday of November, 
1863, he took charge of a little band of 
Lutherans, who had just organized 
themselves into a congregation in Al- 
legheny, Pa., mainly through the influ- 
ence of Rev. W. A. Passavant, D. D. 
He is still serving this congregation. 
Practically he is its first pastor, and it 
is his first permanent field of labor. 
He has now a congregation numbering 
about 500 members, has a church prop- 
erty valued at $60,000, and has been the 



means of starting a number of very 
promising missions in and about these 
two cities. He spent most of the year 
1878 in traveling in Europe. His pas- 
toral work has been so pressing and has 
taken up so much of his time that he 
has not been able to do any literary work 
outside his preparation for the pulpit. 
He has devoted, and still devotes much 
of his time to the interest of his church 
in Western Pennsylvania. There is'not 
a single congregation in this part of the 
state in which he has not done work of 
this kind. He is a trustee of Pennsyl- 
vania College and also a member of the 
Gettysburg Seminary Board. He was 
president of the Pittsburg Synod of the 
General Council from 1867—1870. He 
is of German descent and his parents, 
indeed all his ancestors, were Lutherans. 



264 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 




BEV. GEOBGE D. GOTWALD. 



r Bev. George Daniel Gotwald, second 
son of Luther A. and Mary Gotwald, 
descended from Christian ancestry, in 
which was a succession of ministers, 
and never threw away his birthright. 
Bdrn at Shippensburg, Pa., Sept. 18, 
1862, and consecrated from his birth, he 
was early given to God in holy baptism 
by his parents, and received at the font 
his Christian name. Many times dur- 
ing the past few years, as I looked into 
his face, beaming with the very sun- 
shine of God, has that consecration 
come to me, and I was reminded of 
Paul's words to Timothy: "When I 
call to remembrance the unfeigned faith 
that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy 
grandmother Lois, and thy mother 
Eunice, and I am persuaded in thee al- 
so." As was said of Bichard Baxter, 
so could it be said of him, that "there 
was probably never a day in all his life 
when he did not love the Lord Jesus 
Christ." On Easter Sabbath, 1876, he 
took upon himself the vows that his 
parents had made for him, being con- 
firmed by his father at St. Paul's church, 
York, Pa. 

In early childhood he gave evidence 
of a call to the ministry, and in April, 
1874, at the age of eleven years and 



seven months, entered upon a course of 
preparatory training at the York County 
Academy. In 1878 he entered Pennsyl- 
vania College at Gettysburg, Pa., and 
graduated with honor in 1882, going' di- 
rectly to the Theological Seminary of 
the General Synod, and completing the 
full three years' course. During sever- 
al visits to the Seminary by the Secre- 
taries of the Board of Home Missions, 
his deep interest in the Western field 
was manifested to them, and he ex- 
pressed his readiness to go wherever 
the Board would direct. The mission 
at Salina, Kans., was assigned tq^him. 
He was licensed by the Synod of West 
Pennsylvania, at Shippensburg, Pa., 
the place of his birth, in 1884, and in 
July, 1885, was married to Miss Mary 
B. Baugher, of York, Pa., going directly 
to his new and untried field of labor in 
Kansas. His ordination took place at 
the convention of the Synod of West 
Pennsylvania, at St. Paul's church, 
York, Pa., in October, 1885. His work 
at Salina was eminently successful, 
owned and honored of God. His influ- 
ence in the city and surrounding coun- 
try was marked as the testimonials of 
love and tenderness, and the presence 
of a delegation of friends coming nearly 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



265 



two hundred miles to the memorial ser- 
vices, strongly testify. This congrega- 
tion at one time placed upon his finger 
a plain solid gold ring, such as a bride- 
groom gives his bride, emblematic of 
unending love. As they gave it they told 
him they had selected such gift as 
"appropriate because he was married to 
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

In November, 1888, at personal sacri- 
fice, he accepted the call of the congre- 
gation and Board to the Children's 
Memorial Lutheran Church, Kansas 
City, Mo., and had just completed a 
year of most successful labor when his 
body was stricken. He was a young 
man of far more than ordinary judg- 
ment, and of intense application to his 
work. His every movement evidenced 
the feeling — "I must work the works 
of Him that sent me, while it is day— 
the night Cometh." The love of Christ 
constrained him in all his work. It was 
the moving, all pervading, all anima- 
ting principle of his life. Having the 
mind which was in Christ Jesus, he 
was pure. "Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." He was 
pure in heart, and now he sees God. As 
a little boy, as a youth, as a student at 
college and seminary, as a minister of 
Christ, his words and looks and works 
were pure. He despised anything of 
story or song or anecdote which had in 
it or about it the least taint of the im- 
pure or- the low or the doubtful, and he 
turned away from these things as from 
a scourge. As was said by one of his 
classmates: "In all the years of his 
course he never uttered a word that he 
would have been ashamed to speak in 
the presence of his mother." This con- 
straining love of our blessed Lord made 
him unselfish. He lived for others. 
"For even Christ pleased not himself" 
was an incentive to him, for he craved 
the mind that was in Christ Jesus. 
34 



Copied ill his own handwriting, and 
signed with his initials, he placed upon 
the mirror of his dressing bureau, that 
he might see it every morning, the sen- 
timent: 

"Count that day lost 
Whose low descending sun 

Views from thy hand 
No noble action done." 

And to him no day was lost, for every 
day witnessed some noble act x3erformed 
for the glory of God and the good of 
human-kind. Somebody was cheered 
or helped, or fed or clothed, through 
his instrumentality, and that of his de- 
voted wife — the hand-maid of the Lord 
— every day. In their home they lived 
with careful economy^though they 
could have indulged in luxuries — that 
they might have more to give to the 
cause of Christ and the bettering of 
the race. There is scarcely a mission 
church in the West, neither a mission- 
ary's home, that does not bear a mark 
of their loving interest. There never 
came to their door the cry for help that 
was unheeded. Though his splendid 
abilities and attractive qualities of 
mind, heart and person, would have se- 
cured him prominent places in the East, 
the same unselfish love of Christ con- 
strained him to say: "I can better go 
to the frontier than others, as God has 
made it possible for me io sustain my- 
self to a greater extent than they." 
Though blessed with means, he and his 
noble wife were not exalted thereby, 
but looked upon their jDossessions as 
faithful stewards look upon what is in- 
trusted to them — as gifts of God to be 
used for His glory. He was a faithful 
and wise steward, whom his Lord, when 
he came, found watching, his loins 
girded about and his light burning. He 
had set his house in order. He had 
made every detail of preparation for 
the leaving of the earthly home and 



266 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



church below to enter upon the joys of 
the new home and church triumphant. 
"His works do follow him." And oh! 
what a work he has done! what instru- 
mentalities he has set on foot for the 
glory of God and the upbuilding of 
Zion! Only eternity will reveal the 
fulness of his short five years' ministry. 
Had he not with unselfish devotion 
taken a Western mission, it is doubtful 
whether our new and promising college 
at Atchison, Kans,, could have been 
what it now is, and surely could not 
have been what it will become. This 
institution was on his mind and heart 
continually, by day and by night. In 
ascending prayers or falling tears, in 
dreams and waking hours, in labor and 
in gifts, our "Beloved Midland," as he 
was accustomed to call it, was inwrought 
into his very soul. Could his great 
heart have been probed, "Midland Col- 
lege" and the mission work would have 
been found at its very centre. As Dr. 
Miller carried Hartwick, — as Drs. 
Schmucker and Krauth and Baugher 
carried Gettysburg — as Drs. Keller and 
Sprecher carried Wittenberg — Kurtz 
and Zeigler and Born, the Missionary 
Institute — Harkey and Springer, 
Springfield, 111., — Tressler, Carthage 
and Bitttle, Roanoke — so did this young 
soldier of Christ carry "Midland" on 
his very soul. He felt the college an 
absolute necessity for the advancement 
and upbuilding of our Lutheran church 
in the West, and when he received ad- 
verse replies to his letters and appeals 
sent to our men and women of wealth, 
he was grieved in his very heart of 
hearts, and said to me, "Oh, brother B., 
I cannot understand it." Into eternity 
he carried this child of the Church, for 
when his feet touched the waters of the 
river of death, his tongue spoke of its 
interests. He was willing to live for it, 
or, if need be, die for it. To his wife 



he said: "May be 'twill be better for 
'Midland' if I die than if I live," and 
"God's will be done." 

On opening his last will and testa- 
ment, written, signed and witnessed on 
Aug. 6, 1889, it was found that he be- 
queathed 124,000 for the endowment of 
the President's chair at Midland Col- 
lege. And all this, too, being but 
twenty-seven years of age, and not in 
connection with the faculty, seeking no 
place, neither preferment, but only 
longing for the success of the institu- 
tion. 

As was his interest in Christian edu- 
cation, so was it also in the mission 
work, and for every object which had 
for its end the advancement of the king- 
dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. As Secretary of the Synod of 
Kansas, and chairman of some of its 
most important committees, he was in- 
defatigable in urging system and order 
in every department of the work. As 
Secretary of the Board of Trustees of 
Midland College, and Assistant Secre- 
tary of the General Synod, no labor 
seemed too great, if only he could be of 
service to the church of his love. 

As a preacher he manifested the same 
spirit of earnestness and wisdom. His 
theme was Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
fied. He longed to win men and women 
to Christ. Among the last words he ut- 
tered on earth were : "The gospel !— oh, 
the gospel of Christ! It is the power — 
the power to win the nations." In be- 
ing with him, I have thought of Cow- 
per's description of the true preacher: 

"Simple, grave, sincere ; 
In doctrine uncorrupt ; in language plain, 
And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste. 
And natural in gesture ; much impress'd 
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, 
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
May feel it too. Affectionate in look, 
And tender in address, as well becomes 
A messenger of grace to guilty men". 

— 5. B. Barnitz, 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



267 




REV. LUTHER A. GOTWALD, D.D. 



As early as 1750 there were 60,000 
German Lutherans in Pennsylvania. 
This surprisingly large number of the 
same faith and the same Fatherland 
populated the fertile valleys of the cen- 
tral and southeastern part of the state. 
Their colonies extended from the Sus- 
quehanna and its tributaries to the 
Delaware, and their skilful husbandry 
converted the whole tract into a gar- 
den. 

To their sturdy characteristics and 
sterling merits as a people, can be traced 
the glorious heritage which our Luther- 
an church enjoyed in the early years 
of the present century, as well as her 
present supremacy in that grand old 
keystone state. By their fidelity to 
their mother church and by their con- 
scientious care*of their children, there 
was developed a strong, vigorous and 
devoted membership, and a consecrated, 
Godly and powerful ministry. From 
this fine ancestral source sprang the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 



His ancestry on both his father and 
his mother's side was distinctly Ger- 
man. At an early day they settled in 
York Co., Pa., and in their religious 
faith were ardent Lutherans. His 
father was Rev. Daniel Gotwald, who, 
in his day, was one of the most earnest, 
able and eloquent German Lutheran 
preachers of this country. Frequently, 
immense congregations gathered from 
far and near to hear him preach, and 
often the entire vast multitude was 
melted to tears, and many were moved 
to ask what they must do to be saved. 
He was especially faithful as a catechist 
of the young and by this time-honored 
Lutheran custom accomplished great 
good. 

Soundly adhering to the Augsburg 
confession as the symbol of the Luther- 
an faith, he left an abiding and posi- 
tive Christian and Lutheran wherever 
his ministry was prosecuted. 

The mother of the subject of this 
sketch was a woman of pr^-eminent 



268 



AMEKICA]* LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES: 



piety and of transcendent faith. Her 
intellectual endowments were of a high 
order, but her education was quite lim- 
ited. She was a model Christian mother, 
devoting herself nobly to the training 
of her children for Christ and his 
church. She was an admirable disci- 
plinarian. She ruled gently, yet firm- 
ly, quietly yet effectively. Her daily 
habit, after the birth of her first child 
down to the close of her long life of 
eighty years, was to retire for prayer 
for God's blessing upon herself and her 
family. After her husband's death a 
double duty was upon her. This she 
promptly assumed, and the spiritual 
and temporal care of her eight father- 
less children was far from slight. Daily 
she conducted God's worship in the 
family, reading from his German Bible 
and offering prayer in the same rich 
tongue. 

Luther Alexander Gotwald, the sub- 
ject of this paper, was born Jan. 31, 1833, 
and was the seventh child of eleven 
children constituting the family. In 
infancy he was baptized by Rev. Prof. 
Dr. S. S. Schmucker, of Gettysburg, 
and in his sixteenth year he confirmed 
his baptismal vows as a member of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church. Born of 
Godly parents, and reared under Chris- 
tian discipline, he steadily and constant- 
ly matured his Christian life. He can, 
therefore, point to no special date of 
"conversion." To no Pauline mid-day 
vision nor to any great spiritual change 
either of heart or life, occurring at some 
one time. He believes himself to have 
been regenerated in baptism and that 
that new life, then so graciously begun, 
has been nurtured and matured by a 
Godly home and the means of grace in 
the church. 

His father died in 1843, leaving his 
widow and eight children to survive 
him. Of these, Luther was fifth in age 



of the number then living, being but 
ten years old. The family thus bereaved 
was left destitute and dependent upon 
their own exertions. But God was- 
faithful to his promises and always did 
he open up the way of relief, and sup- 
ply the wants of the widow and the 
fatherless. The older children soon se- 
cured positions in which they could con- 
tribute toward the family comfort. Lu- 
ther, when about eleven years of age, 
was employed as errand boy in a store. 
In a few years ho was clerk with in- 
creased wages. Later he learned the 
printers' trade, and with the larger 
wages thus earned, not only kept him- 
self, but nobly aided his mother in the 
family support. 

At his very birth he had been conse- 
crated by his Godly parents to the work 
of the Gospel ministry. Constantly 
was this high calling held up before 
him as his life work. One of the very 
last acts of his father, as he lay upon his 
dying bed, was to call Luther and his 
mother to his bedside, and, placing his 
attenuated hand upon the lad's head, 
devote him to the holy work of preach- 
ing Christ, and then with his dying 
breath he charged the mother never to 
cease her efforts and prayers until she 
would see him in the high office to 
which he had thus been given. That 
dying act was never forgotten by the 
boy, and that holy consecration was not 
disregarded. From that moment he de- 
termined, with God's help, to assume 
his father's mantle, thus dropped in 
death, and to succeed him as Christ's 
ambassador among men. 

That Godly wife and mother also did 
all in her power to secure the dying 
father's wish, and she lived to see, not 
only this son, but also two of her other 
sons and two grandsons and a son-in-law 
in the holy office. Thus richly did God 
answer His faithful servants' prayers. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



269 



Luther, after various experiences, be- 
gan his preparation for the ministry in 
1852, as a student in the Preparatory 
Department of Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, O. Here he remained three 
years and a half, struggling with great 
poverty, and enduring many privations, 
until the close of the Sohpomore year 
in the collegiate course. Providential 
reasons then determined him to com- 
plete his course at Pennsylvania Col- 
lege at Gettysburg. This he did, grad- 
uating in 1857, and taking one of the 
honors of his class. The next two years 
were spent in the Theological Seminary 
at Gettysburg, from which he went 
forth as a graduate in 1859. Soon after 
his graduation, and after being licensed 
by the Synod of West Pennsylvania, he 
became pastor of the Lutheran church 
at Shippensburg, Pa., where he remained 
until 1863. His next pastoral field was 
at Lebanon, Pa., where for satisfactory 
causes he only spent two years. In 
1865 he accepted a call to the First En- 
glish Lutheran church at Dayton, O. 
Here, at the end of four years, he was 
compelled to resign. His health was 
utterly broken, and a rest of a year was 
necessitated. In 1870 he accepted a 
call to the Lutheran church at Cham- 
bersburg, Pa., where he labored until 
1874. In April, 1874, he became pas- 
tor of St. Paul's Lutheran church of 
York, Pa., where with constant and 
great success, he prosecuted the work of 
the ministry for twelve years. 

Lender special providential guidance 
he was led at the close of the year 1885, 
to become pastor of a struggling mis- 
sion enterprise in Springfield, O., an en- 
terprise which is now the large and 
flourishing Second Lutheran church of 
that city. Lender his ministry it soon 
rose into a large, self-supporting and 
most influential church. 

This closed the record of his work in 



the active ministry, covering a period of 
nearly thirty years. In all of these 
places Mr. Gotwald was eminently suc- 
cessful, being honored of God with a 
useful career. His ministry was char- 
acterized in each pastorate, by large ad- 
ditions to the church and a most marked 
deepening of the spirituality of his con- 
gregations. He was ever noted as a 
pre-eminent pastor, with fine social tal- 
ent, affable manners, warm heart and 
winning ways. As a pastor he was 
known as one whom every one loved and 
who had the rare power to make all feel 
that he was their true and especial 
friend. As a preacher Dr. Gotwald i^ 
well known, and in his pulpit efforts 
has few superiors. 

Scholarly, thoughtful, spiritual, earn- 
nest, tender and convicting, his preach- 
ing is at once both interesting and edi- 
fying, and in his earlier and stronger 
years, it rose to genuine eloquence and 
swayed his hearers resistlessly. As an 
experienced and successful pastor. Dr. 
Gotwald had specially manifested the 
characteristics needed in one whose 
work, as to training others for the min- 
istry, and hence, in 1888, when the 
chair of Practical Theology at Witten- 
berg Seminary, Springfield, O., became 
vacant, he was unanimously chosen by 
the board to fill it. In this new position 
he has given entire satisfaction both to 
students and Board of Directors. His 
chair embraces Homiletics, Church His- 
tory, Pastoral Theology, Biblical Criti- 
cism, Polity, Apologetics and yet other 
important branches. 

In all probability he will continue in 
this high work of training young men 
for the Gospel ministry, for which he is 
so aptly fitted both by gifts and ex- 
perience, during the remainder of his 
days. 

Dr. Gotwald received his title of Doc- 
tor of Divinity in 1874, from his Alma 



270 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Mater. He has been a prolific writer, 
and among some of his published 
writings are the following: Sunday 
School Sermon, 1867. Proposed Re- 
ligious Amendment to our National Con- 
stitution, Quarterly Review, I., 221; "Al- 
ways thankful," Thanksgiving Sermon. 
1873; "The Salvability of the Heathen," 
Quarterly Review, III., 411 ; Sermon at the 
funeral of Chas. A. Morris, York, Pa., 
1874; Sermon at the funeral of Mrs. 
Sarah Hay, York, 1874; "The Develop- 
ment and Direction of Lay Work," (the 
third lecture on the Rice Foundation, 
Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, 
1874), Quarterly Review, IV., 369; "Pas- 
toral Letter to the Members of St. Paul's 
Evangelical Lutheran Church," York, 
Pa., 1875; "Our History and Our Suc- 
cess," Sermon, York, 1876; "The Divine 
Rule concerning Giving, or the Chris- 
tian Use of Property," sermon delivered 
before the York and Adams county Con- 
ference of the Synod of West Pennsyl- 
vania, 1877; Memorabilia concerning the 
Rev. Lucas Rauss, one of the early 
ministers of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in America, including an ac- 
count of his ancestors and descendants, 
1878; "The Apparition at Endor," Quar- 
terly Review, YIII, 321; "The Human 
Condition of a Good Prayer Meeting," 
Quarterly Review, IX., 47; "Church Or- 
ders, or the Necessity of a Right Call to 
the Ministry," Holman Lecture on Ar- 
ticle XIV., Augsburg Confession, Quar- 
terly Review, IX, 85; "A Leaf from Home 
Missionary Life," 1881; "Luther 
Voices from Coburg to the Lutheran 
Ministry," an ordination Sermon before 
the Synod of West Pennsylvania, 1883; 
"A Pastor's Address to his People," a 
tract; "Hindrances to a Christian Life," 
a tract; "The Reformation the Work of 
God," a sermon, York, 1883; "The Min- 
istry Manifesting Divine Truth," a ser- 
mon before the West Pennsylvania Syn- 



od, York, 1883; "The College and the 
Nation," 1884; "Holy Memories— Rev. 
J. C. Deininger," 1883; "Sunset at Noon- 
day," funeral sermon, York, 1885; In- 
augural Address: "Practical Theology 
as an Educating Force in Ministerial 
Training," Wittenberg, 1889. 

In his theological position, Dr. Got- 
wald may be classed among the Luther- 
an Conservatives ; accepting heartily and 
fully the Augsburg Confession as the 
very best expression of Christion Doc- 
trine that has ever been promulgated; 
believing in the use of some Liturgical 
forms in public worship, and holding 
firmly to the historic faith and usages 
of the Lutheran church as, all in all, the 
purest and best that are taught and em- 
ployed. 

Besides the active pastorates and the 
professor's chair, Dr. Gotwald has filled 
many positions of trust and responsibil- 
ity in the church. He was a director of 
Wittenberg College from 1865-9, trustee 
of his alma mater from 1873-85, Direc- 
tor of Theological Seminary, Gettys- 
burg, 1871-80; Member of the Board of 
Church Extension since 1874; Mem^ 
ber of the Board of Home Missions 
from 1881; President of West Penn- 
sylvania Synod, 1873-6. He has been a 
frequent delegate to the General Synod 
and has always taken a leading part in 
her deliberations. 

Dr. Gotwald was married to Mary E. 
King, of Springfield, O., Oct. 13, 1859. 
She has been to him a blessed helper 
in his entire ministerial career and to 
her is indirectly due much of his minis- 
terial success. Their family numbers 
nine children, seven sons and two 
daughters. The seventh son died in in- 
fancy. The fourth and sixth sons, Lu- 
ther A. and William W. aged respective- 
ly fifteen and seventeen, died while 
prosecuting their collegiate studies for 
the ministry. Another, the second son, 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



271 



Rev. George D. Gotwald, died in Kan- 
sas City, Mo., Jan. 12, 1890, after a min- 
istry of four and a half years. He was 
a man of superior Christian character 
and pre-eminent pastoral qualifications. 
His short ministry was remarkably use- 
ful and gave bright promise of still bet- 
ter things, when he was cut off from his 
labors at the early age of twenty-seven. 
Still another son, Frederick G., is at 
present a student at Wittenberg Theo- 



logical Seminary, preparing for the 
ministry of the Church of his fathers. 

All the children are members of the 
Lutheran Church, and are living godly 
and Christian lives, as becomes their 
Christian baptism and training. 

Dr. Gotwald is now (1890) fifty-seven 
years old. His constitution is vigorous 
and healthy, and many years of his 
highly useful life are, doubtless, yet to 



come. 




REV. JOHANNES A. A. GRABAU. 



Rev. Johannes Andreas August Gra- 
bau was born March 18th, 1804, near 
Magdeburg, Prussia. His parents were 
Johann Andreas Grabau and Anna 
Dorothea. On March 25th he was bap- 
tized by the ("Unirten") Rev. H. L. S. 
Walther. In 1809, when five years old, 
he was sent to school, and on Palm 
Sunday, 1818, he confirmed in a class of 
twenty-five. Immediately after his con- 
firmation he entered the Dom-Gym- 
nasium at Magdeburg, where he con- 
tinued with some interruption until he 
entered the University at Halle in 1825. 
At Halle he listened to the professors 
Dr. Niemeier, Dr. Weber, Dr. Weg- 
schneider. Dr. Gesenius, Prof. Marks, 
Dr. Raabe, Dr. Gruber, Dr. Jacobs, Dr. 
Gerlach, and Dr. Blauer, of the philo- 
sophical faculty. He graduated from 
the University on the 29th of June, 1829, 
with honor. After having spent some 
time at teaching school, he received a 
call to St. Andrew's Church at Erfurt, 
and was ordained to the holy ministry 
June, 17, 1834. He was installed June 
22, which was the fourth Sunday after 
Trinity. 

The labors of pastor Grabau were 
signally blessed at Erfurt, and the St. 



Andrew's church experienced a revival 
of spiritual life and activity under his 
self-denying efforts. 

He was married, July 15, 1834, to 
Miss Christiane Sophie, daughter of 
Johann Andreas Burggraf and his wife, 
Friedericke Louise Elizabeth. 

Pastor Grabau, being a loyal Luther- 
an, waa a strong opponent of the Prus- 
sian Union and the Agenda ; nor did he 
make a secret of his position in this 
matter, but boldly declared to his con- 
gregations that he found them to be 
contrary to the word of God and the 
Lutheran confessions. Having with- 
drawn from the Union he was deposed 
in 1837 and imprisoned in Heiligen- 
stadt, while his congregations were 
threatened with sharp police measures. 
After an imprisonment of about a year, 
during which time he lost his health, he 
was released on the condition that he 
would refrain from ministerial work, 
immigrate from Germany as soon as 
his health would permit. 

During the month of July, 1839, Pas- 
tor Grabau, together with about 1,000 
souls, mostly of his own congregation, 
left Hamburg with five American sail- 
ships over Hull and Liverpool to New 



,272 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



York,, where the vessel arrived after a 
stormy voyage and narrow escape from 
shipwreck, on Sept. 18. A few of his 
people settled in New York and Albany, 
while the greater part followed their pas- 
tor to Buffalo, where they arrived Oct. 
5. The first concern of these German 
refugees was to establish a Lutheran 
church and school. On Dec. 2, 1839, 
they organized the "Old Lutheran 
Church," and in March, 1840, the build- 
ing of the church was begun, in which 
their first services were held on Pente- 
cost of the same year. Three other con- 
gregations were soon added to the 
charge, viz.: one in Eden, Erie Co., one 
in Canada, about sixteen miles from 
Buffalo and one on the Genesee Canal. 
Besides his work as pastor of these four 
churches, he founded in 1840, a prepar- 
atory school in which he instructed a 
number of young men for the Gospel 
ministry, among who may be mentioned 



Rev. H. V. Bohr, Eev. Fr. Muller, Eev. 
Hermann Lange, and Eev. R. Schulz. In 
1845 pastor Grabau, together with Eev. 
Krause, Eev, Kindermann, and Eev. H. 
V. Eohr, organized the "Lutheran Synod 
of Buffalo," of which he was chosen the 
first president. After this Pastor Gra- 
bau's school became a synodical institu- 
tion, and a college building was erected, 
which was, dedicated as the "German 
Martin Luther College," Nov. 10, 1854. 
For thirty-seven years pastor Grabau 
served as professor at this school with- 
out receiving any pecuniary remunera- 
tion. After an exceptionally busy and 
self-sacrificing life this faithful servant 
of the Lord died at his home in Buffalo, 
N. Y., June 2, 1879, being at the time of 
his death over seventy-five years old, 
and having served the Trinity church 
at Buffalo for over forty years. — "Lebens- 
lauf des Erhw. J. A. A. Grabau/^ 




EEY. PEOF. A. L. GEAEBNEE. 



Prof. Augustus L. Graebner, profes- 
sor of New Testament Exegesis and 
Ecclesiastical History in the Theologi- 
cal Seminary of the Lutheran Synod of 
Wisconsin, was born in Michigan in 
1849. He is the son of Eev. J. H. P. 
Graebner, a Lutheran clergyman now 
residing in the state of Missouri. Mr. 
Graebner received his preparatory edu- 
cation in the parochial schools and an 
academy in St. Louis, Mo. His collegi- 
ate studies he pursued in Ft. Wayne, 
Ind., and his theological course he took 
in the Concordia Seminary at St. Louis. 
After his graduation from the seminary 
he taught three years in a St. Louis 
academy, and afterwards three years 
as professor of the Latin language 



at the Northwestern University at 
Watertown. In September, 1878, at 
the opening of the Theological Seniin- 
ary in Milwaukee, Wis., he was ap- 
pointed member of the faculty of this 
institution. Having received a call as 
assistant pastor of St. Matthew's church, 
he was ordained to the ministry on the 
first Sunday after Epixohany, in 1879, 
though still retaining his chair in the 
seminary. On Aug. 14, 1873, Mr. 
Graebner was married to Anna, a 
daughter of Eev. Prof. G. Schaller, of 
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. They 
have three sons. He is editor of the 
Gemeinde Blatt, which is the organ of 
the Synods of Wisconsin and Minneso- 
I ta. He has a large library, comprising 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



273 



professional and general works. Mr. 
Graebner is a devoted educational work- 
er. — History of Milwaukee. 

Mr. Graebner accepted a call in 1887 
as Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, which 
position he still occupies. He has pub- 
lished the following works: English 
Composition and Grammar; Dr. Mar- 
tin Luther, Lebensbild des Reformators; 



Das Leben Dr. Martin Luther's kurz 
erzaehlt; Joh. Sebastian Bach; Disy- 
nergistisch-rationalisirende Stellung der 
theologischen Facultaet zu Eostock; 
Enchiridion of M. Chemnitz; Die hei- 
ligen Zehn Gebote aus Dannhauer's Ka- 
techismusmilch erklaert und ausgelegt; 
Eins ist noth ; Seid stark in dem Herrn ; 
articles and series of articles in various 
theological magazines. 




EEY. EMANUEL GEEENWALD, D. D. 



EmanueJ Green wald, D. D., was "a 
good man and full of the Holy Ghost 
and of faith." He was a good boy, this 
carpenter's son, born January 13, 1811, 
who grew to man's estate in quiet Fred- 
erick, Md. His father's habit of read- 
ing Ai-ndt's True Christianity and Jay's 
Morning and Evening Exercises, and 
his mother's serious conversations with 
him about God and Chiist and his soul's 
salvation made a lasting impression on 
Emanuel. At two years of age he was 
consecrated to the ministry. At eight- 
een he was catechized and confirmed 

35 



in German. Previous to this he helped 
his father at farming and carpentering, 
and attended school a few winters, but 
now he became a private theological 
student of his pastor, the renowned 
Dr. David F. Schaeffer. During bis five 
years' tui ion this country boy walked 
14,000 miles in getting his education. 
It was of the most solid, orthodox stamp; 
the body of divinity which young 
Green wald became possessed of was no 
mere coat of mail with vitals of iron, but 
a living, breathing body with a substan- 
tial backbone and glowing heart. From 



274 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



his preceptor's study the candidate went 
into the country churches round about 
to preach repentance and faith. 

In 1831, equipped with the license of 
the Maryland Synod, and mounted upon 
"Old Pete," his whole wardrobe and 
library in the saddlebags, brave young 
Emanuel rode westward to distant Ohio. 
He settled at New Philadelphia, Tus- 
carawas Co., fifty- three miles north- 
west of Steubenville. Here he spent 
twenty years, doing the work of an 
evangelist in several counties. He built 
up ten congregations. Though in the 
saddle most of the time, he prosecuted 
his studies. He wrote an unpublished 
volume of "Evidences of Christianity." 
Though ordained by the German Joint 
Synod of Ohio, in 1836, his ministry was 
almost exclusively in English. This is 
shown by his participation in 1836, in the 
formation of the English Synod of Ohio. 
He was for some time the Synodical 
secretary, and Oct. 24, 1842, issued the 
first number of the Synodical weekly, 
the Lutheran Standard. From being 
president of the Board of Trustees of 
the new Capitol University, Columbas, 
Rev. Greenwald became, in 1851, pas- 
tor of what might be called the college 
church, the first English Lutheran 
church of Columbus. He was in the 
prime of life, of robust build, and in ex- 
cellent health. He was as successful 
in his town parish as in his country work. 
Through the Standard he fought the 
''New Measures" of the Observer, and for 
so mild a man, his ardor as a controver- 
sialist was astonishing. Yet, warrior 
as he was to the end, battling during 
his last days against vice. Atheism and 
Romanism, he never forfeited the re- 
spect of good men by coarseness of lan- 
guage or unseemly ebullitions of temper. 
Like John, he was a "son of thunder," 
and at the same time a "beloved dis- 
ciple." Yet he shrank from controversy 



within the church, especially in the sec- 
ond part of his life, from 1854, when he 
went east to become pastor of Christ 
Church, Easton, to 1885, when, Dec. 21, 
he died as pastor of Trinity, Lancaster. 
His Easton work brought him before 
the church as the model pastor, consci- 
entious, methodical, untiring, affable to 
all, ever ready to bind up the broken 
hearted, to give light to them that sit in 
darkness and in the shadow of death, 
and to guide the trembling inquirer into 
the way of peace. His sermons, which 
he now always wrote and delivered with 
a rapid but distinct enunciation, were 
solid, edifying discourses; his catechiza- 
tion thorough, well supported by scrip- 
tural citations; his missionary work ex- 
tensive. He nurtured the young life of 
the parish ; he took an active part in the 
Sunday school; he organized a congre- 
gation of colored people; he preached 
in a country village near by ; he collected 
large sums for defraying the parish 
debts. As president of the East Penn- 
sylvania synod, he stood at the head of 
his brethren and wore gracefully the 

D. D. conferred hj Pennsylvania College 
in 1859. 

Rendered uncomfortable by complica- 
tions growing out of the celebrated Ft. 
Wayne rupture, which gave rise to the 
establishment of a more strictly confess- 
ional body, the General Council, Dr. 
Greenwald in 1867 accepted a call which 
made him pastor of perhaps the largest 
English Lutheran parish in Pensylvania. 
On the solid foundations laid by his pre- 
decessors since 1729, Dr. Greenwald built 
up a congregation zealous in city mission 
work. Two swarms were sent out of the 
old hive — Grace Church, Rev. C. E. 
Haupt, pastor, and Christ Church, Rev. 

E. L. Reed, pastor. Besides this Trinity 
people renovated their large church, 
and erected the most complete parish 
and Sunday-school building in the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



275 



Synod. The Doctor's work so grew on 
him, and his infirmities increased, that 
he called to his help in the parent church 
Rev. C. L. Fry, who succeeded him. 

Visitiug from house to house, seeking 
the lost sheep and comforting the faith- 
ful, preaching first in his own missions 
and then to a neglected German Church 
out in the country, riding about on the 
Monday following communion days to 
administer the sacrament to the many 
aged and sick, the Doctor won so firm 
a hold on all classes in Lancaster that 
the city made great lamentation when 
his ten years' struggle with agonizing 
disease ended in death. 

While at Lancaster he guided the 
deliberations of the Pennsylvania Synod, 
seeming less a president than a bishop, 
as, attired in his flowing black robes, he 
preached the Word and laid holy hands 
on generations of young candidates. 

Here too he blossomed out into author- 
ship, and enriched the literature of the 
English Lutheran Church of the world 
with a series of practical, doctrinal, 
devotional, and controversial works 
which constitute his abiding monument. 
The Doctor was an easy and copious 
writer. His style is lucid, terse Anglo 
Saxon. His writings are bathed in love. 
Rising from a perusal of them the reader 
unhesitatingly pronounces the author a 



"good" man. Whatsoever things are 
spiritually lovely are illustrated and 
commended in Dr. Greenwald's works. 
His list forms part of the heart- 
history of the Church: The Lutheran 
Reformation, 1868; An Order of Family 
Prayer, subsequently reissued as Jesus 
our Table Guest. Questions on the Gos- 
pel for the Church Year, two volumes, 
1868, many editions. Meditations for Pas- 
sion Week, 1873. The Young Christian's 
Manual of Devotion, 1874. Questions 
on the Epistles for the Church Year. 
The True Church, its AVay of Justifica- 
tion, and its Holy Communion, 1875. 
Sprinkling the True mode of Baptism. 
True and False Spirituality in the 
Lutheran Church, a paper at the Diet 
of 1877. Dangers of Atheism, a sermon, 

1883. The Child's Book, for infant 
school instruction, 1884. Sacred Places. 
The Devout Christian Series, sermons, 

1884. Meditations for the Closet, 1884. 
Articles for the Lutheran Chureh Review. 

With his beloved spouse, Lavinia 
(Williams, of New Philadelphia), he 
was privileged to celebrate in 1881 the 
semi-centennial of his ministry, and in 
1884 his golden wedding. 

The well spent life is graphically told 
by pen and pencil by Rev. C. E. Haupt in 
"The Life of Emanuel Greenwald," 1889. 

W. K. F. 




REY. WALTER GUNN. 



Walter Gunn was born at Carlisle, 
Schoharie County, N. Y., on the 27tli of 
June, 1815. In the year 1837, when he 
was about twenty-two years of age, his 
mind was deeply impressed with Divine 
truth, and he professed a hope in the 
Saviour. Soon after, be united with the 
Lutheran church at Schoharie, of which 



the Rev. Dr. Lintner was at that time 
pastor. From this period his thoughts 
were particularly directed to the heathen; 
and he was strongly impressed with the 
conviction that he was called, in the 
providence of God, to spend his life in 
laboring for their salvation, rt The 
Lutheran church had not yet established 



276 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



a foreign mission; but Mr. Gunn's deter- 
mination to give himself to the foreign 
missionary work excited the general at- 
tention of ministers and private Chris- 
tians within the bounds of the Hartwick 
Synod to that subject, and produced the 
conviction that it was the duty of the 
Church to engage actively in the work. 
It was regarded as a clear indication of 
Providence that the time had come for 
our denomination to commence a course 
of direct efforts for the evangelization of 
the world. 

Though Mr. Gunn was without the 
requisite pecuniary means for obtaining 
an education, his confidence in God was 
strong, and he doubted not that some 
way would be opened for the accomplish- 
ment of his object. At the annual con- 
vention of the Hartwick Synod, held at 
Cobleskill, N. Y., in 1837, some five or 
six ladies, the wives of clergymen, then 
present, united in the plan of educating 
a young man for the Christian ministry, 
with a view to the missionary work in 
heathen lands. Mr. Gunn off erred him- 
self as a candidate for the sacred office 
and for the foreign field, and, during 
his whole course of study, was sustained 
by this Female Benevolent Association. 

He now commenced his studies with 
great vigor and alacrity, at- the academy 
in Schoharie, and, in due time, entered 
Union College, at which he graduated in 
the year 1841. The study of theology 
he pursued at the theological seminary 
in this place. During the entire course 
of his academic and theological training, 
he was distinguished for his diligence 
in study, his uniformly exemplary de- 
portment, and his untiring efforts to do 
good. 

In the autumn of 1842 he was licensed 
as a candidate for the ministry by the 
Hartwick Synod. After his license he 
labored, for a short time, by appoint- 
ment of Synod, as a missionary in the 



domestic field, with instructions to 
preach on Foreign Missions in the dif- 
ferent churches he visited. In the 
spring of 1843, at the time of the meet- 
ing of the General Synod in Baltimore, 
he received his appointment as mission- 
ary to India from the Foreign Mission- 
ary Society of the Lutheran Church. 
In the course of the summer following 
he was married to Lorena Pultz, of 
Columbia County, a lady eminently fit- 
ted for the arduous duties to which her 
marriage introduced her. Mr. Gann, 
prior to his departure for India, was 
directed by the society to spend some 
time in visiting the churches and preach- 
ing on missions, for the purpose of dif- 
fusing a missionary spirit, and collect- 
ing funds in aid of the Society's 
operations. 

In the autumn of the same year he 
was ordained as a missionary to the 
heathen, in the Lutheran chui-ch at 
Johnstown, by the Hartwick Synod. In 
October he received his instructions 
from the Executive Committee ot the 
Foreign Missionary Society, convened 
for the purpose in St. Mathew's Church, 
Philadelphia. In November he, with 
his wife, sailed for India. They arrived 
at Guntoor on the 18th of June, 1844, 
just seven months after they had left 
their native shores, and immediately en- 
tered on the duties of their mission, in 
connection with the Eev. C. F. Heyer, 
who had been previously commissioned 
by the Pennsylvania Synod, and had 
selected this point in India as most fa- 
vorable to missionary operations. The 
two missionaries, Mr. Heyer and Mr. 
Gunn, now labored harmoniously to- 
gether, and, by their united energies, 
the work was successfully carried on 
and the mission strengthened. 

Mr. Gunn's attention, during his early 
residence in India, was chiefly directed 
to the acquisition of the language. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



277 



While thus employed, he preached to 
the English residents, and also to the 
natives through an interpreter. But he 
gradually acquired the ability to address 
the heathen in their own language; and 
this, from the begiuning, had been one 
of tlie strongest desires of his heart. 
He labored on in faith and perseverance, 
and had the satisfaction of seeing the 
work of the Lord prosper through his 
instrumentality. In his report to Exec- 
utive Committee for 1847 he says, — "The 
uiHiiber of scholars in connection with 
our four schools at Guntoor is one hun- 
dred. I have preached twice on the 
Sabbath regularly, to our native congre- 
gation, throughout the year, with one or 
two exceptions. The number in atten- 
dance has been from fifty to one hundred 
and fifty. I have had many opportuni- 
ties of addressing persons coming from 
a distance, upon the great doctrines and 
truths of Christianity, and placing in 
their hands tracts and parts of Scripture 
on their return to their homes. Thus 
the seed of the Word has been sown. 
How much of it will hereafter spring 
up and bear fruit, is known only to God, 
in whom we trust." The efforts of this 
man of God were not in vain. The mis- 
sion was strengthened and gained upon 
the affections of our people. Churches 
were established, and schools gathered, 
and souls hopefully converted to God. 
The seven years' labor of this devoted 
missionary was productive of the most 
glorious results, both among the be- 
nighted heathen, and among the 
churches at home. 

Mr. Gunn's health now began to de- 
cline. By repeated attacks of fever his 
constitution became impaired, so as to 
unfit him to resist the organic disease 
with which he had long l.een threat- 
ened. He waa seized with hemorrhage 
of the lungs, and his strength gradually 
failed. His physicians advised a cessa- 



j tion from labor and a journey to the sea 
' shore. Accordingly, in the spring of 
1850, he repaired to Madras, and so- 
journed, for a season, in the family of 
Dr. Scudder. 

Here he seemed to gain a temporary 
relief, and the hope was entertained that 
he might possibly resume his duties. 
On his return, however, he found that 
he was not able to perform much active 
labor. Yet his heart was still in the 
work, and he was anxious to accomplish 
all that he could. When he was no 
longer able to preach, he endeavored to do 
good in a more private way, particularly 
by conversing with those who visited 
him at his house. His interest in the 
salvation of the heathen seemed to in- 
crease as he approched the close of life, 
and he urged all who had been associated 
with him in the mission, to devote them- 
selves with renewed zeal to the work. 
His closing scene was full of calm and 
joyful triumph. When asked whether 
Jesus was with him in the dark valley, 
he faintly whispered, — "Yes, Jpsus is 
with me;" and, with these words on his 
lips, his spirit took its upward flight. 
He died on the 8th of July, 1851. 

Mr. Gunn was a man of good natural 
abilities and respectable attainments. 
He had a sound, vigorous intellect, well 
improved by a liberal education. His 
Christian character was distinguished 
by humility, activity, devotion and con- 
sistency. His preaching was eminently 
practical and earnest, and usually left a 
deep impression on the hearers. To the 
missionary work he was devoted with his 
whole heart, and he counted no sacrifice 
great by which he could promote its 
interests. He never grew weary in 
well-doing. He was honored and be- 
loved by all who knew him; and his 
death was regarded by the friends of 
missions and of Christ as a sore bereave- 
ment. — M. L Stoever, in Spr agues' Annals, 



278 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. G. C. R HAAS, A. M. 



Eev. Haas was born in Philadelphia, 
Pa., May 5, 1854 His father, John C. 
Haas, was for thirty-eight years teacher 
in the parochial school and for a num- 
ber of years organist in the old Zion's 
Evangelical Lutheran church. His 
early education was at home and in said 
parochial school, which was predomi- 
nantly in the German language. Among 
the recollections of his boyhood are: 
the funeral services of Dr. Damme, the 
Centennial anniversary of old Zion, the 
closing and taking down of that church, 
in which he had repeatedly played the 
organ at church services. He was con- 
firmed by Dr. Mann in the old St. 
Michael's church, where the congrega- 
tion was then worshiping during the 
building of new Zion's church. After 
attending a course of preparatory study 
at the Episcopal Academy in Philadel- 
phia, he went through the full classical 
course at the University of Pennsylva- 
nia, graduated as first-honor man of his 
class in 1876, delivered the Latin Salu- 
tatory at the commencement and re- 
ceived the degree of A. B. The next 
year and a half he spent as teacher in 
the Episcopal Academy, not then hav- 
ing chosen the ministry as his calling. 
In January, 1878, he entered the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Theological Seminary 
at Philadelphia, and studied under Drs. 
C. F. Schaeffer, C. W. Schaeffer, C. P. 
Krauth, W. J. Mann and A. Spaeth. In 
1879, he, upon presentation of the re- 
quired essay, received the degree of A. 
M. from the University of Pennsylva- 
nia. The following year, 1880, he grad- 
uated from the seminary and was or- 
dained at the meeting of Synod of Penn- 
sylvania, in Lancaster, 1880, having re- 



ceived a call from Eev. H. Eaegener, of 
St. Mark's church. New York city, to be 
his assistant. Not quite two years 
thereafter Eev. Eaegener resigned his 
pastorate and Eev. Haas was elected his 
successor. 

The church he serves is an old estab- 
lished one, where success is not as quick 
nor as visible as in a new field. The 
pastoral work is very large; the preach- 
ing is entirely in German; the Sunday 
school very numerous. During his pas- 
torate a Young Men's and Young La- 
dies' Society and a sewing school have 
been established. He edits a parish pa- 
per that appears from six to eight times 
a year and is gratuitously distributed to 
assist in the congregational and mission- 
ary work of the church. An addition 
has been built to the church for meet- 
ing room, the interior renovated and a 
parsonage purchased. The congrega- 
tion numbers from 700 to 800 communi- 
cants. On his taking sole charge of St. 
Mark's in 1882, he connected himself 
with the ministerium of New York, with 
which his congregation is connected. 
He has served the Ministerium for some 
years as a member of the executive com- 
mittee, its examining committee, been 
repeatedly delegate to the General 
Council, is one of the Directors of the 
Philadelphia Seminary and of Wagner 
Memorial Lutheran College in Eoches- 
ter, N. Y. Since two years he is one of 
I a committee of four appointed to the first 
conference of the Synod intrusted with 
the publishing of Sunday School Lesson 
Leaves and Teachers' Helper for Ger- 
man Sunday Schools. His congrega- 
tion has raised large collections during 
his pastorate especially for the German 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



279 



Professorship Fund at the Philadelphia 
Seminary, and for the establishment of 
Grace Lutheran church in New York 
city. In 1883 he was married to Miss 
Anna S. Hansen, of Philadelphia, the 



marriage being performed^by Dr. Mann, 
who had previously baptized, confirmed 
and ordained him, which is about the 
most singular coincidence in his life. 




REV. S. T. HALLMAN, A.M. 



Rev. S. T. Hallman, A. M., pastor of 
the First English Lutheran church, of 
Augusta, Ga., was born Sept. 3. 1844, 
in Lexington County, South Carolina, 
where he received the industrial training 
incident to country life, and began a 
career which is worthy of study, and of 
the highest commendation. Early in 
lifejhe manifested a thirst for knowledge, 
and was characterized by an aptitude in 
acquiring it which attracted the attention 
of prominent persons in the community; 
but his father beinglpossessed of moderate 
means was only able to give his sons the 
advantages of the winter schools of the 
time. His early education was therefore 
greatly interrupted. So distinguished 
a person as General Paul Quattlebaum, 
a prominent statesman of that time, 
observing with pleasure his intense 
longing for knowledge, set copies and 



rendered him aid in learning to write, 
and encouraged him in the prosecution 
of his studies. After the toils of the 
day were ended his custom was to sit 
quietly by the fireside and there pore 
over his book, and dream of some 
indefinable greatness which he hoped 
some day to win. Even in childhood he 
was moved by the desire to become a 
minister of the Gospel, it was the 
absorbing thought of his life, and when 
only a lad of seventeen summers was 
elected Elder and Lay-Reader in Beth- 
lehem Lutheran church, Lexington 
County, S. C, of which he had been 
confirmed a member several years 
previously. He superintended'^'Sunday 
Schools, conducted Prayer-Meetings, 
and was otherwise useful in the church 
at this early age. 

At this period of his life he introduced 



280 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



family prayers in the home of his child- 
hood, a service which up to this time 
has been negleeted, and gracious results 
followed this faithful work for Christ. 
His father was so much encouraged and 
strengthened in his faith that he too 
soon took active part in the services at 
the home altar, one of the brothers did 
likewise, a religious influence pervaded 
the whole family, and the youngest son 
who was yet a stranger to the power of 
religion was hopefully converted to God. 

About this time he went to Newberry 
College, S. C, with the earnest hope 
that at last the dream of his life would 
be realized, but in this he was doomed 
to disappointment, at least for a time. 
The air was rife with the noise and din 
of war, and so he left College and entered 
the Southern army under Col. L. M. 
Kitt of Orangeburg, S. C, and remained 
in the service of his country until 1865. 
During his camp-life he held prayer 
services with his fellow-soldiers, and 
snch was the respect shown him that 
officers of high rauk gave audience to 
his earnest words of counsel. There 
must have been evidence of nobility of 
soul when hardened soldiery, and officers 
in authority, would give respectful 
hearing to a boy of only eighteen sum- 
mers. 

The war ended, he returned to the 
farm, and well-nigh despaired of ever 
being able to enter upon the work of the 
Christian ministry; but God had some 
better things in store for one who had 
shown such zeal for his cause. Accord- 
ingly the South Carolina Synod, con- 
vinced of his call to the ministry, 
encouraged him to return to college and 
fit himself for the work so dear to his 
heart. He resumed his college studies 
in November, 1866, and in 1868 graduat- 
ed from the Theological Seminary, hav- 
ing taken a select course in college in 
connection with the Seminary course 



required at that time. Having sustained 
a satisfactory examination, he was 
inducted into the office of the holy 
ministry on the 19th of October, 1868, 
being then twenty-four years of age. 
Since that time his ministry has been 
characterized by that earnestness, zeal, 
and indomitable energy which have been 
marked features of his busy life. He 
has filled prominent - pulpits in his 
denomination, has never been without 
one of the best churches within the gift 
of his Synod, and has been elevated to 
positions of honor and trust solely as 
the reward of merit of duty well-per- 
formed. 

He labored for several years in 
Concord, N. C, where he built up a 
church property worth $10,000, and 
added 102 members to the churches 
served while there. He served two 
terms as the president of the North 
Carolina Synod, and endeared himself 
to the church in that state Of his 
ability as a presiding officer Eev. T. W. 
Dosh, the editor of the Lutheran Visitor, 
referring to the meeting of North 
Carolina Synod of 1883, says: "He 
presided with rare dignity, impartiality 
and ability." With reference to his 
work in Concord, Eev. Prof. L. A. Fox, 
T>. D., was pleased to say in the public 
prints, "Eev. S. T. Hallman did here a 
great work- and left this monument of 
his success. His labors are highly 
appreciated by the congregation and the 
community at large." 

Mr. Hallman has won a deserved 
reputation as "a church-builder," and is 
held in high esteem by the church to 
whose welfare he has devoted his entire 
life. The South Carolina Synod elected 
him three terms successively as president 
of that body, a compliment which had 
not been confined on a presiding officer 
of that Synod before in over twenty 
years. He has been tendered editorial 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



281 



positions on two prominent papers of 
his denomination, and, by special 
appointment, edited the constitution of 
his Synod. He is the author of a form 
of service for opening and closing Sun- 
day Schools, and contemplates the 
publication of some productions of 
interest. 

Kev. J. Hawkins, D. D., the able edi- 
itor of the Lutheran Visitor, has this to 
say of him: Bro. Hallman is not only 
one of the ablest and most interesting 
pulpit orators in the South Carolina 
Synod,but also one of the niost active 
and laborious pastors. He is one of the 
rising men of our Synod. Through in- 
domitable energy, amid self-denials, he 
has made himself a workman of whom 
the church is proud. He is very fa- 
miliar with the history of the Lutheran 
church in this country, is a close stu- 
dent and a ready writer. His history, 
if written, would be interesting— How 
he labored on the farm when a boy 
without education, but with a burning 
desire to know the history and doctrines 
of his church; he fastened Luther's 
Catechism to his plcw and read and 
studied it as he turned the soil ; how he 
improved his mind and occupied prom- 
inent pulpits; and how he became, as he 
is to-day, one of the best preachers and 
most capable business men of his Synod, 
loved and respected by all the brethren. 
We have said this much because we 
have a profound respect for men who 



have made themselves in spite of un- 
favorable surroundings, and because 
they deserve commendation." 

In recognition of his literary attain- 
ments, Newberry College, S. C, con- 
ferred the honorary degree of A. M. up- 
on him in June, 1889, and has shown 
due appreciation of his faithfulness to 
his alma mater and the church of the 
Iieformation. 

He is now editor and proprietor of 
Gospel Echoes, a reliable and deservedly 
popular home journal, and has won an 
enviable reputation as a writer of real 
merit. He has recently been elected 
General Editor and Business Manager 
of the Mission News, published by au- 
thority of the United Synod of the 
South, and representing the mission in- 
terests of the Southern Lutheran church. 

When his humble birth, and the vari- 
ous and varied difficulties under which 
he labored in acquiring an education 
are duly considered, his success is most 
remarkable, and demonstrates the pow- 
er of the human will, when directed and 
sustained by the all-sufficient grace of 
God. To that grace alone he attributes 
his success. 

Thoroughly competent, devoted to Ir's 
work, and characterized by great energy 
and zeal, he is indeed an able minister 
of the New Testament, a workman that 
needethnotto be ashamed, rightly di- 
viding the word of truth. 



REV. M. W. HAMMA, D D. 



Rev. M. W. Hamma, D. D., is a 
graduate of Wittenberg College of the 
class of '^1. He has been pastor succes- 
sively at Euphemia, Ohio; Bucyrus, 
Ohio; Reading, Pennsylvania; Spring- 
field, Ohio; Brooklyn, N. Y., and 
36 



Washington, D. C. At Springfield he 
served nine years, more than doubling 
the number of communicants in the 
church during that time. Dr. Hamma 
spent one year in travel in Europe, 
Egypt, and Palestine. On his return 



282 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



he deliverd a series of intsructive 
lectures on his travels to large and 
appreciative audiences. He is a smooth, 
elegant and graphic writer, and at the 



same time a forcible and eloquent 
speaker. He is the author of "Lay 
Work in our Churches." 




EEV. JOHN R HANDSCHUCH. 



John Frederick Handschuch was born 
of honorable and pious parentage in 
Halle, Saxony, Jan. 14, 1714. His con- 
stitution was originally very frail, and 
his parents had little expectation that 
he would survive the period of infancy ; 
but it pleased a Gracious Provide ace to 
disappoint their fears and to spare him 
•for many years of active usefulness. His 
education, intellectual, moral, religious, 
Yfas conducted with the most watchful 
regard to all his interests. At a very 
early age he was placed under the care 
of a private tutor, a French Protestant, 
who, besides being in other respects 
very competent to his business, was also 
an earnest Christian. From this teach- 
er he acquired a very accurate knowl- 
edge of the French language in its pur- 
ity, which he was enabled to turn to 
good account in after life. At a later 
period his parents procured for him an 
excellent German teacher, by whom he 
was instructed in several of the elemen- 
tary branches and in the Latin lan- 
guage. When he had reached his 
twelfth year, he was sent to the Gymna- 
sium at Halle, and was thence soon 
transferred to the Orphan House, 
through the friendly interests of Dr. 
Francke, who had officiated at his bap- 
tism, and who ever afterwards evinced 
an affectionate interest in his welfare. 
Here young Handschuch not only made 
rapid improvement in knowledge, but 
gave decisive indications of having en- 
tered upon the new and spiritual life. 



In 1733 he became a member of the 
University in his native place and con- 
tinued his connection with that re- 
nowned institution for four years. Here 
his religious experience became still 
more strongly marked, and he not only 
cherished the desire, but formed the dis- 
tinct purpose, to devote himself to the 
Christian ministry. In the spring of 
1737 he was sent to the University at 
Leipsic, for the purpose of becoming a 
tutor to a young nobleman. Here he 
remained three years, and, while ac ting- 
as tutor, was diligently engaged in culti- 
vating his faculties, enlarging his stock 
of knowledge, with a view to the most 
mature preparation for the office to 
which he was aspiring. During his con- 
nection with the University he received 
many earnest invitations to engage per- 
manently in the business of teaching, 
but he unhesitatingly declined them all, 
having his heart fixed on becoming an 
Ambassador of the Son of God. In 1744 
he was examined as a candidate, and was 
solemnly set apart to the work of preach- 
ing the Gospel by the Consistorium of 
Coburg, He at once commenced his 
ministerial career in the large parish of 
Graba and its five associate churches. 

Mr. Handschuch was successfully en- 
gaged in this field of labor, when an ap- 
peal was made to him in behalf of the des- 
tute condition of many of his brethren 
on this side of the ocean. Prof. Francke, 
who was invested by the congregations 
in Pennsylvania with discretionary 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



283 



power in the selection of ministers to be j 
sent to them, thought he discovered in 
this young man remarkable qualifica- 
tions for this important enterprise; and 
he therefore had no hesitation in pro- 
posing to him to enlist in it. After giv- 
ing to the subject the most serious con- 
sideration, he became satisfied that the 
indications of Providence were in favor 
of his coming to America; though his 
departure was delayed several months, 
in the hope of being able to find some 
one to accompany him. He spent the 
succeeding winter in Halle, preparing 
himself more fully for the duties that 
awaited him in his anticipated field of 
labor. 

In June, 1747, not having succeeded 
in inducing any one to become associa- 
ted with him in his Qiission, he left his 
native land and embarked for this coun- 
try. The voyage was not only pro- 
tracted, and irksome, but perilous in the 
exteme. They had to encounter one of 
the most fearful storms that ever swept 
the ocean. But his confidence in God 
never faltered. The captain entered 
his cabin and said, — "Do you know, sir, 
how dreadful the storm is? It could 
not be more so! May God only be mer- 
ciful to our souls!" He calmly replied, 
— "The Lord is yet able to help us — do 
you go and perform your part well!" 
They regarded their preservation from 
death as well-nigh miraculous. '"When 
the storm subsided," says the Godly 
man, "we rejoiced and thanked God 
that He had preserved us from the fear- 
ful death we had expected to find in the 
mighty deep." 

Mr. Handschuch landed in Philadel- 
phia, April 5, 1748, and on the 10th was 
welcomed at the Trappee by Dr. Muhl- 
enberg with the words, "They that sow 
in tears shall reap in joy." It was 
agreed that he should at once take 
charge of the vacant congregation in 



Lancaster, and accordingly, the follow- 
ing month, he entered upon his duties. 
Here he labored several years, and, al- 
though the position was regarded a dif- 
ficult one, on account of his finding the 
church in a somewhat distracted state, 
yet Dr. Muhlenberg's testimony con- 
cerning him in that "his ministrations 
were successful and resulted in much 
good." The congregation grew in num- 
bers, and they soon became, in a good 
degree, an united people. Under his 
direction a flourishing school was estab- 
lished and sustained, in reference to 
which he says, in a communication pub- 
lished at Halle, "Our school consists of 
English, Irish and Germans, Lutheran 
and Reformed; and so anxious are the 
people to have their children instructed 
that it is impossible to receive all who 
apply for admission." He was earnest- 
ly devoted to the interests of the youth 
of his congregation, and often remarked 
that more con Id be done with the chil- 
dren than the parents. He was espec- 
ially faithful in the duty of communica- 
ting catechetical instruction, and some- 
times there were not less than seventy 
in attendance upon these exercises, 
which were held twice a week. "Many 
blessings," — he writes — "attended these 
services. My heart is filled with hope 
and joy." 

Mr. Handschuch had been in Lancaster 
! upwards of two years, when he was 
married to Susan B. Belzner, daughter 
of one of the deacons of the church. 
I The ceremony was performed in the 
church, in the presence of several clergy- 
men and other friends. But the connec- 
tion, however agreeable to himself, 
proved the occasion of dissatisfaction 
and disturbance in the congregation. 
As his situation became uncomfortable, 
and his prospect of usefulness somewhat 
clouded, he expressed a desire to occupy 
some other field of labor. Accordingly, 



284 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



Dr. Muhlenberg invited him to take 
charge of his two congregations in New 
Providence and New Hanover, as he had 
just received a call to labor in New York 
for the purpose of reviving the interests 
of Lutheranism in that city. But it 
soon became apparent that Mr. Hand- 
schuch was physically disqualified for 
the duties of a country charge; and, as 
there w^as no opening for him in Phil- 
adelphia, it was proposed that he should 
assume the pastoral care of the congrega- 
tion of Germantown, Pa. He took up 
his abode there on the 20th of May, 
1751, and was the first Lutheran minister 
who resided in that place. During his 
connection with this charge, the old 
church was renovated, and dedicated 
anew on the occasion of a Sy nodical 
meeting held in Germantown in 1752. 
Here also he occasionally ofiiciated in 
the English language. In his journal 
there are some six or eight entries 
detailing his persevering labors in 
instructing a colored man of decided 
piety, whom he afterwards admitted to 
church-membership. He labored with 
great fidelity and zeal. He regularly 
held a meeting for prayer and recitation 
on Sabbath afternoon, in which the 
sermon of the morning was catechetical- 
ly reviewed; and meetings for prayer 
and Christian conference were also held 
in the course of the week. During the 
first two years of his ministry here, he 
labored pleasantly and successfully, but, 
owing chiefly to the accession of un- 
worthy members from abroad, disturb- 
ances arose in the congregation, which 
ultimately issued in a division. These 
emigrants from Europe, who generally 
cared less for spiritual instruction than 
for spirituous liquors, became dissatisfied 
with Mr. Handschuch's preaching; and, 
though they had contributed nothing 
towards the erection of the church, yet, 
af? they became the majority, they took 



possession of the building and called 
another pastor. Most of the elders and 
deacons, together with those who had 
mainly sustained the church, peaceably 
withdrew, and organized a new congre- 
gation with seventy communicants. 
This was in the year 1753. They rent- 
ed a room for religious exercises, and 
Mr. Handschuch consented to remain 
with them, preaching on the Sabbath 
and teaching school during the week. 
The congregation received much sym- 
pathy from other Christians in the 
place, and the German Reformed chrrch 
kindly offend them the use of their edi- 
fice, which they thankfully accepted. 
Here they worshiped until they were re- 
stored to their own church, some years 
afterwards. The dissatisfied party, who 
retained possession of the church edi- 
fice, had given a call to a minister of 
doubtful character, but they soon began 
to quarrel among themselves, and in a 
suit instituted by one side, the court de- 
cided that the property belonged to the 
friends of Mr. Handschuch, who had 
been ejected from the church. Mr. 
Handschuch, however, had in the mean- 
time, been compelled to struggle with 
poverty, the congregation bei n g too feeble 
to afford him an adequate support, — 
and, after having served them for two 
years he felt constrained to seek an- 
other field of labor. Accordingly, in 
the summer of 1755, he removed to Phil- 
adelphia, and assisted in the services of 
St. Michael's church. Through Dr. 
Mulhenberg's influence he was appoint- 
ed teacher of French in the academy, 
and was also, for a season, connected 
with the* press, as corrector and trans- 
later of German. He was obliged to re- 
sort to these extra services in order to 
support his family. On the death of 
Mr. Brunnholtz, in 1758, he was chosen 
to fill his place, and was for some time 
the only preacher in connection with 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



285 



the German Lutheran church in Phila- and the seventeenth of his residence in 



adelphia. From this time he gave his 
undivided attention to the duties of the 
ministry; and though his health was 
delicate, he was enabled to continue his 
labors for several years. He died, after 
a protracted and painful illness, Oct. 9, 
1764, in the fifty-first year of his age, 



this country, leaving behind him a wid- 
ow and four small children. His death, 
which was eminently peaceful and hap- 
py, occurred while Dr. Muhlenberg was 
engaged in prayer at his bedside. — 
Sprague, 




REV. OESTEN HANSON. 



Hauges 



Rev. Hanson, president of 
Synod, was born in Norway, July 8, 
1836. His parents were Hans Hanson 
Hoi tan and Gunild Weium. From child- 
hood up he was carefully trained in the 
faith and doctrine of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church. He was confirmed 
in 1851, and received his first commun- 
ion June 5, 1851. In the same year he 
emigi-ated with his parents to North 
America, locating in AVisconsin. 
Though he knew the powerful drawing 
of God's Spirit from his youth, he was 
permitted in 1855 to experience a thor- 
ough change of heart. In the summer 
of 1856 he removed to Goodhue Co., 
Minnesota. In 1861 he received an 
urgent request by the Hauges Synod to 



give himself to the gospel ministry. 
Having received a call from the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Immanuel's church in 
Goodhue County, Minn., he was or- 
dained by said synod June 4, 1861, and 
was installed on the 23d of the same 
month. This congregation he still con- 
tinues to serve, having now (1891) spent 
about thirty-one years in this field. 

Rev. Hanson has been a member of 
the synodical council of the Hauges 
Synod since 1863. From June 1875 to 
June 1876 he served his synod as presi- 
dent, and for about twenty years he has 
been successively re-elected as its vice- 
president. He has also been president of 
his synod's mission-committee for about 
twenty years. For seven years he has 



286 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



been president of the board of regents 
of Eed Wing Seminary. In 1887 he 



was again elected president of the synod 
which position he still holds. 




EEV. SIMEON W. HAEKEY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born in 
Iredell county, North Carolina, Dec. 3d, 
1811, baptized by Eev. C. A. Storch, Sr., 
and confirmed by Eev. John Eeck in St. 
Michael's chnrch. He was thought to 
have been called to the holy ministry 
from his birth. Accordingly in 1830, 
he and two other young men started for 
Gettysburg, Pa., in a little one-horse 
wagon, furnished for the purpose by my 
father The yonng men were clad in 
"home-spun" suits, the material of which 
was produced on the farm, and colored, 
and carded, and spun, and woven, and 
fitted, and made by the loving hands of 
the household, long since mouldered 
into (lust. 

At Gettysburg the team was exchanged 
for the means of subsistence, and my 
brother began his studies in the old 
gymnasium. At the end of two years 
he and his companions made a visit to 
their old home in North Carolina, 



accomplishing the whole journey there 
and back on foot! Graduating from the 
Theological Seminary in 1834, my 
brother was called to supply the pnlpit 
of Eev. C. P. Krauth, Sr., D. D., in St. 
Matthew's church, Philadelphia, who 
had been chosen President of the newly 
chartered Pennsylvania College. After 
the meeting of the Maryland Synod in 
the fall of the same year, where my 
brother was licensed, he was called to 
Williamsport. Md. From there he was 
transferred to Woodsboro, and finally to 
Frederick City, as the successor of Eev. 
Frederick C. Schaeffer, D. D., deceased. 
In Frederick he remained 14 years, and 
his most successful labors as a pastor 
and preacher were expended in this 
place. 

These were the days of great spiritual 
awakenings all over the land, in which 
the Lutheran Church participated. But, 
although the preaching of my brother 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



287 



was frequently accompanied by the 
special outpouring of the Holy Ghost, 
he liever permitted the excitements 
occasioned thereby to run into wild 
excess, to the neglect or denial of the 
doctriues and usages of the Lutheran 
Church, but plied the catechism and 
confirmation all the more. Among the 
fruits of his labor in Frederick, were 
quite a number who entered the Lutheran 
ministry, among whom were Kevs. A. J. 
AYeddle, W. H. Harrison, D. D., L. P. 
Harrison. J. J. Suman, G. A. Nixdorf, 
G. J. Martz, J. F. Probst, G. C. Probst, 
J. Frazier, and perhaps others. I believe 
the greatest ambition that Dr. S. W. 
Harkey ever had was to increase the 
number of well educated and pious 
Lutheran ministers. This was the special 
feature of his labor to the end of his life. 
In 1850 he was called to the Theological 
Professorship of Illinois State Uni- 
versity, the duties of which he began in 
1852, and continued to perform whilst 
the institution lasted. Subsequently he 
took charge of the newly organized 
English Lutheran mission in St. Louis, 
where he labored five years, during which 
the first church building was erected. 
His last two fields of labor were Washiug- 
toD, 111., and Knoxville, 111., in each of 
which he did very important service for 
the Church and the cause of education. 
The degree of Master of Arts was 
conferred on him by Pennsylvania 
College at an early day, and that of 
Doctor of Divinity in 1850 by Witten- 
berg College. His published works 
are, 1, "True Greatness"; 2, "Child's 
Question book" ; 3, "Dangers and Duties 



of Our Country" ; 4, "Life and Character 
of Andrew Jackson"; 5, "The Church's 
Best State"; 6, "Daily Prayer-book"; 
7, "Prisons for Women" ; 8, "Value of an 
Evangelical Ministry"; 9, "Justification 
by Faith"; 10, "Mission of the General 
Synod"; 11, "Bible in the Public 
Schools"; 12, Editor of the 3Iirror of the 
Times; 13, Editor of the Olive Branch. 

I will say nothing whatever of the 
character and qualities of the deceased 
in this sketch, but leave that to others, 
lest it should be deemed partial and 
overwrought. He was so well known to 
all the older ministry that no descriptive 
eulogy is required. But I must be par- 
doned for alluding to his death. It is 
not often that such dying testimony is 
given to the believing for the benefit of 
the world. And it seems providential 
that a life of such unremitting toil and 
success for the Master should have such 
a truly sublime ending. A few hours 
before his death he requested to be 
carried once more into his study, saying- 
he must finish his work. This being- 
done, and he returned to his bed, he 
raised himself up and preached his last 
sermon, prayed and prayed again, repeat- 
ed the promises of God, recited the 
hymn, "Guide me, O thou great 
Jehovah," then closing with the Apostle's 
Creed, he directed his eyes heavenward, 
his countenance changed, and he was at 
rest. Glorious ending! Sublime depart- 
ure! "Blessed are the dead that die in 
the Lord!" And blessed art thou, my 
brother, from henceforth and forever- 
more ! — Rev. S. L. Harkey, D. D. 



288 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 







EEY. SIDNEY L. HAEKEY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Iredell County, North Carolina, April 
3d, 1827, and is tlie youngest son of 
John and Sarah Harkey, and brother of 
Eev. Simeon W. Harkey, D.D. The 
name was originally "Herche," instead 
of Harkey. On the father's side the 
ancestry came from Switzerland, and on 
the mother's side from Wittenberg, Ger- 
many. The mother's name was Walcher. 
Sidney Levi was baptised in St. 
Michael's Church, Iredell Co., N. C, 
when an infant, by Eev. John Eeck. 
The family having removed to the state 
of Illinois in 1830, he was catechized 
and confirmed in Hillsboro, 111., when 
twelve years of age, by Eev. Daniel 
Scherer. His classical studies were 
commenced in the Hillsboro Academy, 
under the Principalship of Prof. Ed- 
ward Wyman. In the fall of 1814 he 
entered the freshman class of Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, Pa., in which 
institution he continued until 1847, 
when, on account of a severe illness, he 



retired from the college, and afterwards 
took a select school in Frederick City, 
Md. His theological studies were pur- 
sued under the direction of his brother, 
S. W. Harkey, D.D., and in October, 
1848, he was licensed to preach the gos- 
pel by the Synod of Maryland, in Cum- 
berland, Md. He then established th^ 
Piedmont Academy in Mechanicstown, 
Md., and served it until Apri], 1849, 
when he accepted a call to Newville, 
Pa., which was his first regular minis- 
terial charge. He was very successful 
in this field, adding a great many to the 
church, and he continued as pastor un- 
til May, 1852. He was ordained by the 
West Pennsylvania Synod in 1850, at 
New Berlin, Pa. In 1852 he removed 
to the state of Illinois to do home mis- 
sionary and pioneer work for the Luth- 
eran Church. He labored successively 
at Peoria, Pekin, Mendon, Decatur, 
Shelby ville, Nokomis, Yaudalia and 
other points; establishing self-sustain- 
ing charges without missionary aid in 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



m 



some places, and organizing congrega- 
tions in others. In 1861 he was elected 
Chaplain of the 54th Regiment Ills. 
Volunteers, and served in this capacity 
in the civil wa^*, almost a year. In 1868 
he was elected English Professor in 
Angnstana College and Theological 
Seminary, located at Paxton, 111., where 
he continued two years. He made the 
first effort to secure a location for this 
institution in Rock Island, and obtained 
a conditional donation of $40,000 for the 
institution at Genesee, 111., which was 
never accepted or utilized. This ended 
his ministry for the time in Illinois; 
during which he had been three times 
elected President of Synod, being the 
first President of the Synod of Illinois 
and adjacent states. From the begin- 
ning of his ministry, and all through the 
time of his labors in Illinois, he took 
high and firm ground in favor of the 
confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, publishing a Synodical sermon 
upon this subject, entitled "The Faith 
once Delivered to the Saints," as early 
as 1860. He carried his Synod with 
him into the organization of the General 
Council at Ft. Wayne, in 1867. As he 
was one of the founders of the General 
Council, so he has continued one of its 
warmest friends and defenders to the 
prt'sent time, having been a delegate to 
most of its conventions and twice elected 
ils English Recording Secretary. His 
ministry, after leaving Illinois, has been 
conducted at Dayton, O., Indianapolis, 
Ind., Mt. Pleasant, Pa., Toledo, O., and 
North Lima, O. 

His published works are: "The Signs 
of the Times," 1852; "The Faith once 
Delivered to the Saints," 1860; "Thor- 
ough Education," 1868; "The Only Son," 
1869; "Songs of Beulah," 1876; "The 
Lord's Day," 1878; "Close Communion," 
1878; "Agnosticism," 1885; "National 
Blessings and Dangers," 1889. 
37 



He was married the first time May 16, 
1848, to Miss Mary Jane Jenkins, of 
Gettysburg, Pa., by whom he has five 
children living and three dead. He was 
married the second time December 31^ 
1872, to Miss Susie Truman, of Cincin^ 
nati, O., by whom he has one daughtei'i 

As a man, the testimony of his friends 
is, that Dr. Harkey is possessed of the 
warmest sympathies, of a tender, loving 
heart, of a high sense of honor and 
right, of candor, conscientiousness, cour- 
age, firmness, keen perception, clear 
judgment, and general intellectual 
strength and ability. As a preacher he 
is characterized by perspicuity, strong 
imagination, rapid flow of thought and 
language, powerful and well-cultivated 
voice, eloquence and force of delivery, 
energy, earnestness, and feeling. He 
has rare ability as a musician and com- 
poser of music. Almost the whole of 
the book called "Songs of Beulah" be- 
ing his own compositions. He has also 
a vein of poetry, and has furnished a 
few specimens to the public of his abil- 
ity in this direction, among which are 
some Sunday-school hymns, and a poem 
called "The Flood of the Conemaugh." 

He received the honorary degree of 
Master of Arts from Illinois State Uni- 
versity in 1860; and the degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity, in 1882, from the North 
Carolina College, located in his native 
state, near the place of his birth. 

The following is the testimony of the 
Missionary President of the Pittsburg 
Synod: "Dr. Harkey 's preaching abili- 
ties are well known — he has but few 
peers! As a sound Lutheran, and an 
expounder of the faith of the Church, he 
has no superior! His long and valuable 
services have been appreciated. His 
self-denials and self-sacrificing labors 
demand respect, and deserve recognition. 
His talents, being of the highest order, 
would enable him to fill any pulpit with 
credit and acceptance." 



290 



AMEEIGAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. WM. H. HAKEISON, D.D. 



William Henry Harrison was born 
Jan. 12, 1819, near Lewiston, Md. His 
parents, Zephaniah and Mary Harrison, 
soon after removed to Frederick. They 
were members of the Evangelical Luth- 
eran church, and faithfully instructed 
their son in the principles of Christiani- 
ty; they early imbued his mind with a 
love for the truth. When six years old, 
he was sent to the parochial school. 
Thence he was transferred to the acade- 
my, where he successfully pursued his 
studies till he was twelve years of age. 
He then turned his attention to mechan- 
ical labor, and was distinguished for 
his fidelity and industry, and his ex- 
cellent workmanship. He received his 
first instructions in the Lutheran cat- 
echism from Kev. Dr. D. F. Schaeffer, 
at the time pastor of the church, and 
subsequently attended another course 
of instruction under his successor, the 
Rev. Dr. Harkey. When eighteen years 
of age he made a public profession of 
his faith. Thoughtful by nature and 
seriously impressed with a sense of his 
obligations, he felt that it was his duty 
to become a minister of the gospel. En- 
couraged in his determination by 
his pastor, he entered upon a course of 
preparatory study for the work in Penn- 
sylvania College, in the spring of 18B8, 
and graduated with the Valedictory of 
his class at the Commencement in 1843. 
During his connection with the college, 
he was conscientious and faithful in the 
discharge of every obligation. Study 
was a pleasure, duty a delight. He 
early developed a taste for critical re- 
search, and whilst others were often en- 
gaged in recreation and amusement, he 
was in his room busily engaged in the 
investigation of some question of inter- 
est and in the acquisition of knowledge. 



His exemplary deportment, his prompt 
obedience to authority, his rigid obser- 
vance of rule, the maintenance of his 
Christian integrity, and his constant ef- 
forts to advance the cause of his Re- 
deemer, it is admitted by teacher and 
pupil, were never surpassed. The one 
thing, perhaps, in which he excelled all 
others, was the moral influence which 
he exercised over his companions. His 
very presence, even when he kept si- 
lent, was felt. It was an element of 
power. Many through his instrumen- 
tality were led to a saving acquaintance 
with the truth, as it is in Jesus. He 
availed himself of every opportunity to 
do good. From early spring till late in 
the autumn, he would often walk from 
ten to fifteen miles on the Lord's Day 
for the purpose of organizing or super- 
intending various Sabbath schools. For 
several years, while a student, he super- 
intended the African Sunday school. 
He made it his business regularly to 
visit the scholars at their own homes, 
and earnestly to press upon their atten- 
tion the claims of the gospel. His la- 
bors in that direction are kindly remem- 
bered. He was also frequently found 
in the prison and the alms house con- 
versing with the inmates in reference to 
their spiritual condition, and directing 
them to the Saviour of sinners, the 
friend of humanity. Whilst engaged in 
the prosecution of his studies, he was 
compelled to struggle with pecuniary 
difficulties. His means were limited, 
but he preferred to depend upon his 
own exertions rather than receive the 
benefactions usually offered by the 
church to candidates for the ministry. 
He possessed resolution and energy, 
and the difficulties which he encoun- 
tered were readily overcome. His va- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



291 



cations were devoted to agencies, by 
which he was enabled, not only to re- 
plenish his exhausted treasury, but to 
disseminate, in the service of the Amer- 
ican Tract society, a Christian.literature. 
The revenue derived from this source, 
together with some trifling assistance 
which he received from his friends, sus- 
tained him during his whole course. 
He triumphed over every obstacle which 
lay in his path. He formed habits of 
self-reliance, of industry and of eco- 
nomy in time and money, which proved 
of great value to him during his minis- 
try. Disciplined in such a school, he 
had learned to practice self-denial, to 
make sacrifices for the good of others. 
Rigid experience had taught him to 
sympathize with those who were con- 
tending with similar trials, to give 
practical counsel and generous relief to 
young men who were struggling with 
the difficulties of life. His usefulness 
in the future was by this part of his ed- 
ucation, no doubt, greatly increased. 

Immediately after his graduation at 
college he commenced his theological 
studies in the seminary at Gettysburg. 
The same features, so marked during 
his college course, characterized his ca- 
reer in the seminary. To aid in his sup- 
port during this period, he taught sev- 
eral hours every week in the Oakridge 
Academy, a private school in Gettys- 
burg, at the time under the control of 
Prof. Hermann Haupt. He completed 
his studies in the fall of 1845, and at 
once received from the Synod of Mary- 
land, licensure to preach the gos]pel. 
Deeply interested in the education of 
young men for the ministry of reconcil- 
iation, in obedience to the urgent wishes 
of the Executive Committee, he now con- 
sented to become the general agent of 
the Parent Education Society of the 
Lutheran church. He is, at the same 
time, elected Assistant Professor of the 



Ancient Languages in Pennsylvania 
College. It was designed that he should 
labor six months of the year in each 
service; in the summer, it was proposed 
that he should travel and present the 
cause of Beneficiary Education to the 
churches, and in the winter conduct the 
correspondence of the Society and teach 
an hour or two a day in the college. He 
resigned both of these positions in the 
spring of 1846, as he thought he could 
be more efficient and useful in the pas- 
toral work, in which he felt that the 
Providence of God intended him to la- 
bor. Having received an unanimous 
call to the First English Lutheran 
church of Cincinnati, he accepted the 
invitation. Here his whole ministerial 
life, a period of twenty-one years, was 
spent, and, although a comparatively 
young man, he was, when he died, the 
senior pastor of the city. The church, 
when he took charge of it, was yet in its 
infancy. It was a mission church, and 
its few members were scattered through 
the city. To build ujj a congregation 
in the midst of so many large and influ- 
ential churches of other Christian de- 
nominations, was no easy task. It was 
a work of more than ordinary magni- 
tude. But through the patient, labori- 
ous and efficient efforts of Dr. Harrison, 
the church steadily and successfully ad- 
vanced. During his ministry about 
five hundred were received into the com- 
munion of the church. From a small 
beginning, the church increased; it be- 
came large and influential. But to real- 
ize fully the results of his laborious 
and faithful efforts, we must watch the 
developments of the future, when the 
precious seed sown, accompanied with 
his fervent prayers, shall be brought to 
maturity. His labors were unwearied 
and abundant. He was emj^hatically a 
working man. Every Sunday, in addi- 
tion to the two sermons he regularly 



292 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



preached, he usually taught a large Bi- 
ble class, and twice addressed his Sab- 
bath schools, while during the week he 
went from house to house with the con- 
solations of religion. In the chamber 
of the sick, among the children of afflic- 
tion, the sorrowing and the fallen, he 
was found, speaking words of encour- 
agement to the despondent, whispering 
comfort to the distressed, and directing 
the inquirer to the only source of true 
safety. Wherever he could be useful, 
the light of his countenance, beaming 
with friendly, affectionate interest, was 
seen, the voice of his kind, sympathiz- 
ing nature was heard. He was regard- 
ed by all as a model pastor, devoted to 
his mission, and exhausting his time 
and strength in the great work to which 
he was called. During the visitation of 
the cholera in Cincinnati, his toilsome 
labors were witnessed, not only by his 
own congregation, but among members 
of other denominations. By day and 
by night, like an angel of mercy, amid 
scenes of suffering and bereavement, he 
was engaged in personal ministrations 
to. the physical and spiritual wants of 
his fellow men. His warm heart vibra- 
ted to every note of sorrow and dis- 
tress that reached his ears. His life 
was sacrificed to the cause of humanity 
and religion. 

A strong element in Dr. Harrison's 
pastoral success was the deep interest 
he manifested in the young, and his 
high appreciation of Sabbath-school in- 
struction. He cultivated the most 
friendly relations with the pastors of the 
German churches. This gave him ac- 
cess to the youth of the German Luth- 
eran families, whose children could 
speak and read English. From this 
source he gathered many into his Sun- 
day school, who subsequently became 
active and efficient members of his 
church. Much of this material would 



have been lost, had it not been for his 
personal effort. "He carefully watched," 
says Professor Diehl, "the opening buds 
of promise in the youth of his congrega- 
tion, and ^whenever he discovered any 
evidence of adaptedness to the work of 
the ministry, he called the attention of 
its possessor to the sacred office, and 
pressed upon him the serious considera- 
tion of its claims. By so doing He was 
instrumental in introducing from his 
congregation eight young men into the 
ranks of the ministry." He was inter- 
ested in all efforts designed to promote 
the intellectual and moral welfare of the 
young. For twenty-one years he served 
as a Director of Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, Ohio, and was never, dur- 
ing this period, absent from any of the 
meetings, participating actively in the 
transaction of its business, and con- 
scientiously discharging any duty re- 
quired of him. He was for many years 
President of the Board, and from the 
beginning was a member of the commit- 
tee to examine the Senior Class prepar- 
atory to graduation. "So prompt was 
he," writes one of the Professors, "in 
the performance of his duty, that we al- 
ways felt sure, that whoever else might 
fail to come, Dr. Harrison would cer- 
tainly be present." With equal alacrity 
and earnestness he devoted himself to 
the advancement and elevation of the 
public schools of Cincinnati, and for ten 
years was a member of the Board of 
Commissioners. His influence here was 
most salutary. He inspired confidence, 
his power was always felt. He was es- 
teemed for his sound judgment, practi- 
cal wisdom and high moral worth, and 
by his courteous, frank manners, his 
mild and conciliatory temper, secured 
the warm regard of the commissioners, 
the teachers and the pupils. He was a 
public man, disposed to identify himself 
with all the moral and religious move-^ 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



293 



ments of the city. He was a prominent 
member of the Association of Evangeli- 
cal Ministers of Cincinnati, and for 
years served in the capacity of secretary. 
He sought and he found opportunities 
to do good. He never lost sight of his 
individualism, and a thousand avenues 
for personal activity in the service of 
his Redeemer opened before him. The 
constant inquiry with him was, "Lord 
what wilt thou have have me to do?" 
and the prompt response came, "What- 
soever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might." His natural energies were 
sanctified and strengthened by the grace 
of God and the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit, and all his labors were begun, 
continued, and ended in faith, with 
humble reliance upon an almighty arm, 
and the exclusion of all thought of hu- 
mam merit. 

His influence in the Church was very 
great. He was three times elected 
President of the Miami Synod with 
which he was connected, and for fifteen 
years was a member of the committee for 
the examination of candidates for Li- 
censure and Ordination. He took a 
very decided interest in the benevolent 
enterprises of the Church; he was the 
warm friend of every effort connected 
with its purity and growth. He was 
for a long time a member of the Execu- 
tive Committee on the African Mission, 
and gave to it his cordial sympathy and 
earnest supi^ort. He was very devoted 
in his attachment to the General Synod 
and during a period of twenty-one years 
never absented himself from any of 
its conventions. From his first connec- 
tion with his District Synod, he was, 
with a single exception, and that when 
he was constitutionally ineligible, elect- 
ed as a delegate. His doctrinal views 
were those of the General Synod. He 
opposed the "Definite Platform" of 1856. 
His course on the floor of Synod was 



always conservative. He enjoyed the 
confidence of brethren of all x^arties, of 
every school of opinion. When they 
differed from him, they trusted his 
honesty. No man in Synod was ever 
regarded with deeper affection; no one 
when he rose to si^eak was heard with 
more careful attention. He had no love 
for personal controversy. He did not 
object to the discussion of truth, but 
where there was no vital principle in- 
volved, he thought it was better to allow 
men to differ; that time was too precious, 
and life too momentous to be spent in 
disputing points, in reference to which 
men differed in the time of the Refor- 
mation, and which have never yet been 
satisfactorily settled. He always dis- 
criminated between the essentials and 
the accessories of religion, between the 
certain and the probable, and exercised 
the largest share of charity towards those 
who were opposed to him in sentiment. 
Dr. Harrison was a man of sound 
judgment, and possessed a ready dis- 
cernment of what was fitting to time 
and circumstances. He was one of the 
most modest and unassuming of men. 
This characteristic impressed itself up- 
on everything that he said or did, in 
public or private. Nothing of self, 
nothing that was petty or personal con- 
trolled his actions. He loved every- 
thing that was pure and noble and good. 
He despised, with all the intensity of 
his earnest nature, everything that was 
mean, and hated all that was wrong. 
His course was straight-forward — his 
path, the shortest distance between two 
points. He was a man of high-toned 
honor, of great spiritual power. His 
X)iety gave a hue and glow to all his 
movements, and modified every thought. 
His Christian character was one of 
marked consistency, his sterling integ- 
rity commended him to the respect and 
the affections of the world. In all his 



294 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



conduct, he beautifully illustrated the 
principles by which he jprofessed to be 
guided. By his example, 

"He allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 

His life was beyond reproach. Per- 
haps, no one was ever more free from 
envy, ill-will, from malice, and so 
abounding in things just and lovely, 
and of good report. He had never 
learned to utter harsh or bitter words — 
the law of kindness dwelt continually 
upon his lips. "His candor, humility 
and unaffected piety," says Dr. Conrad, 
"endeared him to his immediate friends 
and parishioners, and his catholic spirit 
won for him the confidence and esteem 
of the ministers and members of all de- 
nominations. He was an Israelite, in- 
deed, in whom there was no guile." The 
cordiality of his intercourse was pro- 
verbial. He earnestly labored to unite 
Christians of every name. He intro- 
duced no sectarian fire upon the sacred 
altar, but poured upon it the sweet in- 
cense of love, prayer and gratitude. He 
sympathized with the whole brother- 
hood of those who rejoice in one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. He was emphatically a devout 
man, fearing God, and full of the Holy 
Ghost. He seemed to be influenced in 
his work by no other motive than the 
desire to glorify his Master, in the sal- 
vation of souls. 

"He was," ssys Dr. Diehl, "a good 
scholar, a sound theologian, and, in the 
pulx)it, clear, practical, instructive and 
experimental. His mind was of a deep, 
philosophical vein, and if he would 
have given himself up to author- 
ship in this direction, he would have 
become distinguished." He never, how- 
ever, introduced these abstract specula- 
tions into the pulpit. His preaching 
was marked by simplicity of thought, 
an earnest and impassioned unction. 



and, above all, by a deep solemnity and 
melting tenderness. His holy life, his 
fervent prayers, his devout, earnest 
teachings, his apostolic labors will never 
be forgotten. The Church will not let 
his name die. Wittenberg College con- 
ferred upon him the honorary degree of 
D.D. at its Commencement in 1861. 

On Nov. 3, 1866, in the forty-ninth 
year of his age. Dr. Harrison died of 
Asiatic Cholera, during the prevalence 
of the epidemic in Cincinnati. . On the 
last day of the preceding month he 
followed to the grave a valued friend, a 
prominent member of his congregation, 
who had fallen a victim to the same ter- 
rible disease. The next day he was 
himself prostrated, gradually growing 
weaker, lingering between life and death, 
till the evening of the third, when he 
passed away so gently that those who 
watched by his side scarcely knew 
whether he slept or was dead. From 
the beginning he was impressed with 
the idea, that he would not recover, 
yet he was calm and resigned to the 
will of his heavenly Father. He uttered 
no murmer. His thoughts wandered to 
the sufferings of Jesus. The expres- 
sions that fell from his lips indicated 
the state of his mind in view of his ap- 
proaching dissolution. "I am," said he, 
"but a poor worm of the dust, but I 
have tried to serve my blessed Master." 
His dying councils he communicated to 
his family, and commended them to the 
guardian care of the orphans' God and 
the widows' friend. "Now there re- 
mains," he adds, "for me, but one thing 
more;" he then repeated the lines of 
that beautiful hymn: 

"Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the billows near me roll, 

While the tempest still is high." 

The only words uttered by him after 
this were, "Come Lord Jesus, come 
quickly!" 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



295 



As the tidings of his death spread, 
the whole city was overwhehned by the 
unexpected blow. Universal and pro- 
found was the impression of sadness 
which the bereavement produced in the 
community. The people mourned on 
every side, as they felt that one of the 
excellent of the earth had been re- 
moved. As friend met friend on the 
street, or in the mart of business, they 
stopped to mingle their tears and sym- 
pathies in the common grief. Special 
meetings of associations were called, ad- 
dresses delivered and resolutions adopt- 
ed. The funeral ceremonies were of a 
very imposing character. The body was 
taken to the church, which was filled to 
its utmost capacity. The pews, the 
aisles and the vestibule were crowded, 
while many were unable to press their 
way through the immense throng, with- 
in the doors of the large edifice. The 
pulpit and the chancel were occupied 
with most of the ministers belonging to 
th^ various Christian denominations of 
the city. An appropriate hymn was 
sung, impressive selections from the 
Scriptures were read, and a simple and 
tender prayer was offered. There was 
no formal sermon, but brief and touch- 
ing addresses were delivered by five of 
the ministers present, — Rev. Drs. Ayde- 
lott, Hoyt, McCarne, Neinde and Storrs, 
each one representing a different branch 
— the Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian, 
Methodist and Congregational — of the 
Christian Church. "The speakers," says 
Professor Diehl, "were men who had 
been intimately, and some of them for a 
long time associated with him in the 
work of their common Master. They 
spoke of the many marked excellencies 
of his character, his singleness of pur- 
pose and aim — his purity and holiness 
of life — his frankness and cordiality — 
his zeal and self-denial — his firmness in 
defending his own views, and his respect 



and charity for those who differed from 
him in opinion — the faithfulness, and yet 
kindness, of his reproofs^his sterling- 
integrity — his hearty co-operation in 
everything pertaining to the intellectual 
and moral education of man — giving a 
special prominence to the fraternal 
spirit, his brotherly love and kindness, 
his whole-hearted sympathy with all 
who love the Lord Jesus Christ." "Be- 
sides the various hacks," remarks the 
Christian Herald, "there were scores of 
private carriages leading to the church, 
showing how many were expecting to 
join in the procession to the cemetery. 
As we gazed upon that scene, we thought 
that it is a noble and blessed thing af- 
ter all to be a Christian pastor. We 
have seen rich men born to their burial 
through the streets of Cincinnati. The 
pageant was imposing, but it was bought 
with a price, while the love, which 
drew such crowds around our brother's 
coffin is priceless. The memory he has 
left is worth more to his stricken house- 
hold than millions of dollars, and great, 
we doubt not, is his reward in heaven." 
"He was beloved," says the Cincinnati 
Iresbyter, "by all Christian people for 
his genial and affectionate nature." "He 
was a man," adds the Western Chris- 
tian Advocate, "that you must love. Not 
only the people of his charge, and the 
members of his Sunday school, but hun- 
dreds of others, with no church rela- 
tions, will most keenly and deeply de- 
plore his death." The death of such a 
man not only invests his menory with 
peculiar tenderness and reverence, but 
hallows and ennobles his work with 
whose interests he was so closely united. 
Dr. Harrison was married November 
24th, 1846, to Sarah A., eldest daughter 
of the late Dr. Benjamin Winwood, of 
Springfield, Ohio. He was the father 
of ten children. Eight of these, six sons 
and two daughters, with the widowed 



296 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



mother, remain to lament their irrepar- 1 the light of his household and the joy 
able loss in the death of one who was | of his friends. — Ev. Quarterly Review. 




EEV. JOHN C. HAETWIG. 



John Christopher Hartwig was born 
in Saxe Gotha, Germany, Jan. 6, 1714. 
He was educated for the ministry in his 
native country, and came to America in 
early life, in the capacity of Chaplain to 
a German regiment in the service of 
England during what is commonly 
called the first French war. He was 
intimately acquainted with the Luther- 
an ministers in Pennsylvania, sympa- 
thized with them in their difficulties, and 
co-oj)erated with them in their efforts to 
advance the interests of Christ's King- 
dom. He was a member of the first Lu- 
theran Synod held in this country in 
1748, and preached the sermon on the 
occasion of Mr. Kurtz' ordination. His 
first regular charge embraced several 
congregations in the county of Hunter- 
don, N. J. This field of labor he re- 
linquished in 1748, and accepted a call 
to the Lutheran church in the city of 
New York, where it was hoped that he 
would succeed in adjusting certain diffi- 
culties of long-standing, and restore 
harmony and good feeling. The congre- 
gation at that time consisted of emi- 
grants from Holland, Germany, and 
France; and the representatives of each 
country desired that the services of the 
sanctuary should be performed in their 
own vernacular tongue. Each party 
was too weak to establish a separate or- 
ganization, and it was no easy matter to 
find a clergyman who could do justice 
to himself and the people in three dif- 
ferent languages. Mr. Hartwig's efforts 
to unite the discordant elements proved 
unsuccessful, and, as he found his posi- 



tion uncomfortable, he very soon re- 
signed his charge and removed to Rhine- 
beck, N. Y., having been invited to min-. 
ister to several congregations in Duchess 
and Ulster counties. Here, however, 
he found other difficulties awaiting him. 
The venerable Dr. Muhlenberg visited 
Rhinebeck in the autumn of 1750 for 
the purpose of settling, if possible, the 
existing difficulties and bringing about 
a better understanding. In a communi- 
cation with reference to this visit, which 
appeared shortly after in the Hallisehe 
Nachrichten, he writes as follows:-^ 

"I found the affairs of the congrega- 
tion were in considerable confusion. 
For Mr. Hartwig, in consequence of his 
friendship for us, i. e. the Lutheran 
clergymen in Pennsylvania, and also on 
account of his zealous labors on behalf 
of the gospel, had become an object of 
hatred to some of the neighboring cler- 
gymen, who charged him with being a 
Moravian in disguise. These charges 
were printed and made pubic, and, in 
consequence, a considerable degree of 
opposition was excited against him in 
his congregation. It was an easy mat- 
ter for those opposed to him to make 
distorted representations of facts, and to 
magnify into serious charges personal 
peculiarities and infirmities. Papers 
containing these charges had been sent, 
by a certain clergyman of that neigh- 
borhood, to Dr. Krauter, pastor of a 
German congregation in London, 
through whom Mr. Hartwig had, in the 
first instance, been called; but he was 
too sensible a man to pass a judgment 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



297 



upon so one-sided complaints; he there- 
fore forwarded a copy of them to Mr. H. 
for a reply. The clergyman who had 
preferred the accusation was not satis- 
fied, but continued publicly to circulate 
his charge, and had gone so far as to 
visit, in conjunction with several other 
of the neighboring ministers, Mr. Hart- 
wig's congregations; and, after reading 
a statement of the alleged facts, at- 
temped to remove Pastor Hartwig. This 
effort, however, in consequence of an 
inability to establish the charge, j)roved 
unsuccessful, and Mr. Hartwig contin- 
ued to preach in all his congregations, 
with the exception of one, in which 
Carl Rudolph, a well-known imposter, 
was invited to associate." 

The charges against Mr. Hartwig, re- 
ferred to in the above extract, were in- 
vestigated by a Conference held at 
Rhinebeck, at which the elders and 
deacons as well as members of the four 
congregations were present. Dr. Muh- 
lenberg also was in attendance. The 
result of the examination showed that, 
although Mr. Hartwig might have been 
chargeable with some indiscretions, he 
had done nothing to bring a shade over 
either his moral or Christian character. 
The question as to the propriety of his 
removal to Pennsylvania was also dis- 
cussed, and a decision in the negative 
arrived at. It was, however, deemed ex- 
jDedient for him to withdraw^ temporarily 
from his charge, until the prevailing 
feeling against him should have time to 
subside. Dr. Muhlenberg labored in 
private to effect a reconciliation, but the 
hostility was an overmatch for all his 
efforts. It was proiDosed that the Rev. 
Jacob Raus should supply Mr. Hart- 
wig's place at Rhinebeck for six months. 



and he should, during this time, serve 
the congregation at New Providence, 
Pa., as assistant minister. 

Agreeably to this suggestion, Mr. 
Hartwig repaired immediately to Penn- 
sylvania, and for six months served 
the congregation at the Trappe, being 
' an inmate, during the time, of Dr. 
Muhlenberg's family. He also officia- 
ted at the different stations connected 
with this charge. When his engage- 
ment was completed, he still continued 
in Philadelphia, though, for a consider- 
able time, he seems to have been with- 
out employment, owing, as it is sup- 
posed, to the fact that his constitutional 
peculiarities interfered so much with his 
usefulness. 

Mr. Hartwig subsequently returned 
to the state of New York, where he 
spent the remainder of his life. He 
does not seem to have been stationary 
in any place for a long time, or to have 
made any enduring mark except by his 
eccentricities and benevolent bequests. 
His death took place at Livingston 
Manor, July 17, 1796, in the eighty- 
third year of his age. 

Mr. Hartwig was possessed of a large 
estate, which he left by will for the en- 
dowment of an institution for training 
up young men to become missionaries 
among the Indians, according to the 
Augustan Confession, and the tenets of 
the Evangelical Lutheran church. Tho 
bequest, owing to certain circumstances, 
became the occasion of considerable dif- 
ficulty, which w^as continued through 
quite a number of years. The semin- 
ary was finally located at Hartwick, in 
Otsego county, under a special charter, 
obtained of the Legislature in 1810. — 
Sprague. 




38 



298 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BlOGEAPHlES. 



EEV. JOHN B. HASKELL. 



Eev. John Bachman Haskell, son of 
Col. William E. Haskell and Harriet 
Eva, (daughter of John Bachman, D. 
D., LL. D.,) born at Charleston, S. C, 
March, 1846. Eeceived preparatory in- 
struction in the Charleston High School 
and Newberry College, and graduated 
from the Charleston College in 1870. 
Taught Prof. Sachtleben's academy, 
and in Morris street public school. 
Charleston, S. C. Pursued his theo- 
logical course at the seminary, Salem, 
Ya., graduating in 1874. Was ordained 
by the South Carolina Synod in 1875. 
Traveled through Virginia and several 
other states in the interest of the Theo- 
logical Seminary, 1875. His first charge 
was at Orangeburg, S. C, then Staun- 
ton, Ya., next at the Church of the Holy 
Communion, Philadelphia, Pa., assistant 
to Eev. J. A. Seiss, D. D., and last at 
Ebenezer Church at Columbia, S. C; 
suffering of affection of the throat, he 
sought this place for its mild climate. 
He died at the home of his brother, Mr. 
William E. Haskell, White Hall, S. C, of 
consumption, June 23, 1884, in the thir- 
ty-ninth year of his age. He was 
buried near the Ebenezer Lutheran 
church, Columbia, S. C. 

The following notice from the Charles- 
ton, S. C, Neivs and Courier, will be read 
with a sad interest by the friends of this 
young and promising minister who 
mourn over his early departure. 

"The Eev. J. Bachman Haskell died 
at Whitehall, on the Charleston and 
Savannah railroad, on Monday, Jnne 23, 
1884. He was one of the brightest and 
most promising young clergymen of the 
Lutheran church in South Carolina and 
died before he had reached the zenith of 



his career. Mr. Haskell was a native of 
Charleston. He was a grandson of the 
Eev. John Bachman, the great natural- 
ist and theologian, and in many of the 
characteristics of his mind he inherited 
the vigor of his illustrious grandsire. 
Mr. Haskell was graduated from the col- 
lege of Charleston in 1872, and shortly 
afterwards began the study of theology. 
After completing the course, he was or- 
dained to the ministry and began the 
chosen work of his life with bright pros- 
pects. He preached for a while in the 
Lutheran church here, of which his 
grandfather had been pastor for many 
years, and was afterwards called to the 
pastorate of the Lutheran church in 
Orangeburg, where he preached with 
power and acceptability until he was 
called to the charge of the Lutheran 
church at Staunton, Ya. About two 
years ago, he was elected pastor of the 
church in Columbia and entered upon 
his work with energy and indications of 
a prosperous pastorate among a people 
he loved with his whole heart and who 
were thoroughly devoted to him. His 
health failed, however, and he was 
granted an indefinite leave of absence 
in the hope that he might build up his 
shattered strength. It was all in vain, 
for the shaft was struck deep, and for a 
long time the life of the young clergy- 
man has been gradually, but certainly 
wasting away." 

Mr Haskell was an earnest, high-toned 
Christian gentleman. He was a close 
student and a ripe scholar. It is under- 
stood he had prepared "The Life of 
the Eev. Dr. John Bachman," for post- 
humous publication. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



299 




REV. T. N. HASSELQUIST, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Onsby, province of Scania, Sweden, 
on the 2d day of March, 1816, and is 
consequently now in his 75th year. He 
received a regular university education 
at Lund, and was ordained a minister 
of the State Church of Sweden in 1839. 
From that year up to 1852 he served 
various churches in the diocese of Luud 
as an assistant minister and as a vicar, 
and everywhere awakened a great stir 
by his sermons, which were noted for no 
small degree of brilliancy and evangelical 
pathos and earnestness. 

His spiritual awakening seems to have 
come to pass from early youth without 
any marked or abrupt change, and yet 
with a remarkable depth and conscious- 
ness. From the beginning, when he 
entered the university, he preached the 
law and the Gospel, and sinners awakened 



and found peace in Christ. While yet 
in Sweden he was much interested in 
the various reforms of the time. Thus 
he took an active part in the discussion 
and work in regard to church reforms, 
temperance, home and foreign missions, 
and he was always heard with great 
interest. 

In 1852 he came to this country on 
call from a small Swedish Evangelical 
Lutheran church at Galesburg, 111. 
Nothing but the love of Christ and love 
of souls could have constrained him to 
accept such a position. To be a Gospel 
minister among the newly-arrived poor 
immigrants is no sinecure. But with a 
remarkable self-denial he labored in his 
accepted position for ten years, or up to 
1863, and succeeded by earnest work, 
love of Christ and souls, to build up 
quite a large congregation, which to-day 



300 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



is one of the most influential churches 
of Galesburg. By the older people Dr. 
Hasselquist's labors at that place are 
well and fondly remembered. He took 
an active part in all questions tending 
to build up the church of Christ and 
furthering true reforms and a Christian 
civilization. 

In 1855 he started the first successful 
newspaper in the Swedish language. 
He called this the Weekly Hemlamiet 
(the Home-Land) and edited it to the 
end of 1858, when it was removed to 
Chicago. This paper was published in 
the interest of evangelical religion and 
Christian reform. It advocated the 
abolition of slavery, the spread of 
temperance and the opposition to oath- 
bound secret societies. The influence 
which Dr. B.asselquist, by this paper, 
created among the Swedish population 
all over the country, was very great. 
It is not saying too much that Dr. 
Hasselquist, by his work, has, to quite 
a large degree, moulded the religious, 
political and social type which is still so 
apparent among the Swedes of this 
country. 

In 1860, when the Augustan a Synod 
was organized, he was chosen president 
of that body, and acted as such for ten 
years consecutively. In 1863 he was 
elected Theological Professor and Presi- 
dent of the Augustas a College and 
Theological Seminary, and thus became 
the successor of the sainted Bev. L. P. 
Esbjorn. In that capacity he still serves 
the institution and the church to which 
he belongs. Since 1874 he has published 
a religious weekly, Augustana, and by it 
has exerted a very wide influence. Be- 
sides, he has served as pastor of congre- 
gations, in addition to his other duties. 

Notwithstanding his age, he is still in 
good health and vigor of body and soul, 
and he gives good hopes of being able 
yet to stand years of hard labor forj 



Christ and his kingdom. Dr. Hassel- 
quist is a man of deep convictions, and 
he requires a sure footing in the 
Scriptures for all that he says, writes 
and does. God grant that we may have 
many such earnest and well-balanced 
men! 

In 1870 Muhlenberg College honored 
him with the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. 



We became acquainted with Dr. 
Hasselquist at Galesburg, 111., on his 
arrival in the United States, now near 
forty years ago. He and Bev. Mr. 
Esbjorn, father of the professor at 
Augustana College, Bock Island, were 
among the earliest arrivals of the 
Scandinavians in that part of Illinois, 
and were frequent guests at onr house. 
Mrs. Blanchard predicted for them great 
usefulness and success in our country, 
and events have confirmed her judgment, 
and proved her wisdom and discernment. 
At first there we]-e but one or two small 
churches in that whole region. Now 
the Augustana Synod numbers nearly 
or quite one hundred thousand members 
on its church books. Esbjorn died, and 
Dr. Hasselc[uist has been the leader 
and representative of our Scandinavian 
population, which have no superiors, if 
even equals, in the millions of our foreign 
population. Indeed, Sweden may be 
considered the northern lights of the 
nations. The Beformation of Luther 
destroyed (says Bebold's General His- 
tory of Masonry) all but three or four 
of the lodges of operative Masons on the 
continent of Europe; and Sweden was 
blessed with a poor soil, good climate, 
and a pious people. Of betwee!i four 
and five millions of people all are 
Protestant Christians but about two 
thousand Boman Catholics and one 
thousand Jews. The country was so 
fortunate as to obtain for her king the 



AMEBIC AN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



301 



only one of Napoleon's marshals (Berna- 
dotte) who had the capacity and courage 
to differ with his autocratic master, and 
to oppose his mad scheme of universal 
empire. 

But the grand crowning mercy of 
Sweden, Norway and Finland, was the 
presence of Christ and the absence of 
false altars. Wh ile th e Pilgrims and their 
immediate descendants were chopping 
down the American forests, priests kept 
nloof. No Masonic lodge existed in the 
United States till 1733, one hundred 
and thirteen years from the landing at 
Plymouth. Then there was money in 
Boston, and a lodge was formed there, 



which is now throwing down God's altars 
and setting up those of Baal. 

But two-thirds of Scandinavia are still 
mountain and forest. No country was 
so thoroughly reformed from popery; 
and though their king and court bishops 
have some of them now been stripped 
and sworn into lodges, in no country is 
Masonry so thoroughly abhorred as in 
Sweden. This explains its production 
of such men as the good Dr. Hasselquist. 
— The Christian Cynosure. 



Dr. Hasselquist died in his home at 
Augustana College, Rock Island, 111., on 
the fourth of February, 1891. 




REV. G. C. H. HASSKARL, Ph.D. 



Rev. Gottlieb Christopher Henry 
Hasskarl, Ph. D., was born in East Eden, 
Pa., Sept. 14th, 1855. He received a 
thorough German training under the 
directions of his father tJic Rev. Dr. 
W. R. C. Hasskarl, and tutors from 
Lafayette and Yale Colleges. After the 



Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 
Pa., and graduated in 1880. In 1890 
he finished the Post Graduate Course 
of Pennsylvania College, receiving the 
degree of Ph. D. He was ordained to 
the office of the Gospel Ministry in 1880 
by the German Lutheran Ministerium 



death of his father he entered the of Pennsylvania at Lancaster, Pa., and 



302 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



has been ever since in the active 
ministry. He is a member of the 
American Association for the advance- 
ment of Science, and the National 
Academy of Theology. He has been a 
contributor to ''the Lutheran Observer," 
''The Lutheran," "The Lutheran Evan- 
gelist" and "The Workman." Dr. Hass- 
karl is the author of the following highly 
recommended works: "The Word of 
God Systematical and Daily," published 
in 1883. "The Terrible Catastrophe, 
or Biblical Deluge," illustrated and 
corroborated by mythology, tradition, 
and geology, to which is added a brief 
interpretation of The Creation, with 
notes from theologians, philosophers, 
and scientists. The folio w?ng is a gen- 
eral synopsis of this highly interesting 
work: 

The origion of the universe: the be- 
ginning of time and things; the creation 
of the angels and the origin of Satan; 
of heaven and earth; the beginning of 
the six days' creation; the origin of 
light before the sun; the definition of 
the word day, as used in the creative 
week; the appearing of dry land; the 
variety of trees, herbs and grasses that 
furnish and adorn the earth; the appoint- 
ment of the two great lights; the exist- 
ence of the moving creature that hath 
life; the making of beasts and animals; 
the creation of man in the Image and 
Likeness of God; the location and plant- 
ing of the Garden of Eden; the primitive 
Ethiopia; the making of woman; the im- 
mortality of the soul, and how immortal; 
the question whether human souls are 
created daily, answered; the importance 
of the Tree of Life and the Tree of 
Knowledge of Good and Evil; the con- 
dition of man immediately after the cre- 
ation; as well as the preservation of one 
family, and the destruction of a sinful world; 
the formation of the earth; the different 
strata; how, when and why the surface 



of the globe was changed; the varied 
fossils; when storms, volcanoes and 
earthquakes first made their appearance; 
the origin of rivers and mountains; how 
boulders were conveyed to distant places, 
and deserts originated; where animal 
and human remains are found, and 
where together; the caves in which do- 
mestic and war implements and graven 
pictures have been discovered; also, how 
Noah, his family, and all the animals 
were preserved; why the antedeluvians 
lived to an age that now seems incred- 
ible; and what the Myths and Traditions 
of all nations say concerning the Cre- 
ation and the Deluge, are subjects of in- 
tense interest to all intelligent persons. 
In fact, these and a host of other ques- 
tions, equally interesting and import- 
ant, are answered in this volume. From 
beginning to end the work shows a wide 
range of reading on the part of the 
author. He first gives the Mosaic rec- 
ord of creation, and then cites the testi- 
mony of the most eminent scientists and 
theologians to confirm it. The Darwin 
theory of Evolution is refuted by the 
highest scientific authorities, and the 
quotations are very much to the point, 
and are well grouped to strengthen the 
argument. The 384 pages devoted to 
this subject by Dr. Hasskarl is a little 
encyclopedia on the subject. This work 
was published in 1885. 

In 1887 he published a ^amphlet on 
"Evolution, as Taught in the Bible. 
Illustrated and corroborated by Herbert 
Spencer, Darwin, Huxley,Tyndall, Sayce, 
MuUer, Yirchow, Bosseau, Agassi z, Heer, 
Dawson, Sweinfurth, Dana, Lyell,Pesch- 
el, Argyll, Miller, Brehm,Winchell, Baer, 
Humboldt, Wallace, Beale, Or ton, Morse, 
Heckel, Mivart, Pfaff, Pastuer, Cole- 
ridge, Kant, Strauss, Janet, Beimensny- 
der, Morris, Campbell, Whitton, Queen- 
stedt, Krauth, Marsh, Buckland, Oehler, 
Calovius, Boardman, Lewis, Drummond, 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPfllES. 



303 



Valentine, Thompson, Green, Hollazius, 
Keil, Shedd, Armstrong, Hickock, De- 
litzsch, etc., etc. The pamphlet con- 
tains a large amount of valuable matter 
and useful references on the subject; be 
sides a philosophical argument by the 
author, based on true principles of sci- 
ence, religion, and common sense. 

By special resolution of the New 
York and New Jersey Synod, at its 
meeting in Spruce Eun, N. J., Oct. 10, 
1888, a pamphlet ha^ been published by 
Dr. Hasskarl on "The Sanctuary,its Ori- 
gin, Design and Importance; or, Eeasons 
Why Sanctuaries are Necessary, the 
style of architecture which the Luther- 
an Church should observe, and the ter- 
ritory wherein Lutheranism should ex- 
pand to its grandest future. An address 
in behalf of the Board of Church Ex- 
tension, delivered before the Evangelical 



Lutheran Synod of New York and New 
Jersey." 

In 1887 he also published "The 
Church's Triumph in the Formation and 
Adoption of the Augsburg Confession, 
together with notes from the most em- 
inent authorities, and a complete analy- 
sis of the confession." This is an excel- 
lent history o£ that grand document of 
the Lutheran Church, "The Augsburg 
Confession," and is deserving of wide 
circulation. To the thoughtful reader 
it indicates careful research, sound 
judgment, and fervent spirit in its author. 

Dr. Hasskarl is at present (1890) en- 
gaged in preparing for the press a work 
which we hope will soon be published, 
on "How did the Universe Originate, 
and When did the World become a 
Habitable Earth? In the Light of the 
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures." 




EEV. W. E. C. HASSKAEL, Ph.D., LL.D. 



Eev. Hasskarl was born in the year 
1S09, in Doveran, Mecklenburg, Ger- 
many. After his confirmation, his father, 
a pastor at the above place, sent him to 
the Gymnasium at Halle. During this 
time his father was called to the Eostock 
University as a professor of theology. 
From Halle Mr. Hasskarl was sent to 
the University of Munchen, where, after 
completing the course, he received the 
degree of Ph. D. From there he went 
to the University of Leipzig and studied 
theology. Not being able to secure a 
pastorate in his native province, he en- 
tered the Berlin University and read 
law, receiving the degree of LL.D. In 
the Schleswig-Holstein difficulties of 



1848 he was appointed interpreter by 
the king of Prussia. In 1853 he em- 
igrated to America and landed in New 
York City. The same year he was or- 
dained to the ministry by the old Buffalo 
Synod. In the following year he mar- 
ried Elizabeth Lang, of Philadelphia, 
Pa. Seven children were born to them, 
of whom four sons still live. The two 
oldest, Eevs. G. C. H. and C. G. P. Hass- 
karl, having entered the Lutheran min- 
istry. Eev. Hasskarl died at Philadel- 
phia, Pa., in 1874, having been for many 
years previous to his death a prominent 
member of the ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania. 



304 



AMEEICAK LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 





EEY. O. J. HATLESTAD. 



Pastor O. J. Hatlestad was born in 
Skjold's Parish, not far from Stavanger, 
Norway, Sept. 30, 1823. His parents 
were Jens and Anna Hatlestad. He 
received a careful instruction from 
his pious and loving parents. His grand- 
father, Ole Hatlestad, was one of the 
early friends of Hans N. Hauge, an em- 
inent and pious layman, who by his 
writings and exhortations achieved such 
a blessed reformation in the Norwegian 
Church at a time when rationalism had 
made such fearful inroads among the 
clergy. Ole Hattlestad had for many 
years been a teacher, and he established 
a private seminary in his own house, 
where he instructed his grandson and 
other boys in religious knowledge, and 
also in writing, arithmetic, etc. 

The pious example, the instruction and 
exhortation of the pious grandfather 
made a lasting impression on Ole's 
mind and heart, and often, especially 
when alone, he prayed for the forgive- 
ness of his sins, and the renewal of his 



heart. When preparing for confirmation 
by the distinguished parish minister 
Halvorsen, his heart was often drawn 
to the Lord Jesus, and he resolved to 
devote himself to His service. Yet no 
true conversion took place. In his 
eighteenth year the call of God over- 
came his natural resistance, and he ex- 
perienced that godly sorrow which work- 
eth repentance and salvation, a repent- 
ance which bringeth no regret. By the 
precious promises he was enabled to 
believe the forgiveness of his sins, and 
that peace of God that passeth all knowl- 
edge kept his heart in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. At that time there was a very 
general revival of religion in the west- 
ern part of Norway, and many, especial- 
ly among the young people, were led to 
the Lord. 

When yet a boy, O.J Hatlestad 
often felt convinced that he ought to 
devote himself to the Gospel ministry 
as a missionary among the negroes in 
Africa, and he frequently imagined him- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



805 



self preaching to a flock of colored 
people. In his sixteenth year he was 
induced to become tutor in the family 
of a rich farmer, where, for some months, 
he imparted instruction to a couple of 
young men. Afterwards he received a 
government appointment as teacher in 
the parish school in I^erstrand, where 
he continued in the service of the 
Church until 1846, when he was dismiss- 
ed in order to emigrate to the United 
States. 

His uncle, Bjorn Hatlestad, who had 
lived in the United States since 1835, 
came on a visit to Norway, and in com- 
pany with him, and also his parents, 
brothers, and sister, O, J. Hatlestad 
left Norway May 7, 1846, and landed in 
New York in the latter part of July in 
the same year, after a voyage across the 
Atlantic Ocean of nearly ten weeks. 
From Albany to Buffalo, N. Y., the 
journey was made on canal-boats, and 
from Buffalo to Milwaukee by steamer. 
Two weeks after their arrival in Mus- 
kego. Wis., the whole family were taken 
sick with fever and ague. Their ac- 
commodations were of the very poorest 
kind; the house they lived in was a 
poorly constructed log house; the water 
they used was impure and tasted badly; 
and all their neighbors, as well as their 
fellow-emigrants, were sick with the 
fever. Many died. In this distress the 
outlook was very dark. But the Lord, 
who never leaves his people, remember- 
ed them in mercy, and by sirring they 
were all — except a brother that died in 
March — able to be up, and by slow de- 
grees even able to work. His father 
bought eighty acres of land and built 
himself a comfortable log house. The 
dark clouds were scattered and hope re- 
vived. 

In 1847 he obtained a situation as 
teacher on Jefferson Prairie, Wis. Be- 
sides teaching, he also conducted de- 
39 



votional services on Sunday, and in- 
structed children and young people in 
the Word of God. In this beautiful set- 
tlement, among many Christian friends, 
he felt at home and entertained the idea 
that it was well pleasing to God that 
he should in this way serve Him and 
aid what he could to build up the 
Church of God. 

In the year 1850 he removed to 
Racine, Wis., where, in company with 
his brother-in-law, Hon. K. Langland, 
they published "Nordlyset," the first 
Norwegian newspaper published in this 
country. The Norwegians and Danes 
residing in Racine at that time had no 
pastor to care for their religious welfare. 
Some of the Danes had united with the 
Methodists and Ba^jtists, and they tried 
what they could to conduct prayer meet- 
ings and to preach, but always in an un- 
satisfactory manner for all those who 
were rooted and grounded in the doc- 
trines of the Bible and knew the faith 
that was once delivered to the saints. 

Seeing the spiritual distress among 
his country people, he resolved in the 
name of God to appoint meetings where 
he read and explained God's holy word. 
At first but few attended, but after a 
while the number increased. Before 
long a congregation was organized, and 
Rev. O. Andrewson was called as x^astor. 
After his removal to Illinois, Rev. H. 
Larson, from Buffalo, N. Y., accepted the 
call from the congregation. Rev. Lar- 
son was sickly, and often unable to 
l^reach; in that case he called on Hatle- 
stad to preach and conduct church ser- 
vices in his stead. And as Rev. Larson 
grew steadily worse, suffering as he did 
from consum^Dtion, Hatlestad was com- 
pelled to preach almost every Sunday. 

In the fall of 1853 he very unexxject- 
edly received a call from the Norwegian 
Lutheran congregation at Leland, La 
Salle Co., III. By agreement a united 



306 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



meeting of the Chicago and Mississippi 
Conferences of the Synod of North- 
ern Illinois was appointed to be 
held in Pastor P. Andersen's church, 
Chicago, Jan. 4-9, 1844, where Hatle- 
stad was to be examined in the 
several branches of Christian theology. 
After quite a lengthy and thorough ex- 
amination the committee reported as fol- 
lows: "The committee has examined 
O. J. Hatlestad in Dogmatics, Polemics, 
Exegesis and Church History, and found 
him to be well posted in all these 
branches. The committee also knows 
that he is gifted as a preacher, and has 
good knowledge in practical theology, 
Christian experience, sound morals, and 
general education. Wherefore the com- 
mittee recommends him to be pres- 
ident of the Lutheran Synod of Northern 
Illinois to grant him an ad interim license 
to preach the Gospel and perform all min- 
isterial acts, in accordance with the reso- 
lution adopted by the Ministerium at 
its last meeting." It was a general rule 
in nearly all Lutheran synods in this 
country at that time, that no person 
should be ordained unless he served at 
least one year as a licentiate. At the 
meeting of the synod in 1854 the license 
of Rev. Hatlestad was renewed, and 
the next year he was ordained at the 
annual meeting of the Synod of North- 
ern Illinois, held in the Norwegian Lu- 
theran Church at Leland, 111. 

Rev. Hatlestad served the congrega- 
tion in Leland for about five years. 
When he took charge the congregation 
owned a very small church. The mem- 
bers were few and mostly poor. The 
salary paid the pastor amounted to 
about $200. After a couple of years the 
congregation increased steadily; the 
word of God exerted its powerful and 
saving influence on a large number of 
persons, and the congregation became 
prosperous and united in all good works. 



A new church was built, and the pas- 
tor's salary was increased to $500. 

In the year 1859 Rev. O. J. Hatlestad 
accepted a call to the First Scandinavian 
Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wis. 
Here he served as pastor continually for 
sixteen years and six months. He also 
organized congregations in Neenah and 
Manitowoc, Wis., and supplied them 
with the ministrations of the Church, 
for some years, until they called settled 
pastors. He had a great deal to do in 
assisting emigrants, attending to the 
poor and needy, visiting vacant congre- 
gations, attending synodical and con- 
ference meetings, etc. 

In 1870 he was elected president of 
the Norwegian Lutheran Augustana 
Synod, and re-elected from year to year 
till 1880, when he refused re-election on 
account of poor health. He resigned 
the congregation in Milwaukee in 1876. 
His advancement in years, multiplied 
duties, and feeble health, seemed to 
make it his duty to seek a field of labor 
where so much continual work was not 
required. He accepted a call, for the 
time being, from the Norwegian Luther- 
an congregation at Forest Ctiy, Iowa. 
Here he resided a year and six months, 
when he received and accepted a call 
from the Norwegian Lutheran congrega- 
tion in Springfield Township, Winne- 
shiek Co., Iowa. Here he has labored up 
to the present time, although now near- 
ly sixty-seven years old. In 1888, at 
the annual meeting of Synod at Milan, 
Minn., he was re-elected president of 
the Norwegian Augustana Synod, and 
continued in this ofiice until this sum- 
mer (1890), when the Augustana Synod, 
the Conference and the Anti-Missourians 
united and became one Church organ- 
ization. 

In the year 1848 Rev. O. J. Hatlestad 
united in marriage with Aasa K. Landen. 
They have had eight children, of whom 



AMEBIC AN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



307 



four died in infancy, and four are 
living. Their oldest son, James, is at- 
torney-at-law, residing at Canton, S. D. 
The next, Joseph, professor and pres- 
ident of Grulf Coast College, Handsboro, 
Miss. Their youngest son, Christian, is 
office clerk in Preston, Minn., and their 
only daughter, Emelia, married to A. W. 
Thompson, abstractor, Preston, Minn. 
Pastor Hatlestad has, for several years, 
been editor of the Church paper "Zw- 
therske Kirkstidende,^'' and has written 
several articles for the Church papers — 
Norwegian and English. 



In 1887 he edited and published a 
book: "History of the Norwegian 
Augustana Synod, and the Lutheran 
Church in America." This book of 250 
pages has been widely circulated, and 
published in two editions. 

He thanks God for his ever continu- 
ing grace and mercy, by which he has 
been enabled to do some service for 
the religious welfare of his brethren, 
and the upbuilding of the Lutheran 
Church. 




EEV. A. J. D. HAUPT, A.M. 



The subject of this sketch is the 
seventh and youngest son of Gen. Her- 
man Haupt and Ann Cecelia (Keller) 
Haupt. He was born at Greenfield, 
Mass., on June 1, 1859, whilst his father 
was engaged in the initiatory work of 
the famous Hoosac Tunnel. His ma- 
ternal grandfather was the Rev. Benja- 
min Keller, a well known servant of the 
church and one of founders of the Phil- 



adelphia Seminary, of which an uncle, 
the Rev. C. W. Schaeffer, D.D., is now 
the worthy president. 

At the age of seven years he began 
attending the public school at Chestnut 
Hill, near Philadelphia, Pa. When 
nine years old the family moved to Phil- 
adelphia where his studies were con- 
tinued and completed, after eighteen 
years of school life. He passed through 



308 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the whole public school course, graduat- 
ing from the Boys' Central High school, 
Feb. 14, 1874, standing seventh in a 
class of twenty-six, of which he was 
chosen the Valedictorian. From this 
institution he received as a reward by 
the high average attained at the final 
examination, a certificate of distin- 
guished scholarship and also a certificate 
to teach as a principal in any of the 
public schools of Philadelphia. Five 
years after graduation this institution 
also conferred upon him the degree of 
Master of Arts. During the last two 
years of his high school course, his spare 
moments were engaged in studying Lat- 
in and Greek, preparatory to entering col- 
lege, and his whole time from Feb, 14 
to June 12, 1878, was similarly occupied. 
Then followed a four years' course in the 
University of Pennsylavnia, from which 
he graduated June 15, 1882, among the 
second honors, ranking nine in a class 
of twenty-six; but having taken during 
his last years at college, also during his 
first year at the seminary, besides hav- 
ing had fourteen of his fellow pupils to 
tutor in mathematical physics and as- 
tronomy. He also had the honor of being 
one of the orators of the class at Com- 
mencement, which, strange to say, took 
place just fifty years after that of his uncle. 
Rev. C. W. Schaeffer, D.D., from the 
same institution. Two years later, June, 
1884, he graduated from the Lutheran 
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 
thus completing his preparatory course 
of studies ; and was ordained at Reading, 
Pa., Jan. 10, 1884, from whence he de- 
parted a few days later, to the field of 
his future labors in St. Paul, Minn. 

When only three years old he was 
stricken with a dangerous disease from 
which his parents never expected him to 
recover. At the age of twelve he was 
suddenly taken down with typhoid pneu- 
monia and for one whole week was un- 1 



conscious; but again the good Lord 
spared him, and as strength returned 
his pious father said to him one day, — 
"my son, God has spared your life in a 
marvelous way, now these two times in 
answer to your mother's prayers and 
mine; do you not think that He intends 
you for some grand and noble work?" 
This was the beginning of very serious 
thought on his part of preparing for the 
ministry. His confirmation under Rev. 
J. A. Kunkelman in St. Mark's, Phila- 
delphia, strengthened the conviction. 
Still there was a doubt and a looking 
back with longing to the money making 
opportunities of the world, until he heard 
an aged disciple of the Lord preach in 
Richmond, Va., from the text, "Whoso 
putteth his hand to the plow and look- 
eth back is not fit for the kingdom of 
heaven." From that day his face was 
turned toward the gospel ministry, with 
ten years of preparation before him. 
At another time, the Lord, in a direct 
answer to a special prayer, made known 
to him his call and promised blessing. 

Moreover, the Lord had all these years 
been preparing him for his future work. 
While yet a mere boy, he was trained 
in the use of tools, and assisted in the 
erection of a number of buildings. At 
the age of seventeen he was called upon 
to begin mission work among the poor 
whites in the mountains of Virginia in 
the vicinity of his summer home. In 
this work he was several times called 
upon to make extemporaneous addresses; 
a great strain upon him at the time, but 
the value of these experiences to his 
later work cannot be overestimated. At 
the same time he was compelled to keep a 
country store, and thus became ac- 
quainted with the keeping of books and 
finances. In 1881 his father was called 
to St. Paul, Minn., as general manager 
of the Northern Pacific railroad. In 
1882, Rev, Haupt, then graduating from 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



309 



the University, paid his parents a visit 
at St. Paul. He was imjDressed with the 
great need of English Lutheran mission 
work, for as yet there was not a single 
English Lutheran Mission in the North 
West, Rev. Trabert not having started 
his work in Minneapolis until January 
of the following year. The following 
summer, 1888, Mr. Haupt, being a senior 
student in the seminary, came again to 
St. Paul, and spent the whole summer 
assisting Rev. Tabert to establish a mis- 
sion in St. Paul. The influence of his 
father was a great aid in this undertak- 
ing, by which he was enabled to secure 
nearly $1900 in three months. The rest 
of the needed amount having been do- 
nated by friends in the east through 
Rev. G. H. Tabert. 

Rev. Haupt was installed as the Eng- 
lish Lutheran minister to St. Paul, July 
6, 1884, on a salary from the Mission 
Committee of $400, and $100 from the 
congregation. Had it not been that his 
parents kindly gave him his room and 
board, he never could have lived upon 
the sum in those days. 

Since that time until the present, 
(Jan. 1, 1891) he has built three church- 
es, and saved the missions a consider- 
able sum by drawing his own plans and 
personally su^Dervising the work of 
building. Over $12,000 have been 
raised for the work in St. Paul, some 
$10,000 of which were raised through 



his persistent efforts. The three mis- 
sions have received in all a total mem- 
bership of 220 souls, and the Sunday 
schools some 500 scholars, the j)resent 
membership being about 180 communi- 
cants and 250 scholars. 

To carry on and keep alive this work 
has required a great strain on the part 
of the missionary. He has been com- 
pelled to be his own janitor, organist, 
choir master, and preacher, and, at 
times, almost his own congregation. 
He has had to hold four and five ser- 
vices on Sundays, and, including cat- 
echetical classes, the same number dur- 
ing the week; has had a tedious drive 
of sixteen miles every Sunday afternoon 
during the winter in the severe cold 
with the thermometer twenty to thirty 
degrees below zero, and many times al- 
most frozen stiff; or during the heat and 
dust of the dry summer months weary 
and worn. 

It may be interesting to the reader to 
know that the early days of this pastor 
were spent in the EpiscojDal Church, 
there being no English Lutheran 
church that the family could attend, 
but that a gracious Providence led him 
back into the noble faith of his fathers. 

Rev. Haupt was for many years the 
bosom friend of the Rev. Horace G. B. 
Artman, who died in the mission field 
of India. 



^ 



REY. C. ELYIN HAUPT, A. M. 



Since he entered on his residence in 
Lancaster, Pa., Sept. 1, 1875, as Dr. 
Greenwald's assistant, the Rev. Charles 
Elvin Haupt has seemed a vital part of 
Lancaster and its Lutheranism. He is 
the oldest son of Lewis L, Haupt and 



his wife, Louisa C, daughter of Rev. 
Benj. Keller. He was born Oct. 6, 1852, 
at Harrisburg. His youth was spent in 
Philadelphia. After graduation at the 
L^niversity of Pennsylvania of that city 
and the Philadelphia Theological Sem- 



310 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



inary, he was ordained by the Ministe- 
rium of Pennsylvania at Norristown, 
May 26, 1875. 

His duties as assistant to Dr. Green- 
wald lay especially in that portion of 
Holy Trinity parish where Christ Church 
had been erected. He was a man exact- 
ly to the Doctor's mind — in many things 
a copy of the mild, engaging old pastor, 
and has since succeeded to his local 
popularity among people of every rank, 
notably among the poor and distressed. 

In January, 1880, he became pastor 
of Grace Church, in the northern part 
of the city. Fruits of his work there 
are a small parish school, quite a rarity 



in English churches, and the Greenwald 
memorial mission, called "The Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Sunday School of 
Emmanuel.'' 

He is the author of "Stories from 
Bible History," and a biography of Rev. 
Dr. Greenwald. His skill in music and 
drawing, and his acquaintance with 
most of the natural sciences, added to a 
ready flow of genial humor and an 
abundant store of apt anecdotes and 
illustrations, make him a valuable ad- 
junct at Sunday School institutes and 
wherever children or youth are to be in- 
terested in the affairs of God's Kingdom. 




KEY. PROF. LEWIS M. HAUPT. 



It is said that the best history is 
biography. In science and engineering 
as well, the best record of ideas is to be 
found in the lives of the men who held 
them. In presenting, then, a brief 
sketch of one of the busiest of these 
workers, there is given a fragment of 
the history of progress. 

Professor Lewis M. Haupt, whose 
activity as an engineer perhaps entitles 
him to be called the successor of Capt. 
Eads, is a native of Pennsylvania. He 
was born at Gettysburg, on March 21, 
1844. His father, General H. Haupt, 
was at that time professor of mathemat- 
ics at Pennsylvania College, but short- 
ly afterward becoming connected with 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, he removed 
his family to Harrisburg, and subse- 
quently to Philadelphia. Prof. Haupt's 
boyhood was spent in an engineering 
atmosphere. He attended the public 
schools for a short time, but his health 
being delicate, out-of-door exercise was 



recommended in place of the school 
room. 

As General Haupt now assumed the 
contract for building the Troy and 
Greenfield Railroad, and the Hoosac 
Tunnel, the son had an excellent oppor- 
tunity to put this* recommendation into 
practice. He was but fourteen years of 
age when his engineering work began. 
School, however, was not entirely given 
up. The winters were spent at the 
Greenfield and Cambridge High Schools, 
and later at the Lawrence Scientific 
School. From the latter institution he 
was appointed by President Lincoln, in 
the fall of 1863, to a cadetship at West 
Point. Four years later Professor Haupt 
was graduated and immediately assigned 
to duty in the United States corps of 
engineers. His first work in the service 
was with a party then conducting the 
triangulation of Lake Superior. 

It is generally considered somewhat 
of a disadvantage that Americans move 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



311 





s£,^i^c^-z^ 



around so mucli, but it has the com- 
pensation of affording a wide experience. 
Though the severe climate of the Lake 
region very soon made it necessary for 
Professor Haupt to apply for a change 
of duty, the experience gained there 
was of great value to the engineer and 
future teacher. In the spring of 1869, 
the young lieutenant was ordered to re- 
port to General Canby, then in charge 
of the Fifth Military District (Texas). 
The change from one frontier to an- 
other brought a corresponding change 
of duties. As aid and engineer officer, 
his work consisted chiefly in the exam- 
ination of government buildings and 



military roads. He had also occasion 
to devise a scheme for the protection of 
the Fort Brown Reservation from the 
encroachments of the Rio Grande. 

Again Professor Haupt's work w^as of 
short duration. In the fall he resigned 
from the public service to accept the 
position of assistant engineer and to- 
pographer in charge of the surveys of 
Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia. He 
was engaged on this work for several 
years, collating the data for an elaborate 
contour map, and locating and construct- 
ing the drives, drains, and other en- 
gineering features of this extended 
pleasure ground. 



312 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



In 1872 came another change of oc- 
cupation. He was appointed an assist- 
ant Examiner in the Patent Office in 
the class of engineering and architec- 
ture. Though enjoying rapid pro- 
motion, he resigned his position in a 
few months in order to accept the pro- 
fessorship of civil engineering at the 
University of Pennsylvania. Up to 
this time Professor Haupt's life had 
been spent in gaining experience. He 
was now in a position where he could 
make good use of it, both as a student 
himself and as an instructor. It is at the 
university that his best work has been 
done. A professorship offers unusual 
opportunities to a man of ideas. The 
work of the position is in itself con- 
stantly stimulating, while the leisure it 
affords permits him to undertake re- 
searches that would be impossible to the 
busy man of affairs. 

The danger of it is possibly that one 
may be tempted to let this outside work 
encroach too far upon the time that 
should be devoted to his students. On 
the other hand, if kept within proper 
bounds it adds greatly to the efficiency 
of the teacher, for it gives him a con- 
stantly increasing store of experience to 
draw uiDon. In this respect Professor 
Haupt has been fortunate in the utiliza- 
tion of his spare time. He has spent 
the long vacations of summer in prac- 
tical engineering work. He has held 
appointments as an engineer in charge 
of the light house service in making 
hydrographic surveys for the range 
lights in the Delaware, as an assistant 
in the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey in charge of the geodesy of 
Pennsylvania, for five years, and of 
various works on the Northern Pacific 
Railroad. 

In 1877 the Engineers' Club of Phila- 
deljjhia was organized, and Professor 
Haupt chosen as its first president. It is 



now one of the largest and most influ- 
ential technical organizations in this 
country. The proceedings of the club 
contain many of his contributions, the 
papers on intercommunication in cities, 
Rapid Transit, Harbor Studies, and 
Proposed removal of Smith's Island (in 
the Delaware River opposite Philadel- 
phia), being perhaps among the most 
important. The titles to Professor 
Haupt's numerous articles and mono- 
graphs, for his j)en is a very active one, 
show a wide range of subjects, but it will 
be observed that prominence has been 
given to those problems of engineering 
which come the nearest to every-day 
life. 

However busy a man may be, and 
however varied may be his occupations, 
first preferences are pretty sure to come 
to the surface if they have half a chance 
to do so. In Professor Haupt's case, 
his first professional work was in the 
triangulation of Lake Superior, and 
throughout the rest of his career his atten- 
tion is constantly reverting to the prob- 
lems connected with water and water- 
ways. At the present time his name is 
prominently before the public, on ac- 
count of the valuable contributions of a 
practical character which he has made 
to our knowledge of the conditions es- 
sential to all harbor improvements. In 
his most recent paper on the subject, 
''The Physical Phenomena of Harbor 
Entrances," he has presented important 
discoveries and suggested new methods 
for a general solution of the difficult ijrob- 
lems of improving the entrances to all 
alluvial harbors. In recognition of the 
merit of these discoveries, the American 
Philosophical Society has just awarded 
him the Magellan premium, the highest 
acknowledgment it is in their power to 
confer. The jealous care with which the 
honor is guarded by that conservative 
body may be judged from the fact that 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



313 



the award has been granted but twice 
during the past forty-five years. 

Like most valuable discoveries, Pro- 
fessor Haupt's is so simple that the 
only wonder is that the engineers who 
have been spending such large amounts 
on attempted harbor improvements had 
not long ago found it out for themselves. 
He has shown that bars are the result of 
the increasing semi-diurnal action of the 
flood tide as it is aflPected by the general 
trend of the coast line and compressed 
toward the bight of the three large bays 
extending along the Atlantic coast from 
Cape Sable to Cape Florida. The mean 
tide at the salient points of these capes 
is between one and one -half and two 
feet. It gradually increases along their 
flanks to its maximum value at the great- 
est distance from the chord joining the 
points. The ebb channels and the cross- 
ings over the bar are moulded by this 
component To prevent in part the 
compression and deflection of the ebb 
channels, Professor Haupt has proposed 
a barrier of peculiar form, which is de- 
si 'j:ned to prevent the sand from being 
carried into the channel by the flood. 
It is so constructed, however, as to free- 
ly admit the flood tide to the inner bay, 
and concentrate the ebb. The length of 
the proposed barrier is ultimately to be 
about one-half that of the present jetty 
system. The latter, it is contended, does 
not fulfill the conflicting conditions of 
this admittedly difficult problem. The 
method seems to be very simple and ef- 
ficient, and if carried into effect might 
reasonably be expected to accomplish 
much for our alluvial harbors. 

Professor Hauxjt is the author of sev- 
eral standard works on engineering sub- 
jects. He is also actively connected 
with a number of prominent societies be- 
sides the Engineer's Club. When the 
scheme for reorganizing the public civil 
works was under discussion in 1885, he 
40 



was one of the delegates and was as- 
signed important duties. The result of 
his investigations was published in 
LippincoWs Magazine. His system of 
movable dams for use in tidal waters is 
familiar to most of the profession. 

As a teacher, Professor Haupt can 
best be judged by his results. He has 
been a very busy man outside of the 
university, but his work there has gained 
rather than suffered by his activity. 
It has brought the student into actual 
contact with the problems of the times. 
It has undoubtedly been a great help to 
them, and has given them a working ef- 
ficiency unattainable by more abstract 
methods of instruction. The depart- 
ment of civil engineering ranks among 
the first in an institution which enjoys 
the distinction of numbering among its 
faculty some of the most eminent men 
in America. — Scientific American. 



On May 4, 1888, the Magellanic pre- 
mium, of which the American Philosoph- 
ical Society is the trustee, was present- 
ed to Prof. Lewis M. Haupt, of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, "for his discov- 
ery in Physical Hydrography, and for 
his invention of a system of harbor im- 
provements." The work of which was 
thus so highly honored is embodied in 
Prof. Haupt's recent publication on the 
"Physical Phenomena of Harbor En- 
trances, their Causes and Remedies." 

The Magellanic Premium was estab- 
lished in the year 1786, by John Hya- 
cinth de Magellan, of London, who of- 
fered to the Philosophical Society, as a 
donation, the sum of 200 guineas to be 
vested in a secure and permanent fund, 
to the end that the interest arising there- 
from should be annually disposed of in 
premiums to be adjudged by them to the 
author of the best discovery or most 
useful invention relating to navigation, 



314 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



astronomy or natural philosophy (mere 
natural history only excepted). 

The medal presented to Prof. Haupt 
is of gold. It is oval in form, two and 
a quarter inches long by one and seven- 
eighths wide. The inscriptions are in 
alto-relievo, and are, on the obverse the 
premium of John Hyacinth de Magel- 
lan, of London. Around the margin, 
and separated from the panel by a heavy 
laurel wreath, is the motto prepared by 
the committee, which reads ^'Non Dei leges 
mutare, sed in Jiominum usum adhibere" 
(not to change the laws of God, but to 
apply them in the service of men). 

On the reverse the inscription reads: 
Awarded by the American Philosophi- 
cal Society to Lewis M. Haupt, for his 
discovery in Physical Hydrography and 
for his invention of a system of harbor 
improvements.. Around the margin: 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December, 
MDCCCLXXXYU.—PubliG Ledger. 



Prof. L. M. Hanpt was confirmed by 
his maternal grandfather, Eev. Benjamin 



Keller, in St. Michael's Evangelical 
Lutheran Church, Germantown, Phila- 
delphia, of which his uncle, Eev. Dr. 
Chas. W. Schaeffer, was then pastor, on 
the 6th day of September, 1861, and 
has since been actively connected with 
the various churches and Sunday Schools 
in and near that city. At first, with the 
Sunday School and mission started by 
his mother at Chestnut Hill and which 
has resulted in Christ's Church in that 
suburb. Subsequently with St. Mark's, 
St. John's, Holy Communion (of which 
he was Assistant Superintendent), St. 
Peter's (Superintendent), and lastly, 
St. Stephens, where he has been in- 
structing Bible classes for several years. 
He has also been a member of the 
Church Extension Society and is now a 
member of the local committee having 
charge of the construction of the Church 
of the Incarnation in West Philadelphia, 
a branch of St. Stephens, of which latter 
congregation he has been an ofiicer for 
some years. He is an occasional con- 
tributor to the church papers. 




EEY. DANIEL J. HAUEE, D.D. 



Eev. Daniel J. Hauer, D.D., now a 
resident of Hanover, York Co., Pa., was 
born in Frederick, Md., March 3, 1806, 
and his parents, George and Catherine 
(Shellman) Hauer, were also natives of 
the same town. He received his ele- 
mentary training in the public schools 
of Frederick and prosecuted his classi- 
cal studies at the Frederick College, 
then in charge of President Hanson. In 
1823 he began the study of theology un- 
der Eev. Daniel F. Schaeffer, D.D., and 
three years later he was licensed to 
preach by the Synod of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia. After this he was immediately 



appointed by the president of the Synod, 
missionary for the state of Virginia and 
he gladly labored among the Lutherans 
who were settled here and there through- 
out its thinly populated counties. To 
them the sound of the gospel from the 
lips of one of their own denomination 
and in their own (German) language, 
was, indeed, "glad tidings," and upon 
one occasion, when preaching to a large 
and attentive audience, an affecting in- 
cident occurred. After the sermon was 
ended an aged man with trembling foot- 
steps approached the pulpit and with a 
voice checked with emotion said, — 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



315 



"Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in 
peace. For nine years I have prayed for 
the blessed privilege of hearing the gos- 
pel preached in my mother tongue, and 
by a minister of my own church, and at 
last my prayer has been answered." 

After a brief period Mr. Hauer was 
induced to give up this missionary field 
and become the pastor of congregations 
whose territory extended through five 
counties of North Carolina, and then he 
united with the North Carolina Synod. 
He was ordained to the regular ministry 
by this Synod in 1829, at Wythe Court 
House, Va. 

For several years he labored in North 
Carolina and then was called to the 
charge where now is located Roanoke 
College, Salem, Ya., then a field so 
broad that it required four weeks to 
make a circuit of the charge. It extend- 
ed through Montgomery, Roanoke, 
Floyd and Botetourt counties, Va. Be- 
ing one of the organizers of the Virginia 
Synod, Mr. Hauer assisted in framing 
its constitution and remained in connec- 



tion with it until 1832, when he removed 
to Lovellsville, London Co., Va. There 
he spent thirteen years and during that 
time his labors were abundantly bless- 
ed and the charge increased greatly in 
number and spirituality. In 1845 he 
was called to Jefferson, Frederick Co., 
Md., and remained there until 1853, 
when he found a new field of labor in 
Carroll Co., Md., and was located in the 
village of Manchester. During his stay 
there the degree of D.D. was conferred 
upon him by Irving College. In 
1852 he removed to Abbottstown, Adams 
Co., Pa., and then had charge of four 
congregations. In 1872 he was called 
to the Manheim charge and changed his 
residence to Hanover, Pa. This charge 
being divided he finally accepted the 
pastorate of Spring Grove which con- 
gregation he had previously organized. 
Although he has passed the allotted 
fourscore years he is still earnestly and 
actively engaged in the Master's work. 
—W. G. RG. 




REV. J. HAWKINS, D.D. 



Rev. Jacob Hawkins, D. D., was born 
in Newberry Co., S. C, Sept. 4, 1828. 
His father. Rev. P. W. Hawkins, was a 
Lutheran minister in the South Carolina 
Synod, but removed to West Tennessee 
when the subject of this sketch was a 
boy. The family being in very moder- 
ate circumstances, and education being 
but little appreciated in his community, 
he grew up to manhood with scarcely 
the ability to read. He was, however, 
dedicated to the Lord by baptism in in- 
fancy, and at the age of two years, in a 
case of severe illness when his life was 
despaired of, he w^as solemnly dedicated 



to the holy ministry, provided his life 
should be spared, by his pious mother. 
He was trained in the Sunday School, 
and being fond of the Scriptures and 
the hymns of the Church, he committed 
large portions of these, as well as the 
catechism, to memory. In his fifteenth 
year he was confirmed. His father and 
mother, and also many of his neighbors, 
often reminded him of their desire that 
he should enter the holy ministry, and, 
these appeals made a deep impression 
upon his youthful mind. 

In his sixteenth year his father re- 
moved to Tennessee, and into a neigh- 



316 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ii^ 









BEV. J. HAWKINS, D. D. 



borhood where the Lutheran Church 
was entirely unknown. The wild, idle 
and aimless life of a newly settled 
country did not favorably impress it- 
self upon his mind, and he longed for 
better society, an education, and better 
surroundings. At the age of twenty his 
father, realizing his desires and being 
unable to assist him, advised him to seek 
a home where these advantages might be 
enjoyed. Having made up his mind to 
visit some relatives in another portion 
of the state, he left home on foot, with 
$2.50 in his pocket, and walked eighty 
miles to where his relatives resided. 
Arriving there he engaged in work up- 
on the farm for more than a year, when 
he arranged to enter school. He pur- 
sued his studies for some time at good 
schools at Hickory Wythe, in Fayette 
county, and at The Mountain, in Tipton 
county, where he gained a considerable 
knowledge of English, Latin, and Greek. 
During this time he fully made up his 
mind to enter the ministry. He return- 
ed home, made known his intention to 



his father, who with joy furnished him 
a horse and saddle; and in the middle 
of winter he set out on a journey of six 
hundred miles to the Theological School 
at Lexington, S. C. Arriving in Jan- 
uary, 1850, without funds and almost 
without clothing, a kind maiden cousin 
in Newberry county made him a present 
of $75, and he entered the classical and 
theological seminary at Lexington, to 
prepare himself for the holy ministry. 
During the five years that he spent in 
the institution he received from Eev. Dr. 
J. Bachman's cburch, in Charleston, S. 
C, $75 per year, and with this and what 
he could earn during vacations by sell- 
ing books for the American Tract Soci- 
ety, he worked his way through without 
debt, and graduated in 1855 with honor. 
In the autumn of 1855 he was li- 
censed by the South Carolina Synod, 
and in 1857 was ordained by the synod, 
the examining committee making a very 
favorable report upon his sermons and 
journals, and pronouncing him a Greek 
and Hebrew scholar. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



317 



He has been preaching continuously 
for thirty-five years, in South Carolina, 
in Savannah and Ebenezer, Ga.; in 
Shei:)herdstown, W. Va.; and in Middle- 
town, Md. In 1861 he was called to 
Savannah, Ga., to the church now 
served by Rev. Dr. Bowman. But the 
life-work, of which he began to lay the 
foundation, was cut short by the inter- 
rui^tions of the civil war, and he was 
compelled to leave the city before the 
year expired. 

His ministry has been a very active 
one. During thirty-five years he has 
not failed a dozen times to fill his pul- 
X3it because of sickness; and but short 
intervals, and these caused by the war, 
have elapsed during which he has been 
idle. It has also been an eminently 
successful ministry. More than two 
thousand souls have been added to the 
Church by baptism and confirmation by 
his labors. 

In 1874 Rev. Hawkins, with Rev. Dr. 
Dosh, was elected by the General Synod 
of the South editor of the Lutheran 
Visitor, then the only Lutheran paper 
published in the South. In 1878 he 
was made sole editor for two years, and in 
1880 the Southern Church showed its 
high aiopreciation of his services by 
making him i^ermanent editor and adopt- 
ing the Visitor as the official organ of the 
General Synod South'. He has since 
that time held this position, and has 
perhaps done as much to mould the 
character of Lutheranism in the South 
as any other individual. 

When the Book of Worship, prepared 



by the General Synod South, was put 
before the Church, there was great op- 
position to it in many places. Dr- 
Hawkins, then a young man, wrote a 
series of articles in the Church paper, 
explaining and defending the Book, 
which made a very favorable impression 
on the Church, and did much to break 
down the prejudice against it. 

In 1882 the honorary degree of D. D. 
was conferred. upon him by North Caro- 
lina College, and a few weeks after, the 
title of S. T. D. was also conferred up- 
on him by the trustees of Newberry 
College, of which Board he has been a 
member for over twenty years, and for a 
long time its president. He has served 
as president of the South Carolina Syn- 
od two terms, of the Virginia Synod 
one term, and of the General Syn- 
od two years. The presidency of two 
Female Seminaries has been tendered 
him. He has preached the Baccalaureate 
sermon at three of the male colleges, 
and the annual sermon at four of the 
female institutions of the South, a great- 
er honor in this particular than has been 
conferred upon any other pastor in the 
Southern Church. 

As an author he is not unknown. 
Several articles of his have ai)peared in 
The Lutheran Quarterly^ and he is the 
author of a series of catechisms for 
Sunday Schools, of which over ten 
thousand have been sold. 

He is now in his sixty-first year, but 
is as active and vigorous, as acceptable 
to his people, and as successful in his 
ministry as he ever was. 



318 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 







KEY. CHAELES A. HAY, D. D. 



Eev. Charles A. Hay, D.D., was bom 
at York, Pa., Feb. 11th, 1821. A pupil 
for some years in the York County Acad- 
emy, he was transferred to the German 
Eeformed High School when it was 
established in York, under the superin- 
tendency of the Eev. Dr. Eauch. In 
1834 this "High School" was removed 
to Mercersburg, Pa., and incorporated as 
Marshall College. Mr. Hay then spent 
a year under the tuition of his uncle, 
the Eev. J. G. Morris, pastor of the first 
English Lutheran church in Baltimore, 
Md. In 1836 he entered the Sophomore 
class in Pennsylvania College, at Get- 
tysburg, Pa., and was graduated, with 
the Latin salutatory, in 1839. Entering 
the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg 
in the autumn of that year, he passed 
through the regular curriculum of two 
years, but did not apply for license with 
the rest of his classmates, as he was in- 
duced by influential patrons of the 
Theological Seminary to spend two years 
in study in German universities, with 



the view of preparing himself for sub- 
sequent teaching in that institution. 

He was matriculated in the Berlin 
University in November, 1841, spending 
two semesters there and one in Halle, 
being privileged to enjoy not only the 
public instructions but also the private, 
domestic courtesies of Hengstenberg, 
Twesten, Neander, Strauss (Court 
Preacher), Gossner, Tholuck, Guericke, 
Julius Mueller, and many other men of 
note. 

Eeturning to America in October, 
1843, he was licensed by the Maryland 
Synod, and became pastor of the Mid- 
dletown charge in Frederick couuty,Md., 
in Feb., 1844. Steps were taken by the 
Alumni of the Seminary in that year for 
the establishment of an Alumni Profes- 
sorship, and the Eev. Mr. Hay was 
elected as its first incumbent by the Di- 
rectors in September, 1844. He was 
called to the chair of Hebrew, German 
and Biblical Criticism, and was elected 
by the Trustees of Pennsylvania College 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



319 



as Professor of German Language and 
Literature in that iustitution. 

There was unpleasant friction in those 
days between the faculties of the two in- 
stitutions, with both of which Mr. Hay 
was officially connected, and he felt it to 
be his duty to resign his position in 
both of them in 1848. He was then 
called as pastor of the Hanover charge 
in York Co., Pa., which at that time in- 
cluded also Littlestown and Oxford. 
Aware that the West Pennsylvania 
Synod had urged the Oxford church to 
connect itself with the weak Abbotts- 
town charge, he declined accepting the 
call unless his labors could be confirmed 
to the churches at Hanover and Littles- 
town. This having been agreed to, he 
served those two churches until July, 
1849, when he accepted a call to the 
Zion's English Lutheran church in 
Harrisburg, Pa., succeeding the Rev. 
Dr. C. W. Schaeffer. This position he 
held for sixteen years, when he was re- 
called to the professorship he had form- 
erly filled in the Theological Seminary 



at Gettysburg, with the added depart- 
ment of Pastoral Theology. During 
the twenty-five years of his second term 
of service in this institution he has been 
called upon temporarily, in consequence 
of the failing health of other members 
of the Faculty, or vacancies occasioned 
by the death of colleagues, to impart 
instruction in Biblical and Church 
History, Homiletics, Exegesis, Archae- 
ology and Dogmatics. He received the 
degree of D. D. from the Trustees of 
Pennsylvania College in 1859. 

He was married in 1845 to Sarah 
Rebecca, daughter of Hon. Charles A. 
Barnitz, of York, Pa., by whom he had 
eight children, five of whom are living, 
viz: John W. Hay, M. D., of Harrisburg, 
Pa.; Rev. Charles E. Hay, A. M., pastor 
of St. Matthew's English Lutheran 
church in Allentown, Pa.; Rev. E. G. 
Hay, A. M., pastor of the First English 
Lutheran church in Pottsville, Pa.; Mrs. 
Rev. M. L. Heisler, of Harrisburg, Pa., 
and Mrs. Prof. J. A. Heimes, of 
Gettysburg, Pa. 




REV. E. 

This pastor, who has been successful- 
ly laboring at Pottsville, Pa., since 1881, 
is the youngest son of Rev. Dr. Charles 
A. Hay, professor in our Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, and is a brother 



G. HAY. 

of Rev. Charles E. Hay, at Allentown- 
Born in 1856 and entering the ministry 
in 1878, he is now in the vigor of man- 
hood and pastoral service. He has 
proved himself possessed of the quality 



320 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of executive ability, so needful to the 
attainment of highest success in the 
ministry. His congregation and Sun- 
day-school are prosperous. 

In 1888, Mr. Hay published a "His- 
tory of the English Lutheran Church of 



Pottsville, Pa. 



It is an octavo vol- 



ume of 167 pages, and is crowded with 
matter of deep interest to the congrega- 
tion and its friends. The book is a 
model for any pastor who may purpose 
preparing a kindred work. — Lutheran S. 
S. Herald, 



EEV. EENEST L. HAZELIUS, D.D. 



Ernest Lewis Hazelius, a son of Eric 
and Christiana Hazelius, was born in 
Neusalz, in the Province of Silesia, 
Prussia, Sept. 6, 1777. He was descend- 
ed, on the paternal side, from a long 
line of honored Lutheran ministers ex- 
tending as far back as the days of the 
Swedish king, Gustavus Vasa, by whose 
agency the Reformed Eeligion was es- 
tablished in Sweden, at an early period 
of the Reformation. To this excellent 
Christian Prince one of his ancestors 
served as chaplain. Hence, though a 
native of Germany himself, the family 
from which he sprung belonged to Swe- 
den. His father had been educated at 
the University of Upsal for the ministry, 
but, in consequence of his becoming 
convinced that he was not called of 
God to the sacred office, he abandoned 
the idea, and directed his attention to 
secular pursuits. Shortly after this he 
left Sweden, and, after traveling for a 
season, finally settled in Neusalz, hav- 
ing, meanwhile, joined the Moravian 
church and married a pious woman of 
that communion. Young Ernest was 
faithfully instructed by his parents in 
the great truths of Christianity, while 
they spared no pains to secure the due 
development of his intellectual powers. 
He was deprived of his parents before 
he had reached his sixteenth year, but 
not till they had made good impressions 



upon his mind and heart that were never 
effaced. 

It may be proper here to relate a 
somewhat remarkable incident which 
had a very decisive bearing upon the 
destiny of the subject of this sketch. 
His mother was a native of Stetten, at- 
tended the same school and was on 
terms of great intimacy with the Prin- 
cess Sophia of Anhalt Zerbst, better 
known to the world as the Empress 
Catharine II, of Russia. It is said to 
have been a distinguishing characteristic 
of this Princess that, in the days of her 
greatest elevation, she never forgot her 
former friends. She granted to the 
brother of her early friend, Capt. Brahtz, 
the privilege of bringing goods, free of 
duty, to St. Petersburg, and, whenever 
his vessel was in port, invited him to 
dine with her, always making minute 
and affectionate inquiries concerning the 
companion of her school days. When 
she heard of the birth of young Ernest, 
she wrote to the mother of the boy, pro- 
posing to adopt him as her own son. 
His pious parents were embarrassed 
by the unexpected proposal, and finally 
determined not to give the Empress an 
immediate answer, but to wait til] the 
child was old enough to decide for him- 
self. Several letters were in the mean 
time interchanged, but there was noth- 
ing decisive until Ernest had reached 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



321 



his twelfth year, when another commu- 1 
nication came from the Empress, de- ' 
manding a prompt reply to the question , 
which had so long been a subject of, 
correspondence between them. "Dear, 
Christiana," writes Catharine, "give your 
consent, and I will be a mother to your 
boy," The lad had, from his earliest! 
childhood, given very satisfactory evi- 
dence of piety, and had determined, if 
he lived, to become a minister of the 
Gospel . His predilection for the ministry, 
was, probably, in some measure, induced 
by the fact that his paternal ancestors, 
for several generations, had chosen this 
profession; but a circumstance, that 
occured when he was only five years 
old, made an abiding impression upon 
his mind, and seemed, under the direction 
of an overruling Providence, the turning 
point in his life. His parents, taking 
him along with them, made a visit to 
Herrnhut, and, whilst there, Bishop 
Muller, a venerable minister of the 
Moravian Church, after having cate- 
chized the child, took him into his arms, 
blessed him, and solemnly devoted him 
to the ministry of reconciliation. That 
impressive scene, and the words of the 
dedicatory service, in after days, rang 
through his ears, nor were they forgotten 
even when he was an old man. His 
desire for the sacred office was strength- 
enod from year to year, and whenever 
anything was said in regard to the 
proposal of the Empress, it was manifest 
that he regarded it only with aversion. 
And when she wrote for the final answer, 
he had no hesitation in giving it in the 
negative. In after life, he often referred 
to this incident in his early experience 
as a striking illustration of that particular 
providence which watches, with parental 
care, over all our ways. 

The studies of young Hazelius were 
commenced at Neusalz, his native place. 
They were, for some time, continued at 
41 



Kleimwelke, and then he entered the 
institution at Barby, at which his 
academic course was completed. His 
theological studies he pursued at Mesky, 
at a Moravian institution under the 
direction of Bishop Anders, the Senior 
Bishop of the Conference; after which, 
he was furnished, by the authorities of 
the Church, with a license, as a candidate, 
to preach the Gospel. In the year 1800 
he received an appointment as classical 
teacher for the Moravian Seminary at 
Nazareth, Pa. This he accepted, contrary 
to the advice of his friends, and not- 
withstanding several eligible situations 
had been offered him in his native land. 
On reaching this country, his first object 
was to acquire a good knowledge of the 
English language, that he might be able 
to impart instruction in the institution; 
and in this he was eminently successful. 
He remained at Nazareth, laboring with 
great efficiency, for eight years, having, 
during this period, been appointed Head 
Teacher and Professor of Theology in 
the Theological department. It is an 
interesting fact that the first three 
Divinity students he had at Nazareth, 
became Bishops in the Moravian Church. 
Differing, however, from his brethren, 
in their views of Church Government 
and Discipline, and influenced also by 
some other considerations, he resolved 
to withdraw from tKe Seminary, and 
to change his ecclesiastical relations. 
Whilst he had the highest respect for 
the Church which his father had adopted, 
he still felt an earnest desire to unite 
with the Lutheran Church, in whose 
service his ancestors had for so many 
generations been emi^loyed. Without, 
therefore, in the least, disparaging his 
Moravian brethren, he took his leave of 
them in peace, bearing with him the 
highest testimonials of his ability as a 
teacher, and his character as a man 
and a Christian. 



322 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



In the spring of 1809 he returned to 
Philidelphia, and, for a season, gave 
instruction in a private classical school. 
But, though his labors here v^ere very 
successful, he did not remain long. In 
the fall of the same year he accepted a 
call to take charge of the united congre- 
gations of New Germantown, German 
Valley, and Spruce Run, in Hunterdon 
County, N. J. As he had previously 
preached only as a licentiate, he v^as 
ordained by the Ministerium of New 
York, and then entered on his pastoral 
duties. Here he labored with great 
fidelity and success; and, when he re- 
signed his charge, he left all the congre- 
gations in a flourishing condition. At 
New Germantown, the place of his 
residence, he conducted a classical 
academy in addition to his arduous 
professional labors. 

On the 12th of April, 1810, he was 
married to Huldah Cummings, daughter 
of John Bray, of Lebanon, Hunterdon 
County, N. J. They had no children. 
Mrs. Hazelius survived him, and died 
on the 16th of March, 1855. 

In 1815 the institution at Hartwick 
went into operation, and Mr. Hazelius 
was selected, by the Vice Executor of 
Mr. Hartwick's will, as Professor of 
Christian Theology and Principal of the 
Classical department. The appointment 
was confirmed by the New York Minis- 
terium, and the Professor immediately 
entered on the work assigned him. This 
institution he served with great ability 
for fifteen years, at the same time 
preaching regulary on the Sabbath, and 
acting as pastor of the village congre- 
gation. 

In 1824 he was honored with the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity simulta- 
neously from Union College and Colum- 
bia College. 

In the spring of 1880, having been 
elected Professor of Biblical and Oriental 



Literature, and of the German Language 
in the Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, he decided to accept the appoint- 
ment, as he supposed that the change 
would be the means of enlarging his 
usefulness in the Church . His connection 
with this institution, however, was but 
brief. He resigned his chair, much to 
the regret of the Directors, in 1833, to 
accept a Professorship in the Theological 
Seminary of the Synod of South 
Carolina, the vacancy having been 
occasioned by the lamented death of 
Professor Schwartz. He entered upon 
his duties in the new field on the first 
of January, 1834. 

In the summer of 1842 he revisited his 
native land and the scenes of his youth. 
He was received with the utmost cor- 
diality and with the most flattering 
tokens of respect. He was greatly urged 
to return with his family, and spend his 
remaining days in the country that gave 
him birth ; and a lucrative situation was 
offered him by the King of Prussia; but 
the land of his adoption, and his little 
Seminary in the backwoods of Carolina, 
had become too dear to him to relinquish. 

In this position he spent the remainder 
of his active and useful life; and his 
labors were crowned with a rich blessing. 
His connection with this institution 
continued during a period of nineteen 
years ; and even when, at his own request, 
and in consequence of the infirmities of 
age, he resigned his place, and another 
was appointed to succeed him, he still 
generously continued to give instruction, 
by way of aiding his successor, up to the 
full measure of his ability. It was only 
four days preceding his death that 
exhausted nature compelled him to take 
his final leave of the students in the 
capacity of an instructor. Scarcely had 
he quitted his post when his earthly 
career closed. 

He died on the 20th of February 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



323 



1853, after an illness of a few days, in 
the seventy-sixth year of his age, in 
perfect tranquility, and in the full as- 
surance of entering into rest. His fu- 
neral was very numerously attended, 
and a discourse delivered on the occasion 
by Rev. Dr. Bachman, of Charleston, 
from Rev. xiv, 13, who had been one of 
his intimate friends for many years. 
His remains were laid to rest on the 
grounds between the dwelling he had 



occupied and the lecture-room of the 
Seminary. 

The following are Dr. Hazelius' pub- 
lications: Life of Luther; Life of Stil- 
ling; Augsburg Confession with Anno- 
tations; Materials for Catechization on 
Passages of Scripture ; Church History ; 
History of the Lutheran Church in 
America. He was also editor of the 
Evangelische Magazine, published at Get- 
tysburg, for some time. — Sprague. 




^mm<^>r 



REY. CARL A. HEDENGRAN. 



Rev. Carl August Hedengran was 
born June 4, 1821, within two miles of 
Lund, Sweden. His father was organ- 
ist and school teacher, and was known 
to be a pious Christian. Being induced 
by a skeptical friend to read a number 
of infidel works, Mr. Hedengran, for a 
season, abandoned himself to the com- 
fortless faith of the infidel. In 1850, he 



emigrated with his wife to America and 
settled for a while at Peoria, 111. From 
Peoria he moved to St. Paul, Minn., and 
later to Carver Co., where he settled on- 
a piece of land. During his stay here 
he experienced a thorough change of 
heart. (An interesting history of his 
remarkable conversion is given in Nore- 
lius' History of the Swedes. ) 



324 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



In 1859 he received a call from a 
newly organized congregation at Chi- 
sago Lake, and was lisensed by the 
Northern Illinois Synod at its first an- 
nual meetiog in Chicago. In 1860, he 
was ordained by the Augustan Synod, 
at its first meeting held in Wiscor^sin. 
His health failed and he was obliged to 
resign his charge at Chisago Lake, after 
fourteen years of faithful service. Seven 



years later, Oct. 31, 1880, he died at the 
age of fifty-nine years, leaving a wife 
and three children. His publications 
are: "Is the Seventh Day Advent ists' 
Doctrine Concerniog the Third Com- 
mandment Biblical? Answered ont of 
the Word of God." 1873; "The Impor- 
tant Question; Are the Holy Scrip- 
tures True? Briefly Answered," 1879. 




REY. JOHAN ALFRED HEIBERG. 



Rev. Johan Alfred Heiberg was born 
in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2, 1848. 
His father was the wellknown Professor 
S. J. Heiberg. He entered the Metro- 
politan School in 1866, and in 1872 he 
graduated from the University of Copen- 
hagen. Desiring to devote his time and 
talents to the preaching of the gospel 
among the Danes in America, and hav- 
ing received a call to the pastorate of 
the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church 
at Chicago, 111., he was granted permis- 
sion (May 7, 1873) by the King of Den- 
mark to be ordained. His ordination 
took place in the Frue Kirke at Copen- 
hagen, Dr. H. L. Martensen officiating. 
He was married June 12, 1873, to Miss 
Magdalena Lorentsen. On June 20, 
they boarded the vessel "Humboldt" 
and arrived at New York on the 12th of 
July. Rev. Heiberg was the first can- 
didate from the University of Copen- 
hagen that was sent to America. On 
the 27th of July he dedicated the new 
Trinity Church in Chicago, which had 
been completed before his arrival, being 
assisted by the Rev. A. Dan. At the 
meeting of the "Danish Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America," held at 
Neenah, Wis., October 21, 1874, Rev. 
Heiberg was elected president of this 



body. As pastor of Trinity Chnrch in 
Chicago, Rev. Heiberg labored with 
marked success. In the spring of 1876 
Mrs. Heiberg was obliged, on account 
of poor health, to make a trip to Den- 
mark accompanied by their little daught- 
er Gerda Johanna. In August of the 
same year Rev. Heiberg also made a 
visit to Denmark for the purpose of ac- 
quainting the mother Church with the 
condition of the Danish Mission in 
America. At the time of the annual 
meeting of the "Danish Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America," held at 
Chicago, Nov. 6-7, 1876, Rev. Heiberg 
and family was in attendance, having re- 
turned from Denmark. Although Rev. 
Heiberg thoroughly loved his work in 
America, he felt himself called to spend 
the balance of his strength in the ser- 
vice of the mother church in Denmark, 
and accordingly he resigned his charge 
at Chicago, preaching his farewell ser- 
mon June 1, 1879. In proof of the fra- 
ternal relation existing between Rev. 
Heiberg and his church at Chicago it 
may be mentioned that at his farewell 
services his congregation presented him 
among other things with a beautiful 
gold watch with the inscription: "Pre- 
sented to the Pastor, Man, and Friend 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



325 



Jolian Alfred Heiberg, by the Trinity 
Congregation and Friends in Chicago, 
May 25, 1879." 

On the 1st of June he left Chicago, 
and having reached New York he 
preached his last sermon in America in 
Grace Chapel, New York. On the 13th 
of November, 1879, Rev. Heiberg was 
assigned the pastorate of two congrega- 
tions in Ribe Diocese, Denmark, and on 
the 21st of January, 1881, he became 
Provost. Later he received appoint- 
ment as pastor of a congregation near 
Middelfart and of FrueKirke at Odense. 



In 1881 he was also made president of 
the committee appointed in the interest 
of the North American Danish Luther- 
an Mission. He was editor of a paper 
called "Danish American Missionary News." 
He has written numerous sermons and 
articles in 'Ki^ielig Samler," a Danish 
newspaper published in America, and in 
^'Home Mission Times," published in Den- 
mark. Much of the success that has at- 
tended the Danish missionary efforts 
in America is due to the labors of Rev. 
Heiberg. 




REV. L. M. HEILMAN. 



The subject of this sketch is a de- 
scendant of a family which emigrated 
from Hesse Darmstadt, about twenty 
years before the American Revolution, 
settling in Northampton Co., Pa. His 
mother was buried in the Atlantic on 
their way to their new home, and the 
father, with the only child, Peter, of six 
years, remained in the far East until 
the son was married to Elizabeth Har- 
ter, from Wurtemberg. By and by this 
new pair removed to Sewickly, near 
Greensburg, Westmoreland Co., Pa., aud 
thence, about 1800, to lauds purchased 
near Kitanning, Pa., where this Peter 
Heilman became the great grand parent 
of numerous descendants of whom one 
is Lee Mechling Heilman. His mater- 
nal grandmother was Hannah Tawney, a 
distant relation of the late Chief Justice 
Tawney, though a Protestant of the Re- 
formed faith. Being the oldest child of 
Isaac and Hannah Heilman, he remained 
with them on the farm six miles from 
Kittanning and near the old homestead 
of the Heilman settlement, until four- 



teen years of age, when he left home for 
the high school and academy. He was 
from early years designed by the father 
for the legal profession; taught in the 
public school at fifteen and sixteen 
years, and later, while at Leechburg 
Academy, was led to take a full collegi- 
ate course of study, and accordingly, in 
1865, entered Pennsylvania College, at 
Gettysburg. During the course at the 
Theological Seminary, one summer va- 
cation was spent at Sunburg, Butler Co., 
in first efforts at preaching Christ, and 
the second at Brookville, Pa., at which 
places he enjoyed precious seals of the 
ministry. In the winter vacation of the 
third year at the seminary, after visit- 
ing Springfield 111., he was called to 
that field, and returning to complete his 
studies, took his charge there July 1, 
1871, being twenty-five years of age. 
Here his work was greatly blessed of 
God; and when called east several 
years later, his work was deemed by the 
people and other friends as unfinished. 
But believing the call from Harrisburg, 



326 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




REV. L. M. HEILMAN. 



Pa., to be of God he removed tliitlier 
Nov. i, 1873. The Foster street church 
though a ueat stooe edifice, had yet a 
coDgregatiou greatly distracted. Dif- 
ferences were, however, healed by Di- 
vine grace, the church became filled 
with people until a remodeling and in- 
crease in seating capacity became nec- 
essary. The old debt of $8,000 was re- 
moved and accessions of members were 
made to the number of over five hun- 
dred. The pastor was called, after near- 
ly nine years of Divine blessing on his 
services at Harrisburg, to undertake 
the opening of an English Lutheran 
mission at Chicago, 111. Struggling 
with numerous difficulties in beginning 
a church in so great a city, with a world- 



ly money-seeking and rushing popula- 
tion, where so many imposing churches 
exist, the work has culminated in a 
beautiful church edifice with modern 
conveniences and prospers now with fre- 
quent accessions of members. This gen- 
tleman became married six months af- 
ter graduation to Miss Laura L. Humes, 
of Harrisburg, Pa., and enjoys the do- 
mestic relations of wife and three chil- 
dren. He has written articles for the 
Lutheran Quarterly, was for a few years 
correspondent of several papers, has 
had three or four discourses and lectures 
published by request, delivered one of 
the Rice Lectures before the students 
of the Gettysburg Theological Seminary, 
as also other lectures and Baccalaureate 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



327 



addresses, and now has a volume ready 
for the press; served in general church 
work, as chairman of the Board of Trus- 
tees of Loysville Orphans' Home and as 



a member, for a time, of the Board of 
Home missions of the General Synod. 
He is now president of the Northern 
Illinois Synod. 




REY. JOHN D. HEINTZELMAN. 



John Dietrich Heintzelman was born 
in Salswedel, in Altenmark, in the Elec- 
torate of Brandenburg, in the year 1726. 
His father was a physician, in such cir- 
cumstances as to enable him to furnish 
the son the best advantages of education. 
He received instruction in the elemen- 
tary branches in the schools of his native 
place. Thence he was transferred to 
Stendal; and subsequently to the Royal 
Prussian College in Saxony; and his 
studies were completed at the University 
of Halle. Having devoted himself to the 
Christian Ministry, he was now ready 
to labor in any field to which Providence 
might direct him. About this time an 
application was presented to the Faculty 
at Halle, from the Corporation of St. 
Michael's Church, Philadelphia, for a 
minister to assist pastor Brunnholtz in 
the arduous duties which devolved upon 
him. The attention of the professors 
was immediately directed to young 
Heintzelman, then about twenty-five 
years of age, as a person every way 
qualified to fill the place; and when the 
proposal was made to him, he delayed 
only long enough to gain the consent of 
his parents before giving an affirmative 
answer. In order, however, that he 
might enter on the discharge of his 
official duties as soon as he reached this 
country, he was, after a satisfactory 
examination, ordained to the work of 
the Ministry, by the Consistorium of 
Wernigerode, in Saxony. On tlie 11th of 



July, 1751, he took leave of his relatives, 
in the confident expectation of never 
meeting them again on earth, though 
the full conviction he felt that he was 
obeying the call of God enabled him to 
pass through the trial with the utmost 
fortitude. He proceeded first to Lon- 
don, and thence took passage to Phil- 
adelphia, accompanied by the Rev. 
Frederick Schultz, who came with the 
expectation of being assistant minister 
to the Churches at New Hanover and 
New Providence. They reached Phila- 
delphia on the 1st of December, 1751, 
and were met with a most hearty welcome. 
Dr. Muhlenberg especially, who had 
been awaiting their arrival with great 
anxiety, greeted them with the utmost 
joy. He immediately wrote to Dr. 
Ziegenhagen, of London, and Professor 
Francke, of Halle, expressing his heart- 
felt satisfaction and grateful acknowl- 
edgements. "The Lord's name," says he, 
"be praised for so graciously providing 
for us! It is an evidence of the goodnt^ss 
and kind favor that he shows to his 
people." 

Mr. Heintzelman became an inmate 
of Mr. Brunnholtz' s family, and entered 
at once upon the service to which he 
had been called. His duties were very 
laborious, but he discharged them faith- 
fully and successfully. He preached, 
cathechised, and performed other 
pastoral work, and, until another teacher 
could be procured, had the charge of 



328 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the congregational school, giving in- 
struction to one hundred scholars three 
hours each day. He manifested a 
special interest in the impTovement of 
the young. He met his catechumens 
three times a week, carefully instructing 
them in ''Luther's Catechism" and 
"Stark's Order of Salvation," and hearing 
them recite passages of Scripture which 
they had committed to memory. Dr. 
Muhlenberg writes, — "The congregation 
seems Well satisfied with Mr. Heintzel- 
man, and cherishes for him a high re- 
gard. He is kept busily in his work, 
and is to rae a great comfort." But his 
earthly career was destined to a speedy 
termination. He fell in the vigor of his 
manhood and in the midst of his useful- 
ness. During the last year or two of 
his life, his health seemed to be waning, 
and he suffered several attacks of severe 
illness. The best medical skill was em- 
ployed in his behalf, but to no purpose. 
Earnest prayers that his life might be 
spared went up, both in public and in 
private; but his Master saw that it was 
best that he should have his release. 
Through the whole period of his decline 
he exhibited a firm and all-sustaining 
confidence in his Eedeemer, and felt 
assured that he was going to dwell in 
his immediate presence. He died of in- 
flammation and ulceration of the liver, 
on the 9th of February, 1756, in the 
thirtieth year of his age. In the im- 
mediate prospect of death, he sent for 
his colleague, and requested him to 
select some hymns, and to bring several 
children from the schools to his dying 
chamber for the purpose of singing 
them. This request was complied with, 
and he listened with the deepest inter- 
est, in the full possession of all his 
faculties. A few hours after, he was 
mingling in higher scenes. His funeral 
was attended by an immense assemblage, 



and his remains were buried in front of 
the altar of St. Michael's church. The 
occasion was improved by the delivery 
of two discourses, one in German, by 
the Eev. John F. Handschuch, from the 
texts, — "Thou hast also given me the 
shield of thy salvation, and thy gentleness 
hath made me great," and "Thou hast 
enlarged my steps under me that my 
feet did not slip;" the other in English, 
by the Swedish Lutheran Provost Acre- 
lius, from the words, — "And I heard a 
voice from Heaven saying unto me, 
Write, Blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors, and their works do follow them." 

Mr. Heintzelman was married to a 
daughter of Conrad Weiser, and a sister 
of the wife of Dr. Henry Melchior 
Muhlenberg. From this marriage there 
was one child, — a son, born the day after 
his father's death. At his baptism, the 
Swedish Lutheran minister, Acrelius, 
stood as one of the sponsors. He died 
while he was yet a young man, in con- 
sequence of injuries received by a fall 
from a horse. 

The subject of this sketch was evi- 
dently a man of highly cultivated mind, 
an earnest Christian, and a devoted, able 
and useful minister of the Gospel. The 
deeply serious tone of his conversation 
and conduct kept all strongly impressed 
with his sincerity and spirituality, and 
thus became an important element of 
his usefulness. Though his labors ex- 
tended over a space of not much more 
than four years, he did much, in that 
brief period, for the interests of Chris- 
tianity. He enjoyed, in a high degree, 
the confidence and affection of his flock, 
and his death was felt as a deep affliction 
throughout the whole community in 
which he had lived. — Sprague. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



329 




KEY. JOHN J. HEISCHMANN. 



The Rev. John J. Heisclimann is an 
excellent representative of the German- 
American pastor. Born in New York 
in 1853, his first instructions were re- 
ceived in the public schools. At the age 
of twelve years he entered the Hagers- 
town, Md., academy, at that time under 
the direction of the well known Prof. 
Joseph B. Updegroff. After having suc- 
cessfully completed the prescribed course 
of study, he became a member of Knapps' 
Institute in Baltimore, from which he 
graduated with honors, to enter the Ger- 
man-American College at Bloomfield, 
N. J. It was here that he was privi- 
leged to enjoy the teachings of a num- 
ber of thorough German professors, 
who had formerly occupied University 
chairs in Germany and who exercised a 
great influence on the mind of the 
young student. 

In 1876 he entered the Philadelphia 
Lutheran Seminary, the full course of 
which he successfully absolved, gradua- 
ting honorably in the spring of 1879. 
In October, 1878, before completing his 
studies, he was called to St. Peter's Lu- 

42 



theran church in Brooklyn, N. Y. By 
permission of the faculty, he accepted 
the call in view of the great possibili- 
ties of the field. St. Peter's at that time 
consisted of but twenty-nine families, 
who worshipped in a small and unpre- 
tentious building in De Kalb avenue. 
Under the leadership of Pastor Heisch- 
mann, the congregation grew phenom- 
enally, so that in 1888, the largest Luth- 
eran church in Brooklyn or New York 
was erected on Bedford avenue, at a 
cost of $100,000. The congregation now 
numbers fifteen hundred active mem- 
bers and contains many of the most 
prominent German families of the city. 
English services are held once a month. 
In 1888, as the congregation was becom- 
ing too large, Pastor Heischmann 
organized the Evangelical Lutheran 
Bethlehem church, which, at the pres- 
ent writing is self-sustaining, has a fine 
church costing $12,000, and a member- 
ship of four hundred. 

As a preacher, the subject of our 
sketch takes a very high rank among 
the clergymen of the ''City of Churches." 



330 



AMEBICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



His sermons are eminently popular and 
practical. Combining brilliancy with 
originality of treatment, a natural elo- 
quence, with a happy gift of illustrating, 
the pastor of St. Peter's always finds his 
spacious church filled to the very doors, 
so that it frequently has been compared 
among German churches to that of Dr. 
Talmage among the English. His ser- 
vices as a popular speaker, are frequent- 
ly in demand both in local and wider 
circles, and in public movements he and 
his congregation are always to the fore. 
Many of his sermons and speeches find 
a very wide circulation through the me- 
dium of the public press, while his fre- 
quent engagements" as a lecturer, brings 
him into contact with various sections 
of the country. 

Several calls have come to him since 
1878, notably that of the German Evan- 
gelical church of Brooklyn, in 1886, but 
the people of St. Peter's have always 
protested emphatically against any 
change. 

During the last twelve years, pastor 
Heischmann has made three trips across 
the Atlantic for the purpose of studying 
countries and people. He has visited 
nearly every European country and em- 
bodied the results of his travels in nu- 
merous letters of travel as well as in lec- 
tures. Our own land was, however, by 
no means neglected by him, he having 
become acquainted with it pretty thor- 
oughly in the North, East, South and 
West. 

Pastor Heischmann is prominently 
identified with the New York Ministe- 
rium. Joining it in 1881, he has, at var- 
ious times held offices of trust and re- 
sponsibility in that body. At present 
he is the secretary of the Executive 
Committee and as such has the supervi- 
sion of the Beneficiaries and the Minis- 
teriun in the Philadelphia Seminary and 
Wagner College. He also supervises 



the various mission congregations of 
the Synod. He is also a member of the 
Examining Board of the Synod, having 
the special province of Symbolics and 
History of Doctrine. Always having 
been a warm friend of Wagner College, 
in Bochester, N. Y., he has been a di- 
rector of that institution ever since it 
was connected with the Ministerium. 
He is also honored by Synod in being 
elected as a delegate to the meeting of 
the General Council. 

While being pastor of one of the larg- 
est congregations in the East, Pastor 
Heischmann has, nevertheless, found 
time to devote attention to literary 
labors. Besides contributing liberally 
to various religious and secular papers 
of this country and Europe, he was, for 
a time, prominently identified with the 
Lutherisehes Kirchenhlatt and before that 
with the / ilger. In 1887, by request of 
the First District Conference of the 
Ministerium, he prepared an essay upon 
"How can the Social Question be 
Solved?" This was so favorably re- 
ceived, that it was officially ordered to 
be printed and distributed gratuitously 
among the congregations of the Confer- 
ence. After having been augmented by 
the author, it finally appeared in paraph- 
let form and was very favorably reviewed 
by the press and many prominent di- 
vines of this country and Europe. His 
chief literary efforts, however, are now 
concentrated upon the "Teachers' Com- 
mentary of the Sunday School Lessons." 
In 1887, together with three other mem- 
bers of the New York Synod, the Bevs. 
Peterson, Loch and Haas, Pastor Heisch- 
mann issued "Sunday School Lessons 
for the use of German Lutheran Sunday 
Schools," together with a "Teachers' 
Commentary." Two volumes have al- 
ready appeared, and the third, for the 
year 1891, is now in press. This work 
has received the official recommenda- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



331 



tion of Synod, besides having met with 
most encouraging success among those 
for whom it was intended. 

For the last two years he has also rep- 
resented the Lutheran denomination in 
Brooklyn in the Expository Lectures on 
the International Sunday School Les- 
sons, which are given by representative 
clergymen of the various Christian de- 
nominations under the auspices of the 
Brooklyn Sunday School Union. 

Pastor Heischmann has always taken 
a lively interest in great religious move- 
ments outside of the limits of the Luth- 



eran church. He was elected a dele- 
gate to the great National Christian 
Conference, at Washington, D. C, in 
1887, and also to the one at Boston in 
1889. He is at present a member of the 
State Committee of the Evangelical Al- 
liance and of the Executive Committee 
of the city of Brooklyn. 

Thus, while comparatively young in 
years, the subject of our sketch has been 
permitted to do no small amount of work 
in the Lord's vineyard, and has had the 
great satisfaction of seeing many of his 
efforts rewarded with success. — Dr. W .R. 




REV. JUSTUS H. C. HELMUTH, D. D. 



Justus Henry Christian Helmuth was 
a son of John Christopher and Justina 
Helmuth, and was born in Helms tadt 
Brunswick, May 16, 1745. From his 
fourteenth year he was educated among 
the orphans, in the Orphan House at 
Halle. He prosecuted his theological 
studies at the University of Halle, and 
was afterwards, for some time, connect- 
ed with the Orphan House institution 
as Precoptor. In his twe'uty-f ourth year, 
the Faculty of Theology at Halle pre- 
sented him a call from America, which 
he was pleased to accept. He was, ac- 



cordingly, ordained by the StoUberg 
Consistorium at Wernigerode, and jour- 
neyed to England, by way of Hamburg, 
(visiting his widowed mother at Hano- 
ver, ) and embarked at the former place 
for Philadelphia, where he arrived April 
1, 1769. 

He had been in this country but a 
short time when he was chosen pastor 
of the Lutheran church at Lancaster, 
Pa., which had been vacated by the res- 
ignation of the Rev. Mr. Gerock, an 
excellent man sent by the Wurtemberg 
Consistorium, at the request of that 



332 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



congregation. Here he continued till 
March, 1779, when he accepted an unan- 
imous call to Philadelphia. He labored 
in this charge with great zeal and fidelity 
during the rest of his active life. He 
especially exhibited the most heroic 
self-denial, in remaining at his post, and 
attending upon his multiplied and ardu- 
ous duties, during the prevalence of the 
yellow fever in 1793. On one occasion, 
when six hundred and twenty-five of 
the members of his church had already 
been buried, he said from the pulpit, — 
"Look upon me as a dead man;" and 
immediately went forth again to minis- 
ter to the sick and dying. 

In 1785, the honorary degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinity was conferred upon him 



by the University of Pennsylvania- 
Dr. Helmuth continued to preach 
until September, 1820, when he resigned 
his pastoral charge. He died Feb. 5, 
1833, in the eightieth year of his age. 
His funeral sermon was preached by 
the Rev^. Dr. Demme, in the German 
language, from Hebrews xiii, 7. 

He was married July 5, 1770, to Maria 
Barbara Keppele, with whom he lived 
in wedlock fifty-four years. They had 
five children. 

The following are Dr. Helmnth's 
publications: "Taufe uud Heilige 
Schrift, 1793, "Unterhaltungen mit 
Gott," "Geistliche Lieder," and numer- 
ous works for children. — Sprague. 




EEY. JOHN B. HELWIG, D.D. 



In giving a sketch of one whose life 
has been so prominent and widely known 
as that of Dr. Helwig, we shall not at- 
tempt to go into any extended discussion 
of the remarkable traits of his character, 
which, however, are not few or common 
among men. We will give only some of 
the facts concerning his life, education 
and labors. 



John B. Helwig was born near Canal 
Dover, Tuscarawas Co., Ohio, March 6, 
1833. On his father's side his parents 
were of German descent. On his moth- 
er's side they were of English descent. 
His grandfather came to Ohio from 
Northumberland Co., Pa., in 1800. Jacob 
Helwig, the father of our subject, was born 
in Ohio. He was united in marriage in 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



333 



1824 to Jemima Jennings, a lady of En- 
glish parentage, who came from England 
to New Jersey. John B. was the 
youngest of five children. His mother 
having died in his infancy, he was 
brought up by his grandfather and 
grandmother, who were farmers. His 
father married a second time and moved 
to the state of Indiana. His grand par- 
ents were Lutherans and Puritanic in 
their faith and customs. They came 
into the General Synod as soon as it was 
organized. John B., having been raised 
in a Christian home, the influences 
thrown around him were of the best 
kind. He received a good common 
school education for that day. Attend- 
ing school in an old-fashioned log school 
house, with benches without backs, made 
of slabs of wood, for seats, and in other 
respects similar to those houses of that 
day. However, these rude surroundings 
were no hindrance to the progress of the 
young, kf^en mind, for at that early age 
we discover some of the characteristics 
which marked so prominently his after 
life. At the age of fifteen years, through 
the earnest request of those in his 
neighborhood who knew him, he was 
persuaded to teach a select summer 
school, for which he received six dollars 
per month, which was fair wages for a 
summer school of that kind in that day. 
His folks having been farmers, he spent 
most ot^ his time on the farm, doing farm 
work. AVhen he was about eighteen 
years old he begau to teach a district 
school near Belief ontaine, Logan Co., 
O., and taught three winters. About 
two years and a half were spent at the 
blacksmith trade in Win field, O. This 
trade was chosen by him because he 
thought himself well fitted for it on ac- 
count of his physical strength and de- 
velopment. It was while engaged at 
this work he was converted to Christ, 
through the influence of Rev. Aughe's 



preaching, and united with the English 
Lutheran church at Winfield, O. One 
day shortly after this, while standing at 
the bellows in the blacksmith shop. Rev. 
Mr. Aughe, and Dr. Sprecher, who was 
visiting the churches in that part of the 
country, in the interests of Wittenberg 
college, came into the shop. Dr. Sprech- 
er stepped up to him and said: "Broth- 
er Aughe thinks you might be a useful 
man in our work," meaning the ministry 
of the Gospel, to which he replied, "I 
think I am engaged in the w^ork I am 
best fltted for." But the words spoken 
by Dr. Sprecher had a good effect, and 
from that time he began to think seri- 
ously on the subject. In September, 
1855, he went to college. When he ar- 
rived there he had but ten dollars to 
pay tuition, room rent, buy books and 
meet other necessary expenses. But he 
commenced with a determination to win. 
Beginning in the preparatory depart- 
ment, he went up through the entire 
college course. In the beginning 
of his course he waited on the 
table in the college dining hall to pay 
for his board, and did such work as he 
could find to pay other necessary ex- 
penses. His college course was some- 
what broken, like that of nearly every 
one who has to struggle against finan- 
cial difficulties. He spent three months 
traveling through Alabama selling fruit 
trees, and was in Decatur, Ala., Decem- 
ber, 1849, when John Brown was liung. 
Great excitement prevailed there at that 
time. He also traveled through Ken- 
tucky and Illinois engaged in the same 
business. Prof. Breckenridge, now of 
Wittenberg College, was his most inti- 
mate companion, and traveled with him, 
passing through the like experiences. 
His life in college was always of the 
most exemplary Christian character, ex- 
erting a great influence for good among 
all of his associates. Indeed, all through 



334 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



his college life there was recognized in 
him that strong, manly, Christian bear- 
ing and earnest spirit of devotion which 
has been so remarkably characteristic of 
him all through his after life, wherever 
he has gone. He was a diligent student, 
and by continued perseverance and pa- 
tient toil surmounted the difficulties of 
college life one by one. The literary 
society was of special interest to him. 
He was strong in debate, seldom ever 
losing a question. His work in society 
was always faithfully done. Three times 
he represented the Excelsior society, of 
which he was a member, on public occa- 
sions. He graduated with the class of 
1861. 

The following summer he was married 
to Miss Eliza Miller, of Bellefontaine, 
O. They have but one child. Miss 
Grace. The first winter after his mar- 
riage, he taught school near DeGraff, O. 
He was licensed and ordained by the 
Wittenberg Synod, and in May, 1862, 
became the pastor of the Sulphur Springs 
charge, Crawford Co,, 0., which con- 
sisted of three congregations, at a salary 
of $250 per year, which was afterwards 
increased to $550. This was during the 
war of the "Great Kebellion," and be- 
cause of a difference in political opinion 
among his people, much difficulty was 
experienced. Dr. Helwig, always being 
a firm supporter of the Union and its 
principles, observed all the President's 
proclamatioDS, and preached some 
special sermons for the soldiers. This 
led to one of his churches being nailed 
shut and the windows being broken out. 

While at Sulphur Springs, in 1864, 
he received a call from the church at 
Lancaster, Fairfield Co., O., which he 
accepted, but by his earnest and efiicient 
labors he had so engrafted himself into 
the hearts of his people that it was witb 
great reluctance they let him go. From 
Lancaster he went to Springfield, O. 



The Lutheran church here, while under 
his earnest preaching, became one of 
the strongest and most influential con- 
gregations in the city. Having remained 
here but one year, he next went to Cin- 
cinnati, where the church rapidly gained 
strength and prominence under his 
leadership. In 1872, the church at 
Dayton, O., tendered him a call, which 
he accepted. It was while he was there 
that the writer became personally ac- 
quainted with him. Though but a small 
boy at that time, some of the sermons 
preached by Dr. Helwig were so forcibly 
impressed upon the mind of the writer 
that they are still fresh in memory and 
will never be forgotten. Dr. Helwig's 
labors in Dayton, both as preacher and 
pastor, were such that all were drawn 
toward him, not only his own people, 
but those of other pulpits and churches. 
In 1874 he was elected president of 
Wittenberg College, and called to fill 
the position made vacant by the resig- 
nation of Dr. Spree her. This news was 
very unwelcome to the Dayton church. 
We well remember of seeing the eyes of 
some of those people fill with tears when 
his going away was mentioned. They 
said that while they felt it was right for 
them to respond to the call of their in- 
stitution, yet it was so hard to give him 
up. 

When Dr. Sprecher felt that his de- 
clining health required him to give up 
the presidency of the college, Dr. Hel- 
wig was the man to whom his thoughts 
first turned as the one best fitted to fill 
the responsible position. During his 
administration the affairs of the college 
prospered, and that strong Christian in- 
fluence that was so noticeable in his 
student life, now strengthened and de- 
veloped by full manhood, was forcibly 
felt in the college; and wh<n-ev(^r he 
went he was recognized as a powerful 
preacher and one of God's noblemen. 



AMEBICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



335 



As president of the college lie was loved 
by all. He knew how to sympathize 
with those who were struggling against 
the difficulties of this life and in need 
of encouraging council and a helping 
hand. A s an instructor he was thorough 
and impressive. By his amiable disposi- 
tion he drew his students close around 
him, and greatly assisted them through 
their difficulties. 

As an author, beside?^ his book, ''Ro- 
manism and American Institutions," 
which is a work of considerable note and 
much interest, he has made many valu- 
able contributions to different papers 
and magazines. Some of his recent ar- 
ticles prepared for the Pulpit Treasury, 
of New York, have been republished by 
the foreign press. 

He served in the presidency of the 
college eight years, at the end of which 
time, because of failing health, at the 
advice of his physicians, he resigned his 



position and went abroad, traveling 
through England, Scotland, Germany, 
France and Italy. About six months 
after leaving the college he took charge 
of the church at Akron, O., where he la- 
bored with remarkable success. Indeed, 
wherever he has gone God's providence 
has attended his ministerial labors and 
crowned his efforts with rich reward. 
While at Akron he was appointed to de- 
liver the dedicatory address of the "New 
Wittenberg" college building. The ad- 
dress was eloquently delivered June 16, 
1886. In September of the same year a 
call was extended to him from the First 
Lutheran church of Springfield, O., 
which he accepted, and is at present lo- 
cated there. Dr. Helwig is a man of 
sanguine temperament, large frame, 
nearly six feet tall, weighing about two 
hundred pounds, and gives promise of 
many years of usefulness. — History of 
Wittenberg College, 




KEY. AMBEOSE HENKEL. 



Rev. Ambrose Henkel, the fourth son 
of Rev. Paul and Elizabeth Henkel, was 
born in Shenandoah Co., Va., near Solo- 
mon's Church, eight miles northwest of 
New Market, on the 11th day of July, 
1786, and was initiated in the church 
through the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, 
in his infancy, and, at a more mature 
age, entered into full communion with 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
through the ancient and solemn rite of 
Confirmation. 

In 1802 he started, on foot, to Hagers- 
town, to learn the printing business. 
After working for three or four years he 
purchased the bed and irons of a Ram- 
age press and some old type, and, in 
1806, established the first printing office 



in New Market, Ya. With these old 
type, and cuts made by himself, he pub- 
lished a pictorial German spelling-book 
of his own arrangement. In 1807 he 
commenced the publication of a weekly 
German paper called the Virginia 
and New Market Popular Instructor and 
Weekly News, which continued for two 
years — and suspended for want of ad- 
vertising patronage. The office was, 
however, continued as a book and job 
office by him until he sold to his brother 
Solomon about 1817. 

He entered the ministry in the year 
1823, and preached his first sermon in 
German, in Mt. Calvary (Hawksbill) 
Church, Page Co., Ya., on the 23d day 
of November, 1823, from 1 Corinthians 



336 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



10, 1-12, and continued actively, faith- 
fully, and successfully in the ministry 
till 1860. He preached his last sermon 
in Bethlehem Church, Augusta Co., Va., 
in the year 1868. He was engaged in 
the office of the ministry forty- seven 
years. His labors in all the depart- 
ments of his ministerial office were ex- 
tensive. He preached 3,995 sermons, 
of which 402 were funeral discourses; 
he baptized 1,625 persons, of whom 90 
were adults; he confirmed 1,952 persons 
in the Church, and united in the holy 
estate of matrimony 400 men and women. 

In 1838, under the order of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod, he 
prepared and published the Church 
Hymn-Book, which has now passed into 
its fourth edition. 

In 1833 he was appointed, by the 
same body, chairman of a committee to 
prepare a Liturgy or Book of Forms 
and submit it to the Synod; which was 
done, and it was approved and published 
in 1843. 

He also aided in the preparation of a 
purely literal translation of the Augs- 
burg Confession, the Apology, the 
Smalcald Articles, the Appendix, and the 
Articles of Visitation, which appeared 
in print in the Christian Book of Con- 
cord, in the year 1851. 



In the years 1857-8 he prepared a 
similar translation of the first volume of 
Luther's Church Postil on the Epistles, 
as extant in Plochman's edition, which 
work, after having been carefully com- 
pared with the original German, revised, 
transcribed, and prepared for the press, 
was issued in serial numbers. He was, 
perhaps, the oldest practical printer and 
editor in the state — having edited a 
newspaper in New Market sixty-two 
years before his death. 

As a writer and translator he was 
noted for the precision and accuracy of 
his style, rather than ornament. He 
was a profound thinker, an earnest stu- 
dent, and a forcible speaker. 

He was married three times. His 
first wife was Miss Catharine Hoke, 
daughter of Frederick Hoke, Esq., of 
Lincoln Co., N. C. His second one was 
Miss Mary Kite, daughter of Mr. Mar- 
tin Kite, of Page Co., Ya., and his third 
one was Miss Veronica F. Heyle (Hoyle), 
daughter of Peter Heyle, Esq., of Lin- 
coln Co., N. C. 

He departed this life on the 6th day 
of January, 1870, at 1 o'clock a. m., aged 
83 years, 5 months, and 26 days. He 
left six children, a number of grand- 
children and great-grand-children. — - 
Hist. Tennessee Synod. 




BEV. CHABLES HENKEL. 



Bev. Charles Henkel was born in New 
Market, Shenandoah Co., Va., on the 
18th of May, 1798. His parents, the Bev. 
Paul and Elizabeth (Nagely) Henkel, 
bestowed great pains upon his early 
education, and his early developments 
were answerable to their watchfulness 
and fidelity. He used to try his hand 
at preaching when he was a mere child, 



and there is a tradition that, on one oc- 
casion, when he had been holding forUi 
from a stump to a crowd of boys, he 
said, at the close of his service, — "Are 
you going to let your preacher starve? 
Why don't you take up a collection?" 
He was received into the church, under 
the pastoral care of his father, by the 
rite of Confirmation, in April, 1814, 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



337 



when he was about sixteen years of age ; 
and there is reason to believe that about 
this time he formed the purpose of en- 
tering the gospel ministry. He received 
his academical education chiefly in his 
native place, and subsequently spent 
some time in Baltimore, more particu- 
larly in acquiring a more thorough 
knowledge of the German language an(5 
of mnsic. He studied theology under 
the direction of his father, and, having 
been licensed to preach the gospel by 
the Synod of Ohio, at its meeting in 
(Somerset, in 1818, he immediately com- 
menced his ministerial labors in Mason 
Co., Va. Here he continued for two 
years, and in 1820 accepted a call to 
CoUimbus, O., and the associated 
churches. This was then a difficult field 
to cultivate, embracing, as it did, several 
congregations, one of which was twenty- 
five miles from his residence, and the 
whole surrounding country being new 
and very little improved. Here he con- 
tinued, laboring with great fidelity, but 
amidst many deprivations and discour- 
agements, and often suffering from dis- 
eases incident to a new country, until 
1827, when he accepted a unanimous in- 
vitation to take charge of the Somerset 
Church in Perry Co., O. Here his health 
became more vigorous than it had been 
during several of the previous years, 
and he seems to have labored for some 
time with increased alacrity and success. 
At length, however, a pulmonary dis- 
ease fastened upon him, which no medi- 
cal skill was able to arrest. For a year 
before his death he was unable to attend 
to his ministerial duties. But so strorg- 
ly were his people attached to him that 
they refused to call another pastor as 



long as he lived, and they accounted it 
no hardship to continue his support 
after he had been obliged to discontinue 
his labors. During the latter part of his 
illness his sufferings were very great^ 
but no murmur ever escaped his lips. 
To a brother in the ministry, who visit- 
ed him a short time before his death, he 
said, — "I have often endeavored to im- 
part consolation at the bed-side of the 
sick and the dying, and these same 
truths I now find so comforting to my- 
self The doctrines which I have be- 
lieved and preached during my life, I 
shall now seal with my death." He 
died in perfect peace on the 2d of Peb^ 
ruary, 1841, in the forty-third year of 
his age. The services at his funeral 
were conducted by the Rev. J. Wagen- 
hals and the Rev. Dr. C. P. Schaeffer, at 
that time Professor in the Theological 
Seminary at Columbus, O. ; the former 
delivering a discourse in the German* 
the latter in the Engligh language. 

Mr. Henkel was twice married. His 
first wife was Mary C. Siegrist, of Mason 
Co., Va. By this marriage he had two 
children, — a son and a daughter. The 
son is the Rev. D. M. Henkel, pastor of 
the Lutheran church in Stewartsville, 
N. J. His second wife was Mary War- 
ner, of Columbus, O., by whom he had 
one child — a son, who died in infancy. 

Several of Mr. Henkel's sermons were 
published in pamphlet form. One on 
the "Training of Children," another on 
the "Unity of the Faith," and a third on 
the "Reformation by Luther," were pi-int- 
ed by request of the Synod. Tlie last 
mentioned discourse was the means of 
bringing him into a controversy Avitli a 
Roman Catholic priest.. — Sprag'w. 




43 



888 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. DAVID HENKEL. 



Eev. David Henkel was born in Staun- 
ton, Angnsta Co., Ya., May 4, 1795. 
His last illness was dyspepsia, wliicli 
disabled him from officiating in a public 
capacity for the term of niue months. 
He bore his afflictions with a perfect 
resignation to the will of his Divine 
Eedeemer. He embarked in the cause 
of his blessed Saviour when a youth ( A. 
D. 1812). And we are happy to say, to 
the praise of this worthy servant of 
Christ, that his assiduity and vigilance 
to study and deep researches into the 
truth of Divine Eevelation have seldom 
been equaled by any. He remained 
immovable in the doctrines he promul- 
gated to the end of his life. This 
venerable servant of the Lord had to 
endure many trials, crosses, and tempta- 
tions, but he maintained his integrity 
through them all, trusting to the 
promises of his Eedeemer; and notwith- 
standing the difficulties he had to en- 
counter, he left a bright example to 
succeeding pilgrims. His ardent desire 
for the promotion of his Eedeemer's 
Kingdom, and his love of truth, caused 
him to submit cheerfully to the difficulties 
connected with his official labors. When 
on his death-bed, being interrogated by 
his friends, whether he still remained 
steadfast in the doctrines which he had 
taught, he confidently answered in the 
affirmative. Being again asked, whether 
he feared death, he replied in the 
negative. The last words which he was 
heard to utter, were: 'O Lord Jesus, 
thou Son of God, receive my spirit!" 
and in a few moments expired. 

He entered into the holy estate of 
matrimony with Miss Catharine Heyl 
(Hoyle), daughter of Hon. Peter Heyl 
(Hoyle) of near Lincolnton, Lincoln Co., 
N. C. 



He commenced his Gospel labors at 
St. Peter's Church, in S. C, where he 
preached his first sermon, November 
1st, 1812, from which period up to the 
time he preached his last sermon at 
Philadelphia Church, Lincoln Co., N.^ 
C, on Sunday, the 12th of August, 1830, 
where he administered the Lord's 
Supper, — which concluded upwards of 
three thousand and two hundred ser- 
mons; delivered generally to crowded 
and attentive congregations. He bap- 
tized two thousand nine hundred and 
ninety- seven infants, and two hundred 
and forty-three adults, and he confirmed 
one thousand one hundred and five 
persons. 

During the whole course of his minis- 
try, which was distinguished for indus- 
try and perseverance in the cause of his 
Divine Master, he traveled in all seasons, 
even the most inclement, and frequently 
preached two and three times in a day 
in the German and English languages. 
Besides which he maintained an exten- 
sive correspondence with many individ- 
uals distinguished for piety and learning, 
and wrote the following works: 

"The Essence of the Christian Eelig- 
ion, and Eeflections on Futurity," "The 
Carolinian Herald of Liberty, Eeligious 
and Political," "Objections to the Con- 
stitution of the General Synod," "The 
Heavenly Flood of Eegenerations, or 
Treatise on Holy Baptism," "An Answer 
to Joseph Moore," who wrote in opposi- 
tion to the doctrines contained in his 
Heavenly Flood; he draughted the 
Constitution, together with the remarks 
thereon, of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Tennessee Synod, and annexed to the 
Minutes, his Treatise on Prayer; A 
Translation from the German of Luther's 
Small Catechism, with Preliminary 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



339 



Observation by the translator, ''An Essay 
on Kegeneration," "A Treatise on the 
Person and Incarnation of Jesus Christ, 
in which some of the principal arguments 
of the Unitarians are examined." 

This much esteemed and venerable 
fellow-laborer, having finished the work 



assigned him by Divine Providence, 
departed this life, June 15, 3831, at 9 
o'clock in the morning, to the great grief 
of his friends and relatives; aged thirty- 
six years, one month, and eleven days. — 
Hist. Tennessee Synod. 



EEV. GEEHAED HENKEL. 



But very little is known about this 
early servant of the Lord. The only 
source of information relating to him is 
a journal that was preserved by an old 
lady in Philadelphia, a grand-daughter 
of Mr. Henkel. According to the rem- 
iniscences contained in this journal and 
the statements of this old lady, Paul 
Henkel was for some time court-chaplain 
for a certain prince near Frankforth-on 
Main. Eev. Henkel preached the word 
of God without fear, and this the world 
seldom tolerated. At one of Eev. 
Henkel's sermons the prince became so 
enraged that he deposed him from his 
office. It is in this wise that the world- 
ly-minded, who generally control the 
affairs of the world would fain silence 
the true preaching of the gospel. John 
the Baptist was cast into prison, and 
was beheaded because he remonstrated 
against the sins of the court, and there 
are many, who, since the time of John, 
had to suffer similar experiences. Eev. 
Henkel was a man considerably ad- 
vanced in years when he was deposed 
from his court-chaplaincy. Exiled from 
his native country, he started for the 
new world with his family, among whom 
was a daughter, who was married to 
Valent Geyer, for the express purpose 
of sowing the seed of life among his 



scattered countrymen there. From the 
"History of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Tennessee Synod," by Eev. S. Henkel, 
D. D., we gather that Gerhard Henkel 
w^as a descendant of Count Henkel, of 
Poeltzig, who was instrumental in send- 
ing Eev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg 
to America; and Count Henkel was a 
descendant of Johann Henkel, D. D. 
LL. D., born in Leutschau, Hungary, 
and was father confessor to Queen Maria 
about 1530. Johann Henkel sympa- 
thized with Protestantism, and main- 
tained friendly relations with Melanch- 
thon, Erasmus and Spalatin, who 
were engaged in the Eeformation of the 
sixteenth century. Eev. Gerhard Henk- 
el came to America about 1718, and 
located at Germantown, near Philadel- 
phia, Penn. At New Hanover, and 
other places he preached the Gospel to 
his countrymen. Although but little 
is known of his later history, it is prob- 
able that his labors in this new field did 
not continue long. He met his death 
by being thrown from his horse near 
Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, where he 
was also buried. Eev. Gerhard Henkel 
is the progenitor of a considerable num- 
ber of faithful laborers in the American 
Lutheran church. 



340 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



REY. PAUL HENKEL. 



Rev. Paul Henkel was born Decem- 
ber 15, 1754; died November 27, 1825. 
His biographical sketch compiled by his 
great-grandson, Ambrose L. Henkel. 

Rev. John G. Morris, D.D., LL.D., 
Baltimore, Md., in his "Fifty Years in 
the Ministry," says of Paul Henkel: 

"His narrative * * has all the in- 
terest of romance, and if he had per- 
formed the same self-denying labors in 
the service of any other church, he 
would have received a greater earthly 
reward." 

He was truly a man for the times — a 
power which God raises up wheu a 
necesssity comes — vigorous in mind and 
body. He labored unceasingly, willing- 
ly and cheerfully, undergoing many 
hardships and sacrifices for good and 
not for gain. 

Only brief mention can be made of 
him and his wonderful works of good, 
which brought peace, happiness and 
comfort to thousands of those whom he 
met in his missions of love. 

His parents were Jacob and Barbara 
Henkel, nee Teters. He was born Dec. 
15, 1754, in Rowan Co., N. C, near the 
presf^nt city of Salisbury, where he re- 
sided until 1760. The Indians becoming 
troublesome, the family moved to Lou- 
doun Co., Ya.; thence to Maryland; 
thence to new Hampshire Co., Ya., where 
they remained not quite a year, having 
frequently to live in block houses, for 
protection against the Indians. They 
then moved to Mill Creek, Hardy Co., 
Ya., where the father of Paul Henkel 
died and was buried. His mother af- 
terwards married and died, and her re- 
mains were buried in the neighborhood 
of the North Fork of the South Branch 
of the Potomac, in Pendleton Co., Ya. 
At the age of about twenty-two Paul 



Henkel, beginning to prepare for the 
ministry, placed himself under the in- 
struction of Rev. Kruch, pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church, Freder- 
icktown, Md. After becoming profi- 
cient in German, Latin and Greek, and 
other studies, he was examined and 
licensed to preach by the Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania and 
adjacent states — the only Lutheran Syn- 
od at the time in North America. He 
located at New Market, Ya., and at once 
became an active, earnest, zealous min- 
ister, laboring in Shenandoah, Rock- 
ingham, Frederick, Madison, Culpeper, 
Pendleton, Betetourt, Wythe and many 
other counties in Yirginia. 

On June 6, 1792, he was solemnly set 
apart for the office of pastor, in Phila- 
delphia, Pa., the ordination being per- 
formed by Rev. John Frederick Schmidt. 
He labored at New Market for awhile, 
and then located at Staunton, Ya., where 
he remained three years, when he re- 
turned to New Market, Ya. In 1800, he 
felt it to be his duty to accept a call 
to his native home in Rowan Co., N. C, 
in which and the adjoining counties he 
successfully labored. 

In 1805, owing to the malarious con- 
dition of the country, he returned to 
New Market, Ya , and became an inde- 
pendent missionary. He did not desire 
wealth or fame, but strove to do good. 
He began his missionary works, relying 
upon the promises of his Master andtlie 
good will of those he served for the 
necessities of life. He made tours on 
horseback and "gig" through Yirginia, 
Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, 
and North and Soui^h Carolina, preach- 
ing the Word of God, in its purity, 
simplicity and power, organizing con- 
gregations, catechising and confirming 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



341 



t"h6 young, and giving words of comfort \ 
and cheer to all. He underwent sore ' 
trials and severe privations without fal- ^ 
tering; kept a faithful diary of his labors 
which to us, at the present day, seem 
almost incredible; he endured hunger, 
thirst, fatigae and loss of rest, excessive 
heat and cold — every hardship and dis- 
comfiture incident to sparsely settled 
sections and dangerous frontier life. 

When the war of 1812 came, he went 
to Point Pleasant, Mason Co., Ya., where 
he organized several congregations. 

Ill 1803, whilst in North Carolina, he, 
with several other ministers, organized 
tlie North Carolina Synod. In October, 
1812, he was actively engaged with the 
Pennsylvania Synod in church work; in 
1818, he took part in the organization of 
the Ohio Synod, and in 1820, in that of 
the Tennessee Synod. 

In 1809, he published a work on 
''Christian Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper," in German, and later in the En- 
glish language. He published a German 
Hymn book in 1810; then in 1816 
another Hymn-book, in the English, 
containing 476 hymns, many being of 
Ids own composition and adapted to the 
Gospels and Epistles of the Ecclesias- 
lical Year. In 1814, he published a 
German Catechism, and soon after an 
English Catechism, to which were 
appended admirable explanations of all 
ihe Frist and Festival Days observed in 
the Cburcb. 

He was never idle, and though 
arduously engaged in traveling, preach- 
ing, catechising, and admonishing in 
private and public, he found time to 
write many books and letters. One of 
his books in rhyme, Zeitvertreib { Pastime ), 
was a strong rebuke to fanaticism, 
superstition, corruption, and folly. It 
was full of sarcasm, and created much 
friendly and unfriendly criticism. He 
was a man of indomitable energy in 



church work, and his liberality was 
almost in excess of his means in such 
labors and works of charity. It is said 
that, more than a century ago, he helped 
to fell the trees and build a "log church" 
at New Market, Virginia, his equally 
energetic wife cooking in an open field, 
in wash kettles, for the hardy men who 
came "to the hewing and log raising;" 
and that he had made a trip with a one 
horse cart to Philadelphia, three hundred 
miles distant, for glass and a bell, which 
some friends in that city gave him for 
the church. In defense of the truth 
and pure doctrine of the Church, he was 
uncompromising, and by those who did 
not know him well, he may have seemed 
stern, yet kind, gentle, affectionate, and 
peace-loving, often suffering great 
personal injustice without resenting it. 

Paul Henkel was almost perfect in 
physique, fully six feet high, command- 
ing in appearance, honorable in every 
respect, liberal in attainments, eloquent 
in discourse, and churchly in deport- 
ment. The gown worn by him on all 
church occassions, and when serving 
under Muhlenberg of Revolutionary 
fame, is still in possession of a grandson, 
Rev. S. Henkel, D. D. 

His first sermon was preached in 
Pendleton County, Virginia, in 1781, 
from Phil. 2, 5, and his last one in New 
Market, Virginia, October 9, 1825, from 
Luke 2, 34, a month prior to his death — 
having been actively engaged in the 
ministry forty -four years. 

He and Miss Elizabeth Niigely ( who 
came with her parents from New J ersey 
to Virginia), were married November 
20, 1776. She was born September 20, 
1757, and died April 11, 1843. To them 
were born nine children — six sons, five 
of whom became Lutheran ministers, 
and one a doctor and publisher, and 
three daughters. 

At the age of 70 years, 11 months, 



342 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and 11 dayp, this true, tried, and noble 
man died of paralysis, at his home, New 
Market, Virginia, November 27, 1825, 
lamented by all who knew him. The 
funeral sermon was preached by Eev. 
George H. Eiemenschneider, from Phil. 
1, 21, to a very large congregation. 

"His zeal for the promulgation of the 
Gospel of Christ Jesus was exemplary, 
and his labors were many and difficult. 
He is now with Christ and no evil can 
befall him." 

As a matter of interest to some, his 
ancestry is here traced back as far as it 
can be with the data at command, and 
the names given of his near relatives. 

Eev. Paul Henkel was a son of Jacob 
Henkel, who was a son of Justus Hen- 
kel, a son of Eev. Gerhard Henkel, who 
was a Hofprediger (preacher to a Ger- 
man court), and came to America about 
1718, locating at Germantown, near 
Philadelphia, Pa. Eev. Gerhard Hen- 
kel was a descendant of Count Henkel, 
of Poeltzig, who was instrumental in 
sending Eev. Muhlenberg to America. 
Count Henkel was a descendant of 
Johann Henkel, D. D., LL. D., born in 
Leutschau, Hungary, and was Father 
Confessor to Queen Mary about 1530. 



He sympathized with Protestantism^ 
and maintained friendly relations with 
Melanchthon, Erasmus, Spalatin, and 
others who were engaged in the Eefor- 
mation of the sixteenth century. The 
manuscript of a prayer-book, written by 
Johann Henkel, is still preserved in 
Breslau. 

The brothers and sisters of Paul 
Henkel were: Moses, Methodist minis- 
ter, Pendelton Co., Ya.; Elizabeth, wife 
of Creutz; Hannah, burned to death in 
a fort during an Indian war; Christena, 
wife of Harm an; Benjamin; Isaac, a 
Lutheran minister, buried in Eocking- 
hamCo., Ya.; Joseph; John, Lutheran 
minister, buried under the pulpit of 
Zion's Church, Shenandoah Co., Ya. ; 
and Jacob. 

The sons and daughters of Paul Hen- 
kel were: Solomon, doctor and publish- 
er, Ya.; Philip, a Luthern minister, 
Tenn.; Naomi, wife of Eupert; Am- 
brose, Lutheran minister, Ya. ; Sabina, 
wife of Adams, Ohio; Andrew, Luther- 
an minister, Ohio; David, Lutheran 
minister, N. C; Charles, a Lutheran 
minister, Ohio; and Hannah, wife of 
Eev. John N. Stirewalt, Ya. 




EEY. POLYCAEP C. HENKEL, D.D. 



Eev. Poly carp C. Henkel, D. D., was 
born on the 20th of August, 1820. The 
oldest son of Eev. David and Catharine 
Henkel, in Lincoln Co., N. C. That 
son was the Eev. Poly carp C. Henkel, 
D D., who is a descendant of a long 
line of distinguished Lutheran ministers. 
He inherited very great physical and 
mental powers from both his parents. 

He was early dedicated to God in 
holy baptism, and wos received into 
full communion with the Evan2:elical 



Lutheran Church with St. Peter's con- 
gregation, Catawba Co., N. C., having 
been catechised by Eev. Daniel Moser 
and conjfirmed by Eev. Adam Miller. 
On the 5th day of September, 1843, he' 
was married to Eebecca Fox, of Eandolph 
Co., N. C, daughter of David Fox. The 
issues of the union were two sons and 
one daughter. The youngest son preceded 
his father into the spirit world. The 
other son, Hon. David S. Henkel, of 
New Market, Ya., and Mrs. Catharine 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



343 



C. Lail, of Oonover, N. C, and his aged 
widow, survive him, to mourn their loss. 

He died at his late residence in 
Conover, N. C, on the 26th of September, 
1889, after a few days of intense suffering, 
at the age of 69 years, 1 month, and 6 
days, and was buried at St. Peter's 
Church, Catawba Co., N. C, September 
2H, 1889. Key. J. M. Smith preached 
the funeral from 2 Tim. 4, 6-8, in the 
presence of hundreds of people who 
came from far and near. He was followed 
in brief, appropriate addresses, by the 
pall-bearers. Revs. Yoder, Schaid, 
Koiner, Bernheim, Little, and Rudisill. 

Dr. P. C. Henkel was an extraordinary 
man, and unique in his character. He 
has been so long and so favorably known 
in this country, that anything like an 
attempt at a sketch of his life would 
seem useless; yet we offer these few 
lines as a tribute of respect io his 
memory. As a husband and father, he 
was kind and devoted to his wife and 
children, anxious for their welfare, both 
temporal and spiritual, and supplied 
them with both precept and example. 

As a neighbor and citizen, he was 
kind and obliging, always ready to do 
a favor, if it were in his power, frequently 
disobliging himself and family to oblige 
others. 

Intellectually, he was a powerful man. 
He was an original thinker and a fine 
logician. He would clinch every argu- 
ment, and in debate and controversy was 
a formidable antagonist. He would 
consider well, make up his opinion 
deliberately, and when once made up, 
was very decided. He was immovable 
from an opinion which was the result 
of long and careful consideration. He 
would never, for any consideration, go 
back on his word. His word was as 
sacred to him as a solemn oath. In his 
manners he was humble and unassum- 
ing. Humility was manifest in all his 



intercourses with his fellow man. In- 
tegrity was also a salient point in his 
character. He was rigidly honest and 
truthful. 

As a minister, he was a power. His 
style of preaching was expository, plain 
and forciful. He entered the ministry 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
the Tennessee Synod in 1843, having 
been ordained in Green County, Tennes- 
see. He preached for forty-six years 
without interruption, and wholly in the 
Tennessee Synod, except a few years, 
while in the state of Missouri, where he 
led in the organization of the English 
District o£ the Missouri Synod. He 
labored exceedingly hard in the vine- 
yard of the Lord. At one time he had 
pastoral charge of fifteen congregations. 
He did an immense amount of mission- 
ary woj'k, traveled thousands of miles, 
in cold and heat, and rain and storm, in 
obedience to the call of the Master to 
this work. He never shirked from 
duty, but was always punctual, and 
ready to speak the word of encourage- 
ment to the weak, the word of comfort to 
the sorrowing, the word of life to those 
seeking a knowledge of the way of life. 
He was an uncompromising antagonist 
of error, and boldly and fearlessly de- 
nounced it wherever he met with it. 

As a theologian he was very pro- 
found. His range of study was broad, 
and his investigations were intense and 
searching, and descended into the very 
depths of theological problems, perhaps 
as far as human mind could go. His 
chief text-books were the Bible and the 
Confessions of the Lutheran Church. 
On Dogmatic Theology he was an ac- 
knowledged authority in the Lutheran 
Cbarch, in the south at least. 

As a writer, he showed the same orig- 
inality of character as in other fields. 
His ideas were original, and his style 
bold and vigorous. His writings are 



344 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



not numerous, but the treatment of the 
subjects lie handled is exhaustive. It is 
to be regretted that he could not devote 
more of his time to writing, and thus 
transmit to generations to come, the re- 
sults of his deep researches in theology. 

His influence in all the relations in 
which we have mentioned him, as hus- 
band and father, as neighbor and citizen, 
as a man and as a preacher, and as a 
theological writer, was very great. In 
the Lutheran Church of the South he 
was, perhaps, the greatest man in its 
history. 

He labored hard and made great sac- 



rifices to establish our school, Concordia 
College, for the Tennessee Synod, in 
which the Word of God should be rec- 
ognized as a factor in education, and in 
which the Bible and Luther's Catechism 
should be taught daily. His influence 
is felt far beyond the limits of his own 
Synod, even throughout the whole 
Southern Church. He was in the midst 
of his earnest labors, both writing and 
preaching, to raise the Lutheran Church 
of the South to a higher plain of doc- 
trine and practice, when the Master 
called him to his reward. — History Term, 
Synod, 



T^K 



EEV. PHILIP HENKEL. 



The subject of this notice was a son 
of the Eev. Paul Henkel, and a fellow- 
member of the Lutheran Tennessee 
Synod, of which he also was one of the 
first framers. He was born on the 2Bd 
September, 1779, in Pendleton Co., Va. 

In early life he imbibed the principles 
of the Christian religion, and in a short 
time became a zealous defender of the 
same. In 1800 he commenced his 
Gospel labors in the Lord's vineyard, 
in whose service he continued with 
undaunted zeal, for 38 years and three 
months, during which time he preached 
upwards of four thousand three hundred 
and fifty sermons, of which one hundred 
and twenty-five were funeral sermons. 
He baptized four thousand one hundred 
and fifteen infants, and three hundred 
and twenty-five adults; and confirmed 
to the Christian Church one thousand 
six hundred and fifty persons. 

At the session of Synod, in Lincoln 
Co., N. C, he was nominated President 
of the Tennessee Synod. And after the 



close of the Synod, he proceeded, in 
good health, to visit the congregations 
in Guilford and the adjacent counties. 
After he had arrived in Eandolph Co., 
N. C, he preached in Richland Church, 
on September 21st, from Col. 3, 1-5. 
(His last sermon on this earthly stage!) 
Being invited by a neighboring friend, 
he retired to his house, where he was at 
the same evening attacked with the 
bilious fever, to which, after a short 
illness, he fell a victim. He departed 
this life on Wednesday, the 9th of 
October, 1833. On the following day 
he was buried at Eichland Church. 

His earthly abode was 54 years and 
17 days. A short time before he expired, 
he said: "If it is the will of the Lord, 
to take me to rest, I am willing." And 
then repeated the following lines ( which 
also were the last words that were heard 
from his lips ) : 

•'Christ is my life alone, 

To die is gain for me; 
I give myself to be his own: 

O, may I ever with him be." 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



345 



SAMUEL G. HENKEL, M. D. 



This distinguished person was the 
third son of Dr. Solomon Henkel, and 
was born Feb. 16, 1807. He was dedi- 
cated to God April 10, 1807, by the Rev. 
Paul Henkel, through the holy ordi- 
nance of baptism, and admitted by the 
same, by the rite of confirmation, to a 
full communion with the Evangelical 
Lutheran church, April 19, 1823, at Ar- 
mentrouts' church, Rockingham Co., 
Va., and married by the Rev. Ambrose 
Henkel to Miss Susan, daughter of Cas- 
per Coiner, Augusta Co., Va., Nov. 1, 
1832. 

At an early period of life he evinced 
great fondness for books, and was noted 
among his schoolmates for his untiring 
industry and promptness in the prose- 
cution of his studies. As early as the 
year 1829, in company with his younger 
brother Solomon, he undertook a tour 
to North Carolina and Tennessee, in a 
one horse vehicle, for the purpose of 
circulating more extensively a number 
of religious works published by his 
father. From the diary he kept of his 
journey, we learn that he prosecuted 
with great zeal, and operated, by the 
light of his camp-fires, the study of 
medicine successfully on three different 
cases of cataract whilst in North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee. In the spring of 
1832, he graduated with honor in the 
medical department of the University 
of Pennsylvania. It is the fortune of 
few men to acquire the wide-spread 
reijutation enjoyed for more than thirty 
years by Dr. Henkel. His superiority 
was especially acknowledged in chronic 
diseases and in cases of surgery. 

But in no relation in life was the 
character of Dr. Henkel more lovely 
and excellent than in that which he 
44 



[sustained to the Christian church. He 
loved the Lutheran church, sincerely 
believed her teachings, and cherished 
with great ardor her time-honored 
practices. His faith was unwavering, 
and his hopes for a blessed immortality 
most brilliant. The Lutheran church 
was the church of his fathers, the choice 
of his youth, and the preference of his 
mature manhood. In her and for her 
he labored with surprising energy and 
perseverance against many opposing 
circumstances. Like his father before 
him, he conceived at an early day the 
idea that incalculable good would flow 
from a correct translation of the sy nodi- 
cal works of the church into the En- 
glish language, believing, as he did, 
that a more general acquaintance with 
the confession of the church would do 
much toward removing the unhappy 
dissensions existing in her, and bring 
about a closer union among all true 
Lutherans in America. Influenced by 
this noble motive, and in strict accord- 
ance with the cherished desire of his 
father, he proposed in October, 1845, to 
the Tennessee Synod (then in session at 
Zion's church, Va.,) the propriety and 
expediency of translating and publish- 
ing in the English language, the ac- 
knowledged symbols of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church, as contained in the 
book entitled "The Christian Concor- 
dia," To this proposal the Synod re- 
sponded, by resolutions expressing her 
entire approbation, and earnestly en-, 
couraged him in his undertaking, 

In 1847, his father was removed by 
the hand of death, and he was left alone 
to pursue and complete the arduous task 
undertaken. In this laudable enterprise, 
it must be confessed with regret, he did 



346 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



not enjoy the sympathy and co-opera- 
tion of his own family and brothers to 
that degree which would have rendered 
the undertaking less laborious. They 
feared the responsibilities and liabilities 
the enterprise would incur. Yet, not- 
withstanding these impediments, he 
toiled on year after year, passing many 
midnight hours in reading the manu- 
scripts furnished by the different parties 
engaged in its translation, and in revis- 
ing the proof-sheets as they came from 
the press, until at last, in the year 1851, 
he was able to present the first edition 
of the Book of Concord to the American 
church. Conscious of the inaccuracies 
which would naturally attend the first 
edition of such an important work to the 
church, Dr. Henkel labored with inde- 
fatigable zeal for the publication of a 
revised edition. In this enterprise he 
called to his aid the first talent of the 
church, and with, hearty co-operation, 
he was enabled to issue in the year 1854, 
the second edition of the Book of Con- 



cord. Nine years of toil and anxiety 
passed away before he saw the consum- 
mation of his work ; but he lived to see 
the time-honored confessions of the 
church very generally circulated among 
Lutherans, and realized the satisfaction, 
too, of noticing many of the happy re- 
sults growing out of his labors of love. 
In 1853, he published "Luther on the 
Sacraments;" and in 1855, he issued, in 
one neat volume, "Luther's Small and 
Larger Catechism, together with an his- 
torical introduction, and the unaltered 
Augsburg Confession. 

Unwearied with these labors, he pro- 
posed to the Tennessee Synod in 1855, 
to procure and publish a correct trans- 
lation of "Luther's Church Postille." 
The Synod highly approved the propo- 
sition; but, unfortunately for the church, 
he was not spared to complete this work. 

This worthy and unusually active lay- 
man of our church died at his home in 
New Market, Va,, on Sunday, March 8, 
1863, leaving a wife and eleven children. 




KEY. SOCEATES HENKEL, D. D. 



Eev. Socrates Henkel, D.D., was born 
in Lincoln Co., N. C, March 23, 1823, 
and is a son of Rev. David Henkel, 
deceased, who was a son of Rev. Paul 
Henkel, who was a son of Jacob Henkel, 
who was a son of Rev. Gerhard Henkel, 
who was a German court preacher, and 
came to America about 1718, and located 
at Germantown, near Philadelphia, Pa. 
Rev. Gerhard Henkel was a descendant 
of Count Henkel, of Poeltzig, who was 
instrumental in sending Rev. Muhlen- 
berg to America. Count Henkel was a 
descendant of Johann Henkel, D. D., 
LL. D., born in Beutschau, Hungary, 
and Father Confessor to Queen Maria, 



about the year 1530. He sympathized 
with protestantism, and maintained 
friendly relations with Melanchthon, 
Erasmus, Spalatin, and others who were 
engaged in the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century. 

Rev. Socrates Henkel is a nephew of 
Revs. Philip, Charles, Andrew and 
Ambrose Henkel, and a brother of the 
late Rev. P. C. Henkel, D. D. At the 
age of fifteen years, he entered into full 
communion with the Evangelical Luth- 
eran Church; and whilst a youth he 
located in New Market, Shenandoah 
Co., Ya., and after a full course in 
literature, mathematics, and the arts 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGiiAPHIES. 



347 




EEV. SOCBATES HENKEL, D. D. 



and sciences, and in theology and church 
history, he entered the gospel ministry, 
as pastor, in connection with the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod, and 
took charge of Emmanuel Evang. Luth. 
Church in New Market and of several 
other congregations in the surrounding 
country, in the year 1850, where he 
has been laboring successfully ever 
since, averaging about nine sermons 
per month . Possessing a strong constitu- 
tion, indomitable energy, and a high 
degree of vitality, notwithstanding his 
arduous and incessant labors and numer- 
ous exposures, there has not been a 
single Sunday, until February, 1890, 
that he was not able physically to per- 
form the duties of his office. 

He prepared the English translation 
of the Christian Book of Concord, or 
Symbolical Books of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church, for the press,- and had 
the general supervision of the revisions 
of the second edition of that work. He 
also prepared the translations of Luther's 



Church Postil on the Epistles, as well 
as a considerable portion of the trans- 
lation of Luther on the Sacraments. 
Recently he wrote the History of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod, 
which has just passed through the press, 
and is now ready for circulation. He is 
editor in chief of a Lutheran Church jour- 
nal, called Our Church Paper, printed by 
Henkel & Co., printers and publishers,* 
— the firm consisting of himself and two 
sons, — a paper which is exerting a very 
beneficial and healthful influence in the 
Church. He is regarded as one of the 

* In regard to this establishment, Rev. G. D. Bernhein 
D. D., says in his "History of the Grtrman Settlements 
and the Lutheran Church in the CaroJinas," The Lutheran 
Church in America has had its publication boards and 
societies in abundance which have doubtless accom- 
pJiehed a good work; but the oldest establishment of the 
kind is the one in New Marhet, Va., dating back to 1806. 
It was establiphed by the Henkel family and has continued 
under their management to this day, * * and has issued 
more truly Lutheran 1 heofogical works in an English 
dresp, than any simular institution in the world." In 
speaking of the Henkel family, The Herold and Zeitschrift, 
January, 1889, aays: "For fixty or seventy years, it has 
done more than any other to arouse its brethren in the 
faith, in America, to a Lutheran consciousness." 



348 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



most familiar men in this country with 
the Confessions and Doctrines of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

As a writer, he may be regarded as 
clear, vigorous, forcible, and logical, hard 
to handle in a discussion or controversy. 
As a preacher, he is plain, systematic, 
impressive, and conservative. He is a 
man of energy and perseverance, zeal- 
ously and incessantly laboring as a 
pastor, and otherwise in the Redeemer's 



Kingdom. He is firm, conscientious, 
unvacillating; an untiring and suc- 
cessful defender of the faith of the 
Church, as set forth in her Confessions, 
with a good share of humor and cheer- 
fulness, cool and deliberate. His labors 
and vigor have not as yet diminished. 
He is strictly conservative, and exerts 
a wide influence in the Synod with 
which he is connected, as well as in the 
Church generally. 




KEY. J. F. C. HENNICKE. 



Since June 1, 1880, the Rev. J. F. C. 
Hennicke has been pastor of Zion 
Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. He went 
there at the instance of Pastor Steimle. 
He administered the church strictly in 
the Lutheran rite and introduced the 
Lutheran liturgy, which Pastor Steimle 
vainly endeavored to introduce. It is 
carried out at the present time according 
to the Pomeranian Agenda by John 
Bugenhagen, while for the other ser- 
vices the Saxon-Coburg Agenda of 1626 
is still in use. 

The church building, which is situa- 
ted in a quiet portion of the city, has 
1,500 seats, which are nearly all occu- 
pied during the principal services. The 
congregation numbers at present about 
1,000 communicants. The property of 
the church is estimated at $50,000. 

The Sunday school numbers 600 chil- 
dren and owns a valuable library and a 
snug amount of money. For the last 
twenty-eight years the parochial school 
has been superintended by the teacher, 
Mr. August Zitzmann. The church has 
also a missionary society for the conver- 
sion of the heathen, in existence for 
twenty-five years; a Ladies' society, or- , 



ganized five years ago and numbering 
about eighty members, for the assist- 
ance of the poor and needy. There is 
also a literary society for young men. 

Pastor Hennicke was born in Prussia 
in 1826, and attended school in Erfurt, 
Saxony, and in Berlin. In the latter 
city he also entered the University and 
the missionary seminary. . He then took 
a position as teacher in the Luther In- 
stitute, in Berlin, which he kept until 
he came to America in 1855. His first 
place of worship in this country was 
Port Richmond, S. I., and soon after 
getting there he organized the German 
Lutheran church in Stapleton. A year 
later he was requested by the president 
of the ISJ'ew York Synod to go .to Albany 
to reunite a congregation which had 
nearly been ruined by dissension. He 
remained there three years and started 
the St. Johannes' church, on Washing- 
ton street, which is at present the largest 
church in that city. In 1860 he re- 
turned to New York, where he became 
pastor at St. Matthew's church on 
Walker street, to assist Pastor Stohl- 
mann. He stayed there four years, and 
during that time organized St. Peter's 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



349 



church, corner Forty-seventh street and 
Lexington avenue, and about the same 
time another German Lutheran church 
in Hicksville, L. I. On account of sick- 
ness, however, he had to give up his 
place and went to Michigan, where he 
preached for three years in Rossville, 
near Detroit. He there organized a 
German church in the back woods near 
LTnionville, Tuscola Co., now Columbia, 
which has been so prosperous as to have 
at the present time three branch 
churches. When he returned to New 
York City, he accepted a call to St. 
Paul's church, corner Fifteenth street 
and Sixth avenue, where he preached 
with pastor Koenig. He then became 
Vice President of the German Lutheran 
Synod, and in that capacity held church 
visitations, ordained clergymen knd in- 
troduced them to their congregations. 
Among others he organized a German 
Lutheran church in Greenport, L.I., 
and also the German St. Johannes' 
church in Greenpoint. In 1879 he 



went to Martinsville, Niagara Co., but 
after having been there hardly one year, 
he accepted a call from Brooklyn, where 
Pastor Steimle wanted him to become 
his successor in Zion church. 

He edited for some time the Kirchliche 
Informatorium in New York City, and is 
at present director of the Martin Luther 
College, in Buffalo. He is also the 
author of a number of hymns and poems. 
While in Prussia he was highly esteemed 
by King Frederick William IV., whose 
spiritual adviser he has been for some 
time. 

He also made himself famous as an 
inventor, and spent a considerable 
amount of time and money in the in- 
vention of rubber composition, with 
which to cover ships on the outside to 
prevent, as much as possible, the serious 
consequences of collisions. This inven- 
tion, however, proved to be a too expen- 
sive one and has never been applied to 
any great extent. — Brooklyn Times. 




REV. F. P. HENNIGHAUSEN, D.D. 



Fredrick P. Hennighausen was born 
July 27, 1S39, in Fulda, a town of about 
11,000 inhabitants, at that time being a 
part of the Electorate of Hessen-Cassel, 
but now belonging to Prussia. The 
poi^ulation of Fulda is largely Roman 
Catholic, it being the See of a Bishopric. 
Its famous cathedral was built at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century 
after the pattern of St Peter's at Rome. 
Besides the cathedral and one Evangel- 
ical church, the list contains a number 
of Catholic churches, a nunnery and a 
monastry of the St. Franciscan brothers, 
schools, a Royal Palace and a college. 
The parents of Rev. Hennighausen 



were members of the "Evangelical 
church." His father was an officer in 
the army and had fought in the wars 
with Napoleon, having been forced into 
the army at the early age of fifteen 
years. The family comprised ten chil- 
dren, of whom our subject was the 
youngest. He was baptized in early in- 
fancy and in due time attended the 
public schools. When not quite ten 
years old, the boy entered the Royal 
Gymnasium (C9llege) at Hersfeld, 
whither his father had previously been 
ordered by the government; thus, as he 
was about finishing his teens, the young 
student was wrestling with the study of 



350 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




KEV. F. P. HENNIGHAUSEN, D D. 



four different languages, besides the 
other branches of a higher education. 
Before he had finished his fourteenth 
year he was, according to the custom 
and the laws of the land, confirmed 
after a two years' course of catechiza- 
tion. Soon after, for various reasons, 
chiefly in view of the length of time 
of study necessary to qualify him for 
the office of the holy ministry, which 
he had even then in view, the heavy ex- 
pense necessarily accruing therefrom, 
but chiefly, the certainty of military 
service required and the uncertainty of 
an early appointment to office, there then 
being an abundance of candidates for 
the ministry, Mr. Hennighausen emi- 
grated, in company with a relative, to 
America, landing in New York city early 
in August, 1853. Two brothers, also 
chiefly in order to escape the military 
service, which had been such a hard 
master to their father, had.preceded him ; 
though instrumental in this younger bro- 
ther following them, they were, with 
the best intention, unable to assist him 
any. Thus, the boy, who had previous- 



ly to this hardly ever left the parental 
home, and never been outside the 
bounds of parental protection, was sud- 
denly and rudely thrown upon his own 
resources in a strange land, in a large 
city, of whose ungodliness and wicked- 
ness he had not the slightest idea. With - 
out parents, without counsellor, he had 
to battle for his daily bread, amidst 
trials and difficulties and temptations 
sufficient to overcome many a stronger 
heart ; but the hand of God was over the 
homeless boy, and not only kept him 
from falling into evil ways, but during 
the great revival of 1857, drew him still 
nearer, yea, into a personal and imme- 
diate communion with himself. The 
desire to consecrate his life to God's 
service awoke anew and more intense, 
and also more intelligently at the same 
time. Soon he was enabled to take up 
his studies again in Eutger's College. 

In the fall of 1860 Mr. H. went to 
Washington, D. C, and took charge of 
a school, assisting at the same time in 
the Sunday School of a small German 
Lutheran Church and thus became ac- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



351 



fjuainted with the Rev. J. G. Butler, 
D.D., through whose influence he 
finally became a member of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church. Soon the 
late civil war broke out and even the 
little German church felt its effects se- 
verely. The pastor, no longer suffici- 
ently supported by the impoverished 
people, secured an appointment as 
chaplain of one of the regiments that 
passed through Washington, and left. 

The people unable to call and sup- 
port a regular pastor, earnestly implored 
him to take charge of their devotional 
meetings, and so much pleased were 
they with his services that they begged 
him to become their regular pastor at a 
salary of $150 per annum. Under the 
guidance of Rev. Dr. Butler he studied 
theology, and in the fall of 1861 passed 
. a *most creditable examination before 
the Lutheran Synod of Maryland, at 
Baltimore, and was licensed. Two 
years later he was regularly ordained at 
Taneytown. The salary was very small, 
but the church, composed then of only 
about twelve families, was also heavily 
in debt. Within a few years the debt 
was very materially reduced, the church 
was renovated, a school house built and 
a flourishing parochial school organized, 
Mr. H. being both teacher and pastor 
for some time. At the same time the 
young pastor, in company with Dr. 
Butler, almost daily visited one or the 
other of the many hospitals in and 
around Washington, with ten thousand 
wounded ones, giving his services chief- 
ly to the German soldiers, some of 
whom were not able to understand or 
make themselves understood in the 
English language. Thus Mr. Hennig- 
hausen received part of his education 
for dealing with men's souls, under the 
most trying circumstances. His heart, 
however, almost failed him, when early 
during the war, and when he had but 



very little practical experience, he was 
requested to prepare a German soldier, 
who, for murdering his ofiicer had been 
condemned by a court martial to be 
hung. Mr. Hennighausen considered 
this one of the most trying duties that 
ever devolved upon him during the en- 
tire period of his ministry. In 1864, he 
received a unanimous call from St. 
Stephen's Church in Baltimore, which 
was then in most deplorable circum- 
stances. At the earnest request of his 
congregation the call was declined, so 
persistently repeated however, that Mr. 
Hennighausen, contrary to the wish and 
advice of his Washington people and 
friends, felt constrained to accept the 
call as a matter of duty, and took charge 
of St. Stephen's on Oct. 1, 1864. Only 
about eighty members were left, an ex- 
pensive law suit was pending, and the 
minds of the people, both those who had 
remained and those who had withdrawn 
with the former pastor, were fearfully 
excited and embittered against each 
other. The law suit was finally decided 
in favor of the congregation by the 
court of appeals. 

The spiritual condition of the people 
under the leadership of previous pastors 
had been most lamentable. They had 
entirely forgotten that by their charter 
they were a member of the Maryland 
Synod. The necessary finances were 
partially raised by questionable means, 
whilst contributions for benevolent ob- 
jects outside of their own congregation 
were almost entirely unknown. A debt 
of $3,000 was also still resting upon the 
small and insignificant looking church. 
It was no small undertaking to which 
Mr. Hennighausen had given himself, 
but he undertook it trusting in God, and 
in this he has not been disappointed. 
To-day a fine church building valued at 
$40,000 occupies the place of the old one. 
The pastor's salary has been more than 



352 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



doubled, whilst the apportionment placed 
upon the congregation is regularly met. 
The church is well organized, the 
young people taking an active part 
in all it& affairs. The Sunday School 
numbers some 600 scholars, whilst 
the church may claim 1000 en- 
titled to communion. Mr. Hennig- 
hausen has, during his stay in Balti- 
more, received some sixteen invitations 
and calls to other places, but has stead- 
ily clung to his people. In October, 
1889, the church and Sunday School 
celebrated in a most happy manner his 
twenty-fifth anniversary among them. 

For a while Mr. Hennighausen was 
the editor of " The Lutheran Kirchen- 
freund," He was the president of the 
Grerman Home Missionary Board of the 
General Synod while in existence. For 
a number of years he acted as the Ger- 
man Secretary of his Synod, and was 
repeatedly elected a delegate to the 
General Synod and a director of the 
theological seminary at Gettysburg. 
For eighteen years he has been a mem- 
ber of the Examination and Education 
Committees, and is at present its hon- 
ored president. In 1886 the College of 
North Carolina conferred upon him the 
title of D. D. 

Mr. Hennighausen has never pub- 
lished anything at his own expense, but 
for years has been a regular contributor 
to German periodicals, while a number 
of his sermons, sketches and speeches 
have been published in both the Eng- 
lish and German languages. 

Mr. Hennighausen preaches chiefly 
in German, and uses neither notes nor 
manuscript in the pulpit. Mr. Hennig- 
hausen visited the home of his child- 
hood in 1875, when he made an extend- 



ed tour through England, Germany, 
France, and Austria. 

His oldest brother is one of the most 
respected merchants in the ancient city 
of Nurnberg, whilst his youngest broth- 
er, who died during 1889, had become 
one of the richest merchants of 'Dussel- 
dorf on the Ehine. His brother in 
Baltimore is one of the most prominent 
lawyers, an active mover in all popular 
and benevolent undertakings, and also 
the attorney for the German Imperial 
Consulate. Another brother is a to- 
bacco merchant in Richmond, Va. 

In 1865 Mr. Hennighausen married 
Eva S., daughter of Eev. Ch. Lepley, who 
is also still living; their oldest son grad- 
uated at the law Department of the 
University of Maryland, and for several 
years has been in partnership with his 
uncle. A second son is located as a 
merchant in Middletown, Va. 

For years he has been a member and 
vice-president of the Board of Foreign 
Missions; also the president of the 
Children's Mission Society of the Gen- 
eral Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. From the beginning of his 
ministry to this day he has always been 
a member of the Maryland Synod. 

Since 1877 he has been secretary and 
treasurer of the Lutheran Ministers' 
Insurance League and as such has 
handled some $70,000. He was one of 
the speakers at the dedication of the 
Luther statue in Washington in 1884, 
is one of the organizers, and from its 
beginning was the secretary of the So- 
ciety for the History of German in 
Maryland; has been one of the directors 
of the Maryland Sunday School L^nion 
and the Maryland Tract Society for 
years. 




AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



853 




REV. FREDERICK HEYER. 



Father Heyer was born at Helmstedt, 
Germany, July 18, 1793. At the age of 
seventeen he came to America, and 
after preparing in the school of Zion's 
congregation, Philadelphia, he studied 
theology under Dr. Helmuth. 

For years he labored as a home mis- 
sionary in Western Pennsylvania, where 
a number of prominent churches own 
him as their founder. With this home 
training, he was sent, in 1841, as the 
first foreign missionary of the American 
Lutheran church to found a mission in 
India. For about fourteen years he la- 
bored with marvelous success. Imme- 

45 



diately after his return he was engaged 
as traveling missionary among the Ger- 
mans of Minnesota, where, after some 
years, he organized the Minnesota Synod, 
Difficulties arising in the mission in 
India, he was called thither again to 
toil two years longer in his old age. On 
his return in 1872, he became House- 
Falher in the Theological Seminary in 
Philadelphia, where he died Nov. 7th, 
1873, at the advanced age of eighty 
years. 

He V7as, for his time, a model mission- 
ary. Frugal in his habits, he was able 
to administer with rare economy, the 



354 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



scanty revenues of a mission in a time 
of scarcity. Himself a plain and simple 
minded man, he was well fitted to de- 
liver to plain people the simple message 
of the gospel, while as an example 
of that faith which overcometh the 



world, he will always occupy a high 
place. We can truly say of him, he was 
full of years and good works. A patri- 
arch and pioneer in home and foreign 
missionary work, he toiled for his Mas- 
ter because he loved him. — Indicator . 




KEY. PEOF. COENELIUS E. HILL. 



The subject of this sketch, Cornelius 
E. Hill, was the eldest of a family of 
seven children, and was born near 
Meriden, 111., on the 12th of November, 
1862. 

His father, Easmus O. Hill, emigrated 
from Norway when only sixteen years 
of age; a year later his mother, Martha 
Govig, came over. They met, and in 
1861 were united in marriage. 

After a stay of four years near Mer- 
iden and Leland, 111., the family moved 
to Lee county, 111. 

Here they lived until the year 1870, 
when they went to Chicago, 111., where 
the father began studying for the min- 
istry. The following year, however, he 
was called to take charge of five or six 
congregations in Illinois and Wisconsin, 
and accepting the call he moved with 
his family to Creston, 111. From here 
they moved to DeForest, Wis., in the 
year 1877. 

During all this time the children 
were kept to English school, and also 
Norwegian school as much as possible, 
from, an age of six years and on. 

As an example of the limited con- 
ditions under which the people (new- 
comers) at that time lived, maybe men- 
tioned that many hours were spent by 
the young Cornelius, standing on a 
chair, making out the words of the 
newspapers with which the rather 
cracked and soiled walls of the com- 



bined dining-room, bed-room, kitchen, 
and sitting-room were concealed. The 
father and mother united in drawing 
out and stimulating whatever faculties 
the Lord had implanted in their chil- 
dren, and leading their youthful 
thoughts upward to Him as the Grood 
Giver of all gifts, temporal, intellectual, 
and spiritual. At the age of seventeen 
Cornelius went back to Illinois to teach 
district school. He taught two terms, 
and was then sent to Eed Wing, Minn., 
to attend school at the seminary there. 
After one year's attendance here he ap- 
plied for admission and was accepted 
into the sub-freshman class of the 
University of Wisconsin, at Madison. 

After five years of hard work here, 
due partly to the but imperfect prep- 
aration he had, and partly to the finan- 
cial circumstances of the family which 
drove him, in spite of the earnest re- 
monstration of a fond and anxious 
father, to go out teaching, and make 
up the work lost by extra work later on 
in the course; after five years of such 
work he took the degree of A. B., with 
special honors in Greek, of the univer- 
sity in 1887. Summers were' spent '^on 
the farm. 

While preparing for the finaFexamin- 
ation, a severe blow fell upon him in 
the death of a father who had ever been 
all that word should imply, to him, — a 
friend, a severe yet sympathizing 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



355 



watcher of all his actions, a counsellor 
whose opinions were freely expressed 
and implicitly trusted. 

The period immediately following 
was perhaps the darkest in his life. 
Whilst yet preparing for graduating, he 
was tendered a position to teach at the 
Red Wing Seminary, where he had 
spent some time as a student five years 
previous. This he accepted and still 



occupies, instructing in English, Grreek, 
and the Mental Sciences. 

He was married in the fall of 1887 to 
Miss Isabella C. Williams, who was 
born in La Salle Co., Ill , in the year 
1865, but later moved with her parents 
to Badger, la. 

They have one child, Ruth Mar- 
guerite, born to them in 1889. 




REV. REUBEN HILL, A.M. 



Rev. Hill, the superintendent of the 
seminary buildings at Mount Airy, Phil- 
adelphia, was born in Hughesville, Ly- 
coming Co., Pa., July 22, 1826. His 
mother was a member of the Steck 
family, which has given to the Lutheran 
church in Pennsylvania a large array of 
X3rominent members. How closely iden- 
tified his family has been with the 
church may be inferred, when it is 
learned that no less than five of his 
sisters were married to Lutheran minis- 
ters. Mr. Hill, after preliminary train- 
ing at Lewisburg, Pa., entered the 
Freshman class of Pennsylvania college, 
Gettysburg, Pa., in 1848. He graduated 
at the head of his class in 1852. After 
graduation he taught for a year in 
Roanoke College, Va. Then pursuing 
his theological studies at Gettysburg, 
after a brief period as principal of an 
academy at Shamokin, he returned to 
Gettysburg as pastor of St. James' 
church. For seventeen years Rev. Ben- 
jamin Keller, who is justly regarded one 
of the founders of the Philadelphia 
Seminary, had been pastor of this 
church, although a short pastorate had 
intervened between his period and that 
of Mr. Hill. During the four years of 
Mr. Hill's pastorate, his church was 



very largely attended by the students of 
the Theological Seminary and the Col- 
lege at Gettysburg, especially in the 
evenings when they were free from the 
obligation of presence at the College 
church. During his pastorate at Gettys- 
burg, he was married to Miss Rose F. 
Schaeffer, daughter of Rev. Prof. C. F. 
Schaeffer, D.D., then professor at 
Gettysburg, and afterward the first 
Chairman of our Faculty. Mrs. Hill is 
the grand-daughter of Rev. J. G. 
Schmucker, D.D., formerly president of 
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. 
From Gettysburg he was called in 1859, 
to St. John's church, Hagerstown, Md., 
where his father-in-law had previously 
ministered. During the succeeding 
year Dr. C. P. Krauth was called from 
Pittsburg to the pastorate of St. Mark's 
church, Philadelphia, and Mr. Hill be- 
came Dr. Krauth's successor. After six 
years in Pittsburg he accepted a call to 
Rhinebeck, N. Y., and thence, three 
years later, removed to Rochester, N. Y., 
where he founded the English church of 
the Reformation, whose present pros- 
perity is largely due to the self-sacrific- 
ing labors which he there performed. 
After a pastorate of five years, in 
1874, he became pastor of St. John's 



356 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



church, AUentown, Pa., and as such, the 
pastor of the professors and students of 
Muhlenberg College. During his entire 
course there he was one of the most 
active members of the College Board, 
and, for a time, acted as i^rofessor. Af- 
ter nearly eleven years' service there, in 
the beginning of 1885, he became finan- 
cial agent of the seminary. Mr. Hill 
has thus filled a number of most re- 
sponsible positions, and in them all has 



been eminently faithful and successful. 
Not only has he collected a large portion 
of the funds for the erection of the new 
building and the purchase of the entire 
property, but the plan of the new build- 
ing has originated with him. The ex- 
cellent taste displayed in all the ar- 
rangements and furnishings belong to 
him and Mrs. Hill, both of whom deserve 
the warmest thanks of all the students 
and friends of the seminary. — In.:icator, 




EEY. ALFEED HILLEE, D.D. 



Dr. Hiller was born in the town of 
Sharon, Schoharie Co., N. Y., April 22, 
1831 . He graduated at Hartwick Semin- 
ary in 1857, was licensed to preach the 
Gospel by the New York Ministerium 
September 8, 1857, in Zion's German 
Lutheran Church, Utica, N. Y., and was 
ordained by the New York Ministerium 
in St. Matthew's German Lutheran 
church. Walker St., New York City, 
September 28, 1858. After licensure in 
1857 he became pastor of the Lutheran 
church at Fayette, Seneca Co., N. Y., 
where he remained for one year, when 



by advice of the president of synod he 
accepted a call to the Zion's Evangelical 
Lutheran church at German Valley, 
Mojris Co., N. J. Here he remained 
for twenty-three years, when at the 
beginning of the school year 1881 he 
entered upon his duties in the Hartwick 
Seminary, Otsego Co., N. Y., as Dr. G. 
B. Miller's successor, and professor of 
Systematic Theology, which position he 
continues to hold. The title of D. D. 
was conferred upon him by Witten- 
berg College, Springfield, O., in 1882. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



357 



REV. G. A. HINTERLEITNER, D.D. 



Rev. Gustav Adolpli Hinterleitner 
was born in Weissenburg, Bavaria, 
Germany, on the 2d of October, 1824. 
His parents and ancestors were members 
of the Lutheran Church as far back as 
to the time of the Reformation. Having 
taken a course in the classical institution 
of his native place, and afterwards a 
seminary course, he emigrated to 
America in 1849 locating in Bucks Co., 
Pa., where he received a call as assistant 
pastor of Rev. Wm. Kaemmerer. In 
this capacity he labored for eighteen 
months during which time (1851) he 
became a member of the Pennsylvania 
Synod. In the latter part of 1851 he 
received a call from the Lutheran congre- 
gation in Kutztown, Berks Co., Pa., and 
later from three other congregations, 
which he has served nearly fifteen 
years. In the year 1865 his Synod 
called him to become the successor of 



Dr. Charles F. Schaeffer, Professor in 
the Pennsylvania College and Theologi- 
cal Seminary. In 1866 Dr. Hinterleit- 
ner received a call from the German 
Lutheran Trinity church at Pottsville, 
Pa., where he has labored for twenty- 
four years. Dr. Hinterleitner has been 
trustee of the Muhlenberg College for 
twenty-two years, and for a number of 
years also a member of the examining 
committee of his synod. By the consent 
of his synod he has instructed a number 
of young men from Germany in theology 
and prepared them for the ministry, 
some of whom occupy prominent posi- 
tions. In 1887 Muhlenberg College 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity. Dr. Hinterleitner has been 
a frequent contributor to our German 
church papers . He has written a number 
of poems of a historical character which 
were appreciated and well received. 




REV. CHRISTIAN F. HOCHSTETTER. 



Rev. Christian Friedrich Hochstetter 
was born in 1828, in the city of Lorch, 
a Swabian town in South Germany, re- 
ceived a Christian education and was 
graduated by a classic academy in Nuer- 
tingen, later on by the Evangelical uni- 
versity at Urach, and then entered the 
university at Tuebingen. After passing 
the examination in theology in 1850, he 
visited a conference of Evangelical min- 
isters from all parts of Germany, con- 
vened at Stuttgart, to discuss the various 
mission fields. It was pointed out that, 
whereas a great many Germans emi- 
grated to America, that was, indeed, a 
great field for such work. Mr. Hoch- 



stetter was much impressed by the truth 
of the fact. After vicarizing several 
years he passed the customary ^^Examcn 
pro ministerio,^^ and, through the efforts 
of Dr. Chr. Barth, received a call to the 
so-called Lutheran Swabian church at 
Fort Wayne, Ind., and accepted, more- 
over since the congregation at Fort 
Wayne had joined the Ohio Synod, he 
too became a member of that body 
(1853). From the first he made it an 
object to make more pronounced the 
spirit of confessional differences (con- 
fessionelles Bewusstsein) and to that 
end edited a pamj^hlet: "Ob Gottes 
Wort oder Menschen Meinungen gelten 



358 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




^^^. ^^c^^^y^^ 



sollen in der Lehre vom heiligen Abend- 
maliP' — If God's Word or mere opinion 
shall prevail in the doctrine of the 
Lord's Supper (1855). As a result of 
this pamphlet he became acquainted 
with the Rev. J. A. A. Graubau, of 
Buffalo, and (1857) was called to labor 
with him in the work of Christ in his 
congregation at Buffalo, at the same 
time acting as tutor in the Martin Luth- 
er College of that city. 

When some time later the dispute 
arose in the Buffalo Synod about church 
government Rev. Hochstetter and some 
members separated from the congrega- 
tion and held their services in the so- 
called French church (Franzosenkirche). 
Then in 1866 the overtures to a confer- 
ence were made by the Synod of Mis- 
souri, and resulted in a meeting of 
Dr. Walther and Dr. Sihler in behalf of 
the Missouri Synod, and Rev. Hoch- 



stetter and von Rohr, to represent the 
rump Buffalo Synod, in Fort Wayne, 
at which occasion all differences that 
existed between the two synodical bod- 
ies were removed. Rev. Hochstetter 
was convinced that the doctrine held by 
the Missouri Synod was correct and in 
fact the only Lutheran doctrine. A 
union with the Missouri Synod was 
effected. 

The task now before Rev. Hochstetter 
was to bring about a union between his 
congregation and the one at Buffalo, 
Mo. This, too, was soon accomplished, 
and a new church built by them. In 
1868 Rev. Hochstetter accepted a call 
to the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's 
church at Indianapolis, Ind. After a 
nine years' stay he left to take charge 
of the church at Frohna, Perry Co., Mo., 
and soon after (1878) accepted another 
call to Humberstown, Ontario. While 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



359 



there he was elected president of the 
District of Canada of the Missouri Syn- 
od, and editor of the semi-monthly 
Evangelical Lutheran Volksblatt. In 
1883 he took charge of his present con- 
gregation at Wollcottsville, IN". Y. 



In the meantime he edited a history 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Missouri 
Synod in Korth America, from the Em- 
igration in 1838 to the year 1884," pub- 
lished by oSTaumann, Dresden. 




KEY. JOHN M. T. E. HOFFMANN. 



John Martin Theodore Ernst Hoff- 
mann was born at Treppeln, Prussia, 
Nov. 10, 1823, a descendant of a family 
whose records, leading back to the early 
days of the reformation, show them to 
have been stanch Lutherans at all times. 
His first tuition was received from his 
father, a sound Lutheran clergyman. 
In 1839 he entered the gymnasium at 
Guben, with the avowed purpose of 
studying theology, but his teachers knew 
how to dissuade him from his object, 
and in October, 1842, he entered the 
government school of engineering at 
Berlin. Regular attendance at the 
religious ' meetings held in the "mis- 
sionshaus" of the Berlin mission so- 
ciety, awakened in his heart the old 
longing to labor in the vineyard of 
the Master. A long and serious illness 
compelled him to l^ave the school of 



and in 1844 entered the 
seminary at Berlin, and after a severe 
probation of six months, was accepted 
as a regular student. Upon the death 
of his father in 1848, he supplied the 
parish at Buchholz, his father's last 
charge, for nearly a year. In March, 
1849, he passed his final examination. 

There were no vacancies in the mis- 
sionary fields of the Berlin society, and 
the society, not being in a position for 
new undertakings, prevented him from 
entering upon the work in the calling of 
his choice. For a whole year he waited, 
then receiving a call to America, he de- 
cided, with the consent of the mission 
committee, to accept. On June 19, 1850, 
he was married to Sophie Friedericke 
Hauffe, and on Aug. 11 of the same 
year, set sail from Hamburg for Ameri- 
ca, arriving in New York on Sept. 4, 



360 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



after a long and stormy voyage of three 
weeks. 

The field of labor to which he was 
first assigned was West Leyden, Jeffer- 
son Co., N. Y., and on Sept. 20, he en- 
tered upon his pastoral duties. At the 
session of the New York Ministerium 
in September, 1851, he was formally re- 
ceived as a member and continued in 
the connection for upwards of thirty-five 
years. In 1852 he was called to the old 
congregation at Eome, N. Y., which he 
served until 1856, when he received and 
accepted a call to the newly organized 
congregation at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
In 1857 he removed to Lafargeville, 
Jefferson Co., N. Y., and two years later 
went to Albany to take charge of the 
young St. John's congregation of that 
place. On May 1, 1859, the day on 
which the first church was dedicated, 
he was installed as pastor, and contin- 
ued in his position until removed by 
death in 1887. 

He was a highly esteemed member of 
the New York Ministerium, and was 
frequently called to positions of honor 
and trust. From 1861 to 1866 he was a 
member of the visiting committee for 
Hartwick Seminary. In 1865 he was a 
a member of the committee on revision 
of the liturgy, and in the same year was 
chosen to represent his synod at the 
meeting of the General Synod. From 
1864 to 1868 he was a member of the 
examining committee. After the sepa- 
ration of the Ministerium from the Gen- 
eral Synod took place, he was secretary 



for two years, until forced to give up on 
account of an injury to his right arm. 
For many years he was a member of the 
executive board of the Ministerium. He 
repeatedly represented that body at the 
General Council, and as a representa- 
tive was present at the first session, 
when he was appointed a member of 
the Churchbook Committee for his 
Synod. 

His end came suddenly though not 
unexpectedly. After the death of his 
wife in 1886, a serious heart ailment, 
superinduced by grief, set in. The dif- 
ficulty rather grew worse than better, 
although at times it seemed to have dis- 
appeared. On Sept. 21, 1887, he was in 
attendance at conference which met at 
Castleton, a village about eleven miles 
from Albany. After attending evening 
service, he, together with several breth- 
ren, hurried to catch an evening train 
for Albany, when he was overtaken by 
his end, swift and painless. He was 
buried on Sunday, Sept. 25, 1887, at 
Albany, in the cemetery of his congre- 
gation, beside his wife. 

He was a man of profound sentiment, 
full of true love for his church, his fam- 
ily and his Synod. But on the other 
hand, he had a firm will. He was ex- 
tremely conservative and reluctantly 
gave way to innovations. His voice and 
pen were very active, and at the time of 
his death he was engaged upon a work 
in practical theology. His age reached 
63 years, 10 months and 11 days. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



361 



KEY. PKOF. A. HOENECKE. 



Rev. Prof. Adolpli Hoenecke, pastor of 
the Evangelical Lutheran St. Matthaeus 
Church, at Milwaukee, Wis., was born 
February 25th, 1835, in Brandenburg 
on Havel, Prussia. He received his 
classical education in his native city, 
and his theological education in the 
University of Halle, on the Saale. He 
was ordained in 1862 at Magdeburg, 
Germany, and came to the United States 
in 1863, where he located in Farmington, 
Jefferson Co., Wis. Here he remained 
three years, when he was called to 
Watertown, Wis., where he remained 
three years, also serving as Professor in 
the German University. In the summer 



of 1870 he was called to the pastorate of 
his present charge at Milwaukee. 

Since the fall of 1877 he has been 
Professor of Dogmatic Theology in the 
Evangelical Lutheran Theological Sem- 
inary of the Synod of Wisconsin, also 
performing full pastoral duties. He is 
a member of the Board of Trustees of 
the Northwestern University at Water- 
town. He was married in 1865 to Miss 
Matilda Hess, daughter of a clergyman 
of Canton Berne, Switzerland. They 
have six children. Prof. Hoenecke is a 
successful teacher and devoted pastor.— 
Hist, of Milwaukee. 



T^K 



REY. ROBERT C. HOLLAND. 



Rev. Robert Christian Holland, pas- 
tor of the Wentworth Street church, 
Charleston, S. C, is a brother of Pres- 
ident Holland of Newberry College. 
He was born near Staunton, April 30, 
1843. He was baptized in infancy and 
confirmed at the age of fourteen by the 
Rev. X. J. Richardson. He entered 
Roanoke College in 1856 and graduated 
in 1861. Under the war pressure he 
enlisted as a member of Pickett's cel- 
ebrated division, and was wounded three 
times. During the fearful carnage at 
Gettysburg he was shot in both arms 
and taken prisoner. Being paroled, 
he took the law course at the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, and received his B. L. 
from this renowned school in 1866. 
After practicing law two years he began 
a preparation for the ministry, and was 



married during this period to Miss Kate 
B. Shirey. He was ordained in 1869 
and served in the following positions 
to this date: Pastor at Madison C. H, 
seven years. After serving two years 
at Shepherdstown he was elected vice- 
president of Roanoke College, filling 
this position with great credit for three 
years. In 1881 he accepted a call to 
Martinsburg, W. Va., where he served 
successfully seven years. He has been 
at Charleston two years as pastor of an 
influential church in this important 
stronghold of Southern Lutheranism. 
Mr. Holland is a member of the United 
Synod's Mission Board. He is a man 
of lovely character and devoted to his 
holy calling. He is a cultivated gentle- 
man, a noble Christian, and a loyal 
Lutheran of the genuine type. 



46 



362 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. G. W. HOLLAND, D.D., Ph.D. 



Dr. Holland was born at Churcliville, 
Virginia, July IGth, 1838. His father 
was of English stock, his mother of 
German. At an early age he was put 
to the best schools the neighborhood 
afforded, and entered the Sophomore 
class in Roanoke College in 1854, 
graduating from that institution in 1857. 
He taught one year as tutor in Eoan- 
oke College, and in 1858 entered the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 
Pa., remaining one year, then spent 
one session at Union Theological Sem- 
inary, New York city, and returned to 
Gettysburg, graduating therefrom in 
1860. He was licensed by the Virginia 
Synod at Bridgewater in October, 1860, 
and at once became pastor of what was 
then known as the Eockingham charge 
in that Synod. 

In July 1861, he enlisted in the 
Confederate army, both as private soldier 
and Company Chaplain, serving in this 
capacity until in October, 1861, he lost 



his left arm. He taught school till 
1863, when he was elected to a position 
in Eoanoke College as Principal of the 
Preparatory Department, which position 
he held until in 1867, when he resigned 
and again became pastor of the Eock- 
ingham charge, served by him in 1861. 
In 1867 he was married to Pauline, the 
eldest daughter of Eev. D. F. Bittle, D.D. 
of Salem, Va. He served the charge in 
Eockingham Co. till 1873, then accept- 
ing a call to South Carolina, as pastor 
of churches in Newberry Co. 

In 1874 he was elected Professor of 
Ancient Languages in Newberry College, 
then at Walhalla, S. C. In 1877, when 
the College was relocated at Newberry, 
S. C, upon the resignation of Eev. Dr. 
Smeltzer as President, he was made 
President of the College, which place 
he still fills. He received the degree 
of Ph. D. from Eoanoke College in 
1883, and the degree of D. D. from the 
L^niversity of South Carolina, in 1888. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



363 




KEY. SAMUEL A. HOLMAN, D.D. 



From the "History of the English 
Lutheran Church of Pottsville, Pa.," 
edited by Rev. E. G. Hay, pastor, we 
gather the following facts in regard to 
the life and work of Rev. Samuel A. 
Holman, D. D. 

He was born in Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 
6, 1831. He prepared for college in 
the schools at Harrisburg and at Nor- 
wich, Vt., and entered the Freshman 
class of Pennsylvania College, Gettys- 
burg, Pa , in 1851, from which he was 
graduated in 1855, having been appoint- 
ed Valedictorian of his class. After 
having been engaged in business for 
two years he began a theological course 
under Rev. Dr. C. A. Hay, pastor of the 
Lutheran church in Harrisburg, and 
completed it in the theological seminary 
at Gettysburg, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1859. In September, 1859, he 
was licensed by the Synod of East 
Pennsylvania to preach the Gospel. He 
had been called, previous to his licen- 
sure, to the pastorate of the English 
Lutheran church of Pottsville, Pa., 
which he accepted, and labored there 
successfully until September, 1861, when 
he accepted an appointment as chaplain 
in the forty-eighth regiment of Penn- 



sylvania volunteers, which had just en- 
tered the service of the United States 
in the war of the Rebellion. He served 
with his regiment while it was stationed 
at Fortress Monroe, Va., Hattaras, N. 
C, and whilst it took part in the battles 
of Roanoke Island and Newberne, N. 
C, Chantilly, Va., Second Bull Run, Va., 
South Mountain and Antietam, Md., 
and Fredericksburg, Va. In 1863 he 
was married to Frances, daughter of 
Jacob A. and Matilda Hazen, of Potts- 
ville, and in that year again entered the 
pastoral relation, having accepted a call 
to the First Lutheran church of Altoona, 
Pa. In 1865 he founded a Lectureship 
on the Augsburg Confession in the 
theological seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., 
which has elicited from the pen of some 
of our ablest ministers and theologians 
articles of great and permanent value to 
our Church. By the terms of this 
foundation the Board of Directors of 
the theological seminary appoint or 
cause to be appointed, annually, a suit- 
able person who shall deliver a lecture 
on one of the twenty-one doctrinal ar- 
ticles of the Augsburg Confession. The 
first series of this course of lectures, 
1866-1886, has been published by the 



364 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Lutheran Publication Society, Philadel- 
phia, Pa., in a large and handsome 8vo. 
volume of 888 pages. The following is 
a list of the lecturers with the titles of 
their lectures: 

Art. 1. The Trinity— J. A. Brown, 
D. D.,_LL D. 

Art. 2. Original Sin — S. Sprecher, 
D. D., LL D. 

Art. 3. The Person and Work of 
Christ— S. S. Schmucker, D. D. 

Art. 4. Justification by Faith — M. 
Valentine, D. D., LL D. 

Art. 5. The Office of the Ministry— 

C. A. Hay, D. D. 

Art. 6. New Obedience — C. A. Stork, 

D. D. 

Art. 7. The Church— T. G. Morris, 
D. R, LLD. 

Art. 8. The Church as it is— H. 
Zeigler, D. D. 

Art. 9. Baptism— F. W. Conrad, D. 
D., LLD. 

Art. 10. The Lord's Supper— G. 
Diehl, D. D. 

Art. 11. Confession— A. C. Wede- 
kind, D. D. 

Art. 12. Repentance — S. W. Harkey, 
D. D. 

Art. 13. Use of the Sacraments — W. 
M. Baum, D. D. 

Art. 14. The Call to the Ministry— 
L. A. Gotwald, D. D. 

Art. 15. Human Ordinances in the 
Church— S. A. Holman, D. D. 



Art. 16. Civil Polity and Govern- 
ment— L. E. Albert, D. D. 

Art. 17. Christ's Return to Judg- 
ment— E. J. Wolf, D. D. 

Art. 18. Free Will— H. L. Baugher, 
D. D. 

Art. 19. The Cause of Sin— S. A. 
Repass, D. D. 

Art. 20. Relation of Faith and Good 
Works— E. Huber, D. D. 

Art. 21. The Invocation of Saints — - 
J. C. Koller, D. D. 

In 1868 Rev. Holman removed to 
Philadelphia to fill a position in the 
office of the Lutheran Observer, and in 
the same year he organized Grace Luth- 
eran Church, West Philadelphia, which 
was subsequently located at the corner 
of Thirty-fifth and Spring Garden 
Streets, under the pastoral care of Rev. 
J. H. Menges. In 1874 Calvary Luth- 
eran Church, corner of Forty-third and 
Aspen streets. West Philadelphia, was 
organized, and Rev. Mr. Holman was 
called to become its pastor, which po- 
sition he has since that time occupied. 
In the year 1884 he received the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity from Pennsylva- 
nia College. He has been a member of 
the Lutheran Board of Pablication for 
the last twenty years, and at the present 
time is its corresponding secretary, and 
also one of the two persona appointed 
to represent the General Synod in the 
Board of Pablication. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



365 




REV. H. C. HOLLO WAY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch is the fourth 
son of John Brown Hollo way and his 
wife Margaret, was born in Aaronsburgh, 
Centre Co., Pa., on the 17th day of 
September, 1838. 

In the spring of 1854 he assumed his 
baptismal vows, by the rite of confir- 
mation, administed by his pastor, the 
Rev. M. J. Alleman. Not long after 
this, he had strong convictions that he 
was called to the office of the holy 
ministry. With this end in view he 
entered upon a course o£ classical studies 
in the academy of his native town. In 
the fall of 1856, his parents removed to 
the state of Ohio, and this made it 
necessary for the young student to rely 
upon himself and Divine Providence 
for financial support in the prosecution 
of his studies. After undergoing many 



and severe trials, alternating between 
teaching school and other honorable 
employment, and at the same time 
diligently pursuing '^his studies, in the 
fall of 1857^heTepaired to Pennsylvania 
College at Gettysburg, and entered the 
Freshman class of , that institution. After 
the usual full collegiate course, he 
graduated in September, 1861. 

The^same fall he entered the ^theolog- 
ical seminary at Gettysburg and com- 
pleted the full theological curriculum 
of that institution, being graduated in 
the fall of 1863. During his student 
life in the seminary the great battle of 
Gettysburg was fought, and though not 
an enlisted soldier in the regular army, 
he nevertheless did much good service, 
both on the field of battle and in the 
hospitals. He was unwearied in his 



366 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



attfcsntions, ministering to the wounded 
and dying soldiers. In company with 
General Buford's signal corps, he was 
an eye witness, from the cupola of the 
theological seminary, to the opening of 
that great battle on the morning of July 
1, 1863. On that memorable day, as 
well as the two succeeding days of bloody 
warfare, while attending to the wounded 
and dying, he made a number of 
miraculous escapes from death. His 
experience was varied and thrilling 
during that, the greatest battle of our 
civil war. 

On June 3, 1863, previous to his grad- 
uation in the fall, he was set apart to 
the sacred office of the gospel ministry 
in tlie Evangelical Lutheran church, by 
the laying on of hands, at the meeting of 
the "Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsyl- 
vania and adjacent states," assembled in 
Eeading, Pa. While yet a student in 
th(3 Theological Seminary, shortly after 
his ordination, he received in the same 
week calls from two pastorates, respec- 
tively, the Canton mission at Baltimore, 
Md., and the Westminster charge in the 
same state. He accepted the call to the 
latter pastorate, and served the congre- 
gations as a supply until some time after 
the battle at Gettysburg, when he took 
up his residence in Westminster. Here 
was a large field, the pastorate consist- 
ing of four congregations in the country, 
with many miles intervening, and it was 
required of the young pastor that he 
preach in both the German and English 
languages. 

On account of the bloody war waging 
in the land, and the consequent division 
of sentiment as to civil affairs, so firmly 
entertained in various sections, the en- 
trance upon the pastorate by the young 
minister was attended with more than 
the ordinary trials. Especially was this 
the case in the state of Maryland and in 
this district, where sentiment was about 



evenly divided. People had decided 
convictions and they had the courage to 
assert and maintain them. In common 
with others, the incoming young pastor 
had his convictions which were decided- 
ly those of loyalty to the government. 
Only once, however, did he experience, 
what, at first sight, had the appearance 
of serious trouble. He preached a ser- 
mon on the death or assassination of 
Abraham Lincoln. He inveighed elo- 
quently against the sin of murder, and 
his sermon also abounded in decided 
sentiments of patriotism. After the 
service, as the young pastor was passing 
out of the church door, one of his dea- 
cons took him rather violently by the 
arm, and pulling him to one side, ex- 
claimed in a very excited manner, "this 
is the last time, sir, you are going to 
preach in this church." The young 
pastor was about as much irritated as he 
was surprised, and requested the angered 
deacon to let go his hold on his arm, and 
at the same time wished to know the 
reason for the deacon's bad manners. 
He proceeded to denounce his pastor's 
sermon in the most violent manner, and 
by his own declarations declared himself 
to be a pronounced secessionist. He 
could not endure his pastor's outspoken 
patriotism. No harm, however, came 
from the rude conduct of the young 
deacon, and the young pastor peacefully 
continued ministrations in that 

church. He lost nothing by this inno- 
cent encounter, as in a month after that 
time his salary was increased by the 
addition of two hundred dollars. 

On Oct. 6, 1863, Eev. Mr. Holloway 
was united in holy marriage with Miss 
Salome P., the elder daughter of the late 
Bev. P. E. Yandersloot and his wife, 
Eebecca, at Gettysburg. The marriage 
contract was solemnized by the late Bev. 
C. F. Schaeffer, D.D., professor of Ger- 
man in the college and Theological 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



367 



Seminary, assisted by Rev. A. Essick, 
pastor of St. James' Lutheran churcli of 
the same place. 

Soon after taking up his residence in 
Westminster, it became apparent to the 
young pastor that there was a good 
opening for a church in that growing 
town, and he at once proceeded to agi- 
tate the subject. At the outstart he re- 
ceived no encouragement, but beb'eving 
that he had a good cause, he took the 
initiatory steps looking toward the erec- 
tion of a church building. Having only 
a dozen members in the town, and no 
church organization, such an undertak- 
ing was hazardous. Though having: 
been pronounced a ''fool" by the rich- 
est of his members for attempting such 
an enterprise, yet after three years of 
incessant toil, and many and untold 
sacrifices, it was the joy of his heart, as 
well as the delight of the people of West- 
minster, to see completed what was then 
the finest church edifice in that county, 
at a cost of $16,000. The new church 
was dedicated on Feb. 23, 1868, the Rev. 
C. A. Stork, D. D., preaching the ser- 
mon. A congregation was organized 
the week following the dedication. Thus 
the Lutheran church was planted in 
that thriving town, the county seat, and 
the wisdom of doing so has been abun- 
dantly proved. That church is now 
self-sustaining and independent of the 
churches in the country with which it 
was originally connected. 

With the new church in the town, 
the Westminster charge became still 
more laborious, consisting then of five 
congregations, four in the county and 
the newly organized one in the town. 
This required the pastor to preach three 
times each Lord's day, and travel from 
fifteen to twenty-four miles the same 
day. With this increased labor, the 
pastor found his strength taxed beyond 
his endurance, and receiving a call to 



Christ Lutheran church at Cumberland, 
Md., in the spring of 1868 he accepted 
the same. It was a great trial for both 
the pastor and the people to be parted. 
Westminster was his "first love," and 
in the five years of his ministry there 
he made many friends, and attachments 
were formed that are abiding and tender. 
Possibly no minister is held in higher 
esteem by any people for his labors in 
their midst than the Rev. Dr. Hollo way 
is to-day by the people in the West- 
minster pastorate. They feel that through 
his untiring zeal, under the divine 
blessing, the Lutheran church found a 
home in the city of Westminster. 

After a painful separation he removed 
to Cumberland, Md., on the 10th of May, 
1868. Here, having but one congrega- 
tion, he had more time and better 
opportunities for study and pulpit 
preparation. His ministry among this 
people was profitable and delightful and 
continued for eleven years. During 
this time an old church debt was 
cancelled, a new personage secured, the 
church edifice remodeled, and the 
congregation greatly enlarged. 

In the winter and spring of 1874 his 
health became so impaired that a ces- 
sation from all ministerial labors was 
necessary. His congregation very kindly 
and generously gave him leave of absence 
for three months, and with some assist- 
ance, made it possible for him to spend 
this time in what was then the territory 
of Colorado. Having traveled exten- 
sively in the Rocky Mountains, and 
employing his leisure hours in writing 
for the public press, he returned to his 
home, greatly improved in health, and 
with renewed zeal resumed his labors 
among his people. The lectures he 
delivered on "Pen Pictures of what I 
saw in Colorado," were well received, 
and his services were often called into 
requisition. 



368 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



But with all the improvement his 
health was not permanently restored, j 
and frequently, during the coming years 
of his pastorate at Cumberland, he was 
disabled from doing fnll duty. Upon 
the repeated advice of his physician, 
who was convinced that the climate was 
largely the cause of his frequent dissa- 
bilities, Eev. Mr. Holloway was induced 
to resign his pastorate. He did so in 
the spring of 1879, with great reluctance. 
Only a sense of duty, both to himself 
and the congregation, influenced him to 
do so. The congregation at Cumber- 
land as such, had been generous and 
kind to him to a fault, during the eleven 
years of his ministry among them, and 
failed not to show their appreciation of 
the retiring pastor in the most substan- 
tial golden tokens of love and esteem. 
The separation from this people, among 
whom he had labored so long and so 
successfully, was painful indeed. 

The Eev. Mr. Holloway made his 
home with his mother in Burbank, O., 
for the greater part of the coming sum- 
mer. His health being much improved, 
he received and accepted a call from 
Zion's Lutheran congregation at New- 
ville, Pa. This being a section of coun- 
try noted both for its beautiful scenery 
and healthful climate, he felt that he 
could, with safety, undertake this field 
of labor, and removed to Newville in 
August, 1879. 

In the summer of 1881, his congrega- 
tion giving him leave of absence, he 
made a delightful tour through Europe. 
He visited respectively, England, Bel- 
gium, Switzerland, Italy, France, Ger- 
many and Scotland. His notes on 
"Foreign Travel" contributed to the 
columns of the Lutheran Observer, during 
his travel and after his return, were 
extensively read and much admired. On 
his return he had a narrow escape from 
death, the vessel on which he was a 



passenger, having taken fire in mid- 
ocean. The whole way from Liverpool 
to New York was a thrilling adventure, 
alternating between storm and fire. 

After a pleasant and profitable minis- 
try of five years at Newville, during 
which time the debt of the church was 
removed, and the church edifice exten- 
sively repaired and beautified, Eev. 
Holloway received and accepted a call 
to St. Peter's Lutheran church at Mid- 
dletown. Pa. He took charge of that 
congregation in June, 1884 Under his 
ministry here the congregation was 
revived and large accessions were made 
to its membership. By a plan of his 
suggesting, the church was also relieved 
from a debt of long standing. 

In the summer of 1888 a great sorrow 
befell Eev. Dr. Holloway in the death 
of his beloved wife. She was universal- 
ly esteemed for her noble Christian 
character and many virtues, and her 
memory lingers as sweet savor among 
the people of the various congregations 
her husband served in the gospel minis- 
try. 

In the summer of 1889 the subject of 
this sketch received a call to Grace 
Lutheran church at Pittsburg, Pa. He 
resigned his congregation at Middletown, 
and removed to his present field of 
labor, preaching his introductory ser- 
mon on the 10th of November, 1890. 
He was installed pastor of this church 
on the 8th of December, by the Eev. 
Dr. W. A. Passavant and Eev. D. M. 
Kemerer. 

In the spring, May 14, 1890, Eev. Dr. 
Holloway was married to Miss Clara J., 
second daughter of William F. McClure, 
Esq., and his wife Catharine Ann, of 
Middletown, in St. Peter's Lutheran 
church. The rite of marriage was 
performed by the Eev. M. C. Horine, A. 
M., pastor of St. James Lutheran church, 
I at Eeading, Pa. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



369 



The work of his ministry at Pittsburg 
is prospering; already a fine new parson- 
age has been secured, and also a large 
corner lot, on which will be erected a 
beantifnl new chnrch. 

Eev. Dr. Holloway is universally 
acknowledged to be a vigorous, grace- 
ful writer. His productions give proof 
of careful preparation. . He has been a 
large contributor to both the secular and 
religious press, as well as theological 
reviews and quarterlies. Some of the 
latter have received high encomiums 
from cities in foreign theological quar- 
terlies. 

Dr. Holloway has also lectured con- 
siderably and is the author of some 
valuable publications, books and pam- 
phlets, which have been well received 
and extensively read. Amongst these 
are the following: A New Path Across 
an Old Field, a charming volume of a 
European trip; God, the Nation's 
Guardian, a Thanksgiving sermon; A 
Nation's vows to God; The Bible Quali- 
fications of Sunday School Teachers; 
The Duty of the Church to Supply an 
Adequate Ministry; The Pastor among 
his People, a Thanksgiving sermon; 
Memorial of Dr. D. P. Weefly; The 
Harvest Time; Memorial of Dr. Geo. 
B. Fundenberg; The Growth of Spiritual 
Life; Affectionate Tribute to Eev. C. 
J. Deininger; Eulogy on Hon. Wm. E. 
M. Culley; Memorial of Mrs. Salome 

F. Holloway; Systematic Giving; The 
Nation's Heroes, an address before the 

G. A. E. on Decoration day; The Moral 
of Change, on the death of the Eev. 



F. A. Barnifz; The Advantages of a 
Synodical League for Mission Work; 
How can we make good Church Members 
out of our Sunday School Scholars; 
Infant Baptism Defended. 

Besides these, he contributed largely 
to the various chilrch publications, and 
many of his sermons have been published 
in the secular and religious press. 

At the commencement of the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Gettysburg in the 
spring of 1879, he delivered the address 
before the Alumni asvsociation of that 
institution. His subject was, ''God in 
Christ." 

In June, 1887, Wittenberg College, at 
Springfield, O., conferred on him the 
'degree of Doctor of Divinity; and in 
the same week the same title was con- 
ferred on him by the trustees of the 
Western Maryland College, located at 
Westminster. For many years Dr. Hol- 
loway was a director of the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, and frequently 
chosen as delegate to the meeting 
of the General Synod, and has held 
many offices of trust in the Synods 
to which he has belonged. Dr. Hollo- 
way, from a theological standpoint, has 
ever been known as a pronounced 
Lutheran, one who sincerely believes 
the doctrines of his Church, and earnest- 
ly teaches and preaches them. He is 
now only in the prime of life and has 
the prospects of many years of success- 
ful work before him. As a pulpit ora- 
tor, he ranks among the best. His taste 
for theological and literary pursuits is 
of a high order, and he is never idle. 




47 



370 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. DE. GEOEGE C. HOLES. 



The Eev. Dr. George Charles Holls 
was born on February 26, 1824, at 
Darmstadt, Germany, and was educated 
there and at Strasburg, in Alsace. He 
early became interested in charity work, 
writing several important monographs 
on the subject and accepting a position 
as assistant to the celebrated Dr. 
Wichern, founder of the Eauhe Haus 
near Hamburg. When only twenty- 
five years of age he was placed in charge 
of the Governmental charities in the 
Prussian Province of Upper Silesia, and 
in this position he organized the general 
work of relief during the terrible famine 
of 1848-49 in that province, having at 
one time upward of 4,000 destitute 
children under his care. Disagreeing 
with the religious policy of the Govern- 
ment he resigned and came to America 
in 1851, and after several years' experi- 
ence as a teacher in Ohio, he accepted 
the position of Head Master and House 
Father of the Lutheran Orphan Farm 
School at Zelienople, Pa. In 1866 he 
accepted a call to the newly founded 
Watburg Farm School near Mount 
Yernon, where he remained for nineteen 
years, besidos holding various positions 
of dignity and influence in the Church. 
He was an active member and for some 
time secretary for foreign correspond- 
ence of the American Christian Com- 
mission. In August, 1885, failing health 
compelled Dr. Holls to resign " his 
positions, and he lived at Mount Yernon 
with his wife and only son, Frederick 
W. Holls. Dr. Holls died August 12, 
1886. 

To do justice to the character and life 
work of the deceased, in the brief limits 
of this notice, is simply impossible. 
We know not which to admire most in 
Dr. Holls, his goodness or his greatness, 



as evinced in his absolute submission to 
the authority of the Divine Word, his 
renunciation of self-reliance and merit, 
and his implicit trust for salvation in 
the righteousness of Christ Jesus his 
Saviour. A great reader, a thinker, a 
scholar, a teacher, a philanthropist, who, 
while he gave his first thought to the 
care and instruction of the orphans, was 
yet alive to every form of rescuing 
mercy in the Church, and withal an able 
Christian minister who fed the flock 
which Christ had purchased with his own 
blood, he was a marked character and 
a very unusual personage. Working 
his way up from the trade of a book- 
binder, and having set up binderies at 
the industrial institutions in Strasburg 
and Beuggen, he was called to the 
Eauhe Haus of Dr. Wichern, at Horn, 
to perform a like work. In all these 
positions, while working with his own 
hands, he was a close student of books 
and men, of languages and systems, so 
that on coming to America, in 1851, he 
at once took charge of an English High 
School at Pomeroy, O. His growth in 
thought and general knowledge was 
only excelled by his familiarity with 
Christian doctrine, and strength and 
manliness, with the grace of charity, 
were the adornments of his character. 
These tine abilities were not stored 
away for self-enjoyment or the admira- 
tion of friends, but were laid at the feet 
of Christ for the service of the Church, 
in the persons of her suffering members. 
The Farm School at Zelienople, where 
he spent twelve years, and the one at the 
Wartburg, near Mt. Yernon, were model 
institutions. Thoughtful men came 
from far to study the working of these 
charities. The latter, where he labored 
for seventeen years, in his best days 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



371 



was the most admirable institution of 
the kind we have ever known. On 
various occasions leadiag educators 
were there from New England, and one 
of these, the Hon. Mr. Barnard, came 
expressly to obtain the service of Pastor 
HoUs for a Training House for Chris- 
tian "Brothers" like in the institution 
at Horn. In several instances generous 
salaries were offered him as Superin 
tendent of Reform Schools, but he 
recognized in his position a vocation 
from God, and being "rightly called" by 
the Church to work amons: her father- 



less ones, neither money nor "the 
prospect of great usefulness," as the 
world has it, could move him from the 
post ol duty. There he lived and 
died — deeply thankful, when he could 
work no more, that God had provided a 
successor to whom he could give his 
fullest confidence and love. 

Dr. Holls was a member of the Mis- 
souri Synod, and the one who more 
than any other, by his great worth and 
services, brought it into favorable notice 
in the Eastern States. — Workman. 




REY. K. F. W. HOPPE. 



Rev. Karl Friedrich Hoppe was born 
in Hanover, Germany, on March 4, 1824. 
When four years old he lost his father, 
and ten years later his mother. His 
uncle, who kindly took him into his care, 
gave him a good education, and at the 
age of twenty-eight years, Mr. Hoppe 
emigrated to America. Having com- 
pleted his theological studies at Gettys- 
burg, Pa., he received a call, in 1854, 
from the German St. Stephen's church 
at Baltimore, and was ordained Oct. 3, 
of that year. In this congregation he 



labored for seven years, and in 1861, he 
accepted a call to a congregation in 
Schuylkill Co., Pa. In 1858, having 
received an honorable dismissal from 
the Maryland Synod, he was received as 
a member of the Pennsylvania Minis- 
terium. After having ministered, for 
thirty years to four congregations iia 
Skuylkill Co., he accepted a call from 
the Evangelical Lutheran Zion's con- 
gregation in Lancaster, Pa. Here he 
labored for ten years, and was instru- 
mental in building a large church. In 



372 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



1874, he accepted a call from Zion's 
congregation at Eochester, N. Y., when 
he also joined the New York Ministe- 
rium. When Dr. Krotel, in 1876, re- 
signed the presidency of that body, Eev. 
Hoppe was elected as his successor, 
which position he held for two years, 



resigning in 1878, at the annual meeting five daughters survive him. 



held in Utica. Eev. Hoppe preached 
his last sermon on Sunday Eeminiscere, 
1881, and died April 4, of the same year. 
He was married July 1, 1855, to Miss 
Margaretha Bruning, a sister of Eev. H. 
H. Bruning, of White Haven, Pa. He 
had ten children, of whom two sons and 




EEY. C. 

Eev. Horack was born in Schlesichen, 
Vorstadt, near Koniggratz, Bohemia, 
May 9, 1856. His parents being poor 
and abundantly blessed with children, 
he could not exercise the good abilities 
to learn, which he possessed, and obtain 
a higher education. At an early age he 
was obliged to assist his parents in the 
the maintenance of their large family, 
and until his twenty-second year was 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. During 
all this time he neglected no opportunity 
to store his mind with useful knowledge 

EegfU'ding his future life, the year 
1879 was to be one of especial iraport- 
nnco. At tliat period, Eev. E. K. von 
Lanyi, of Cermilow, Bohemia, who whs 
greatly attached to him, and learned of 
his desire for a higher education, offered 
him free tuition at the Missionary In- 
stitute, "Kommet zu Josu/' in Preus- 



HOEACK. 

sisch Schlesien, an institution of which 
he was director. 

The original plan was, that he should 
prepare himself for the vocation of 
teacher of schools. In the year lSb2, he 
passed the teachers' examination, and 
was appointed as instructor in the par- 
ish school at Galetzien. Before leaving 
the seminary, however, the urgent call 
of the missionary committee of the 
General Council for young men educated 
as teachers, to work among their own 
people in North America, was received, 
the faculty of the seminary advised him 
to go, bat his relatives would not listen 
to the idea. The spiritual need of his 
fellow countrymen, and the appeal to 
bring them God's word finally conquered. 
He arrived at New York in the autumn 
of 1882, and with others of his college 
companions was assigned to the charge 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



373 



of Eev. J. A. Dewald, New Brunswick, 
N. J., where they were to be instructed 
in the several branches of theology. 
His sojourn with Eev. Dewald was to be 
of but short duration. The missionary 
committee, urged by the appeal of bis 
fellow countrymen, decided that he 
should go to Pennsylvania and preach 
the word of God in their midst, prosecu- 
ting at the same time his studies, under 
the direction of Eev. E. A. Bauer, at 
Hazleton, Pa. 

In the beginning of October, 1883, he 
passed the theological examination at 
Muhlenburg College, and on the six- 
teenth was ordained minister of the 
Gospel. He was the first Slavonian 
minister in the United States, and the 
founder of this mission. Soon after his 
ordination, which occurred in the "stone 
church" Kriedersville, Northampton Co., 
Pa., he journeyed back to the old home, 



where he married Miss Eosine M. 
Holececk, of Buckovina, Bohemia. 
After a short sojourn in the mother 
country, he returned at the end of 
March, 1884, with his wife to Pennsyl- 
vania, and officiated there until October, 
1886. Although undergoing many 
hardships and sacrifices, his work was 
pleasant to him. He next received a 
call from the Slavonian Evangelical 
Lutheran congregation at Streator, 111., 
whither he removed with his family in 
March, 1887. Under his charge this 
congregation steadily increased, and is 
now the centre of the Slavonian mission 
in the Western states. Here, though 
laboring under many difficulties, he 
gladly works and hopes, by the grace of 
God, that he may long be s})ared to 
help his people in their desires to reach 
a higher and better life beyond. 




EEV. EDWAED T. HOEN, D.D. 



Eev. Edward T. Horn, was born at 
Easton, Pa., June 10, 1850. His father, 
Melchior Hay Horn and mother whose 
maiden name was Matilda Keller, were 
members of families long settled there; 
she of German blood, he of German and 
Scotch (the Scotch from the Orkney 
Islands being mcst likely Norse). His 
father died at Catasauqua, Pa., in 1890, 
whither he had removed in 1857 to take 
charge of the National bank of Cata- 
sauqua. Its first cashier, he died its 
second president. He was a citizen of 
eniment usefulness, whose worth was 
acknowledged by the whole community. 
Besides his influence as a man of busi- 
ness, he organized the schools at Cata- 
sauqua and brought them to great 
efficiency. He was prominent in the 



militia. During the war he was an 
aid to Gov. Curtiss, and in 1863 com- 
manded the 38th Pa. Eegiment. He 
was genial, large-minded, neighborly 
and benevolent; from youth he was 
active in the church. He was a rep- 
resentative Lutheran of his town. It is 
but right to connect his usefulness in 
this sphere with two pastors whom he 
loved and who loved him, Eev. Dr. C. 
F. Schaeffer and Eev. Dr. B. Sadtler, 
both of whom had been his pastor 
in St. John's Chnrch at Easton. Dr. 
Horn's mother was a member of the 
German Eeformed Church; but at 
Catasauqua united with the Trinity 
Lutheran Church, in which she and the 
Doctor's brothers still serve the Lord. 
He was baptized by Eev. John Hecht, 



374 



AMEBICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



receiving the name Edward Traill HorD. 
The middle name preserves the memory 
of Robert Traill, his father's grand- 
father, an emigrant from the Orkney 
Islands, the son of a Presbyterian 
clergyman, a person of great note at 
Easton, and important in the history of 
Eastern Pennsylvania. 

He went to school at Catasanqiia, 
then at AUentown Academy, under Prof. 
J. N. Gregory, an odd, but earnest man, 
whom all his pupils remember with 
singular affection. In 1865 he was en- 
tered at Pennsylvania College at Gettys- 
burg, of which Dr. Baugher was then 
president. Of all the faculty of that 
day, only E. A. Muhlenberg, D.D., 
LL. D., survives. He was our admired 
professor of Greek. He was confirmed 
1865, in Christ church, Gettysburg, and 
thonce forward studied for the ministry. 
When he wrote his father that he had 
chosen that calling, he set before him 
that it provided no temporal gain, and 
while he gave a cheerful consent, urged 
his son to a thorough deliberation. He 
graduated in 1869, taking first honor 
and other distinctions. In 1872 he 
entered the Theological Seminary at 
Philadelphia, under Drs. Krauth, Mann, 
C. F. and C. W. Schaeffer. Those were 
three delightful years. His professors 
have continued to be his indulgent 
friends. He was ordained by the Penn- 
sylvania Synod at Philadelphia, in 1872, 
and tlie same summer became Mission- 
ary Pastor of Christ church. Chestnut 
Hill, Philadelphia. Here he remained 
until the summer of 1876. Of his ex- 
perience there he writes: ''I learned 
pastoral theology there. The first year I 
thought my people all saints; the second 
I thought them all hopeless; the third, 
I loved them with all my heart." While 
at Chestnut Hill, he wrote and published 
the Christian Year, a study of the Chris- 
tion festivals and seasons. The Litur- 



j gical services in his beautiful chapel was 
unusually complete, owing to the taste 
of his predecessor, Bev. G. W. Fred- 
erick, and he was thus led to the study 
of Liturgies. His first volume was in- 
tended to break the way, and though he 
has often turned resolutely to other 
lines of study, he seems to have found 
in this line what he might call his 
public calling. 

On May 10, 1876, he was called to St. 
John's, Charleston, S. C, one of the 
historic congregations of the Lutheran 
church in this country. Here he has 
served ever since, in much quiet happi- 
ness. On June 15, 1880, he was married 
to Miss Harriet Chisolm, and six chil- 
dren were born to them. He is a mem- 
ber of the South Carolina Synod, and as 
such has done a great deal for the 
college and theoloq:ical seminary at 
Newberry. In 1886, both Boanoke 
College of Salem, Ya., and Newberry 
college, promoted him Doctor of Divin- 
ity, which was done in recognition of 
his loving labor as chairman of the 
committee of Liturgical Be vis ion in the 
Southern Church, and as secretary of the 
committee on common service of the 
General Council, the General Synod 
and the United Synod. Dr. Horn counts 
what he has been permitted to learn 
and to write in doing in that work, one 
of the greatest blessings of his life. The 
Communion Service was published in 
1888. Dr. Horn is now president of the 
United Synod of the South, and chair- 
man of its Board of Missions and Church 
Extensions. 

Besides publishing several articles in 
the Beviews, in 1883 he edited the 
'•Service and Hymns for Sunday 
Schools," and in 1887 published the 
"Evangelical Pastor," a summary of the 
Lutheran principles of pastorate. He 
has now in press a "Manual of Litur- 
gies," and is engaged on a study of the 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



375 



"Worship of the Western Church." He 
writes: "I love to teach the catechism 
and catechize; I preach expository ser- 
mons, without manuscript. I believe 
the best rule for the preparation of 
sermoTis is find out exactly what the 



text brings to yourself, then give it to 
your people with all simplicity. We 
ought not to be afraid to declare any- 
thing God's AVord says; and we ought 
to be afraid to say less." 




0, 



REY. A. R. HORNE, D.D. 



Abraham Reasor, the great grand- 
father of the Rev. Dr. A. R. Home, was 
an early settler in Springfield, having 
one hundred and thirty-two acres located 
on Cook's creek, and in 1760, John and 
Thomas Penn conveyed to him one 
hundred and fifty acres additional. 
This tract is now owned by Rev. Dr. A. 
R. Home in whose family it has been 
for over a century and a half. How 
early the Home's came into Springfield 
we know not, but in 1765 Valentine 
bought sixty acres. His descendant A. 
R. Home, A. M., D. D., one of the most 
prominent instructors of youth in the 

ate, and the founder and editor of the 
National Educator, is the son of David L. 
: ] ( ]N. J i } Reasor Home and was born 



on March 24, 1834. His birth-place is 
the oldest house in Springfield to-day. 
The one story part was built in 1743 and 
is an interesting relic of the past. 

His father David L. in connection 
with his labors acted as Secretary of the 
School Board many years, and boomed 
educational interests at an early date. 

At an early age young Home mani- 
fested a taste for reading, and in one of 
his crisp editorials in the National 
Educator, he recounts how, when only 
eight years old, he waited every Wednes- 
day evening, sometimes in the darknes s 
of the night, for the "post-rider," who 
delivered the Doylestown papers for a 
basket of apples. He also early exhib- 
ited a talent for preaching, and frequent- 



376 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



ly expounded the gospel to his young 
playmates. 

Dr. Home attended school within a 
half mile of his birth-place, and John 
Price's boarding-school at Line Lexing- 
ton, Bucks Co., Pa. In 1850, at the age 
of sixteen, he commenced his work as a 
teacher at the school he received part 
of his education. He taught three 
successive terms, and was then called to 
preside over the public schools of 
Bethlehem, Pa., where he remained 
until the fall of 1854, when he entered 
the Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, 
Pa., where he graduated in 1858. 
Before his graduation he had already 
entered upon his labors as Principal of 
the Bucks Co. Normal and Classical 
school, Quakertown, Pa. Dr. Home 
continued in his work of educating 
teachers and others, both young women 
and men, at this institution until 1863. 
Many of the students of this school are 
now occupying prominent positions 
in life. 

In 1867 Dr. Home became City 
Superintendent of schools at Williams- 
port, Pa., which position he held until 
he was called to the Principalship of 
the Keystone State Normal school at 
Kutztown, Pa. In 1872, while he was 
principal of that institution the school 
attained a degree of prosperity that it 
had never enjoyed before, over five 
hundred students having been some- 
times enrolled in a single term. Many 
of the students are now prominent 
clergymen, lawyers, physicians, profess- 
ors and teachers, etc. He resigned in 
1877, to take a chair in the Normal 
Department of Muhlenberg College, 
Allentown, Pa. He occupied this posi- 
tion until 1882. Here again a very 
promising number of young men were 
sent forth under his auspices. In the 
summer and autumn of 1881-82-83 he 
was engaged as State Institute Instructor 



in Texas and Louisiana, traveling over 
the greater part of these States, and 
co-laboring with the State Superintend- 
ents and prominent educators not only 
of these but of other states of the south- 
west. Ex-Governor McEnery, of Louisi- 
ana and State Supt. Fay bear strong 
testimony of his service in behalf of the 
instruction of teachers and in the cause 
of popular education. In 1887-88 he 
did similar work in New Jersey. In 
the autumn of 1881, he was elected 
President of the New York and 
Western Short Line Railroad. 

In 1883 he was elected Secretary of 
the Keystone Mutual Benefit Associa- 
tion, Allentown, Pa., which position he 
fills to-day in connection with other 
labors. In 1885 he was elected a member 
of the Allentown Board of Control, and 
in 1888 re-elected for a term of three 
years. Dr. Home is a clergyman of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church, and has 
served congregations in connection with 
his educational and other labors ever 
since 1859, when he was ordained. No 
less than fifty men now in the ministry 
of various denominations who were 
directed and encouraged to enter the 
sacred ofiice by him. He has always 
firmly defended the doctrine of the Bible. 

In 1882 he engaged in a discussion at 
Doylestown, Pa., with the distinguished 
free-thinker, B. F. Underwood, which 
continued three nights, and in which he 
defended the doctrines of the Bible with 
great success. At teachers' institutes, in 
addition to his instruction in methods. 
Dr. Home also delivered lectures on 
Common Science with experiments. He 
has also written a book * 'Experiments 
without Apparatus," thousands of copies 
of which have been sold. Being a 
Pennsylvania German, he also wrote 
and published a book especially designed, 
called "Home's Pennsylvania German 
Manual," for the purpose of enabling 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



377 



those of the community who spoke that 
language to learn English. He is also 
the publisher of a small book for 
students of botany, called "Home's 
Botany," and the biography of the late 
venerable Rev. Joshua Yeager. In his 
National Educator, a semi-monthly which 
he has edited and published continu- 
ously since 1860, he disseminates a 
large amount of information for old and 
young — teachers, parents and pupils. 
His articles on "Common Sense in Teach- 
ing," '"Health Notes," "Experiments 
without Apparatus" and "Useful Inform- 
ation" are very extensively copied and 
rend. There is not another educational 
publication in the country that has 
been so long under the same manage- 
ment. He serves at present as pastor 
for four congregations in the vicinity of 
Allentown: The Lehigh church near 
Alburtis, Ritersville, Friedensville and 
Sheonersville. He is often called quite 
a distance to officiate upon special 
occasions, speaking both Englsh and 



German. His institute work extends 
over Pennsylvania and other States, and 
during the summer months of the past 
few years he has been one of the 
instructors at the Normal School at 
Niagara Falls and is engaged to do 
similar work this summer at Bedford 
Co. Normal school, Everett, Pa 

In 1857 he married Jemima Emelia, 
daughter of David I. and Sarah Yerkers, 
of South Bethlehem, Pa.; both enjoyed 
good health for four-score years. The 
offspring of the marriage are Sadie J., 
married to Rev. J. W. Mayne, Catasau- 
qua, Pa. ; M. L., professor at the Dela- 
ware College, Newark, Del.; D. R., 
attorney-at-law, Allentown, Pa.; T. K., 
business manager National Educator; A. 
F., student Lafayette College; Hattie 
B., attending public school at Allentown, 
Pa. Dr. Home's wife, who has shared 
the joys of his busy life for a quarter of 
a century, has taken a deep interest in 
his labors. 




REV. WINFIELD S. HOSKINSON, So. D. 



Win field Scott Hoskinson was bom 
in Indiana Co., Pa., October, 1852. He 
is of English and German descent. His 
paternal grandfather was a Virginian, 
whose ancestry were of the leading- 
people among early settlers. They were 
noted especially for their shrewdness 
and intelligence. Prof. Hoskinson's 
father has retained these traits in a 
large degree, being now recognized as 
a~man of unusual infelligence and good, 
common sense, and although not a 
professional man, is of liberal education. 

But that perseverance characteristic 
of the subject of this sketch came rather 
from the German, through the maternal 
48 



i parentage. His maternal grandfather 
and grandmother were natives of York 
Co., Pa., and when young emigrated 
with their parents to the then sparsely 

I settled western part of the State. 

I Both branches of the family were 

' prosperous, and became the thrifty 
people of their respective communities 
They were Lutherans in church polity, 
and noted for their strict adhcrenci^ to 
the faith of their ancestry, as well as for 
an honesty and integrity of character, 
which make their names revered to this 
day. Prof. Hoskinson's boyhood days 
were spent on his father's farm. Farm., 
ing in the hilly country in which he 



378 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




EEV. W. S. HOSKINSON, SC. D. 



was raised meant an unusual amount of 
hard work. His father being a practical 
mechanic, spent his time largely in 
looking after the interests of a flouring 
mill and saw mill, leaving the young 
boy to manage the plowing and sowing. 
This was done with an energy and 
determination truly remarkable in one 
so young. Like most boys, he was 
unusually fond of horses, and when but 
twelve years of age would make trips to 
the distant railroad station, six miles, 
hauling lumber, flour, tanbark, etc., 
managing his team on the rough hills 
with remarkable skill. Being the oldest 
of a large family of children, the burden 
of the work and management fell to 
him. He is remembered by those who 
knew him when a boy as one who always 
performed his nearest duty most faith- 
fully. 

His schooling when a child was but 
three months of the year. Of studious 
habits he made rapid progress, and after 
spending a short session at a normal 
school was chosen IsPy the Board of 



Directors of his home district to teach 
the winter term of school. 

This was a severe undertaking, as 
many of his pupils, being neighbors, 
were much older than himself. Pluck 
prevailed, and he was successful, as his 
re-election to the same school the next 
year proved. He was not fif 1 een years 
old at this time. 

Having acquired a taste for books 
and study, he continued teaching in 
winter and attending normal school in 
summer. 

In the spring of 1870 he came to 
Wittenberg College, entering the pre- 
paratory department, and devoting his 
time to the study of Greek and Latin. 
His desire was to return to . college at 
the beginning of the fall term, but was 
disappointed. He again taught in the 
winter of 1872, and attended another 
term of normal school the following 
summer. In the fall of 1872 he entered 
the Freshman class in Wittenberg, with 
the design of preparing himself for the 
ministry, and in due time was graduated, 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



379 



standing among the first of his class. 
He then entered the theological sem- 
inary, and completed a course in theo- 
logy. After graduating from the Sem- 
inary he was invited to fill the pulpit of 
Dr. S. A. Ort, in Louisville, Ky., during 
the summer of 1878. Several calls to 
fields of labor in the ministry were 
extended to him at this time, but being 
chosen tutor in the preparatory depart- 
ment of the college he accepted the 
position, and has filled it ever since. 

Mr. Hoskinson is not one of those who 
is content with present attainments, but 
is ever desirous of widening his field of 
knowledge, and of more thoroughly 
mastering what he has already been 
over. 

As a teacher Professor Hoskinson has 
been unquestionably a success, and 
during his work in the college he has 
always shown himself master of the 
branches which he taught. He is strict 
to the extent of requiring his students 
to prepare thoroughly what they pass 
over; feeling that their success, es- 
pecially in Greek, in their after years in 
the college department, depended great- 
ly on the thorough training and solid 
foundation they have laid while in the 
preparatory department. 

In the summer of 1880 Mr. Hoskinson 



was married to Miss Clara 3. McKee, 
who had been for several years a 
teacher in the city schools of Spring- 
field, O. They have a family of three 
children, two girls and a boy. 

Mr. Hoskinson began his scientific 
studies in the fall of 1883, paying par- 
ticular attention to chemistry and min- 
eralogy. In 1884 and 1885 he published, 
in connection with Dr. E. F. Smith, 
''Notes on Minerals," and "Electrolysis 
of Molybdenum and Mercury Solutions" 
— papers appearing in the Journal of 
Chemistry, and in abstract form in for- 
eign journals. In 1885 he translated 
"Stammer's Chemical Problems," pub- 
lished by Blakiston, Son & Co:, of 
Philadelphia. This little work has been 
of great service to teachers of chemistry. 
The summer of 1886 he devoted chiefly 
to the study of geology and paleontology, 
making a fine collection of fossils, some 
of which, found in the Ch'nton limestone 
of Ohio, are new. His thesis for the 
Sc. D. degree relates to mixed halogen 
derivatives of salicylic acid. — Hist Wit- 
tenberg College. 

Dr. Hoskinson has spent one year at 
the University of Berlin, and is at pres- 
ent pastor of the English Lutheran 
church at Sacramento, Cal. 




EEV. GJERMUND HOYME. 



Rev. Gjermund Hoyme is of Norwe- 
gian parentage and was born on the old 
homestead, called Hoyme, in Yalders, 
Norway, Oct. 8, 1848. His parents were 
Gjermund Guldbrandsen Hoyme and 
Sigrid Christophersen Ridste. 

After a stormy and tedious seavoyage 
with a sail vessel, which lasted over 
four months, Mr. Hoyme arrived in 
America with his parents in 1851. The 



passage from Albany to Buffalo they 
had, at that time, to make with canal- 
boat. Thence they went with steam 
boat to Port Washington, Wis., where 
they settled down on a piece of unim- 
proved land, built a small house, and 
began other improvements. But they 
were not successful in this undertaking. 
Young Hoyme's father suffered a re- 
lapse from an old complaint, which he 



a^ 



380 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. GJEEMUND HOYME. 



had brought on by an accident in Nor- 
way, and they were finally obliged to 
apply tr an older brother for aid. 

After having spent four years in Port 
Washington, they moved westward to 
Iowa, with a yoke of oxen and a wagon. 
It took them over three weeks of tire- 
some traveling, before they reached 
Springfield township, near Decorah, la., 
a distance of about three hundred miles, 
having gone by way of Milwaukee, 
Madison, Prairie du Chien and Mc- 
Gregor. This entire distance young 
Hoyme had to walk barefoot, driving a 
cow, which, together with the oxen and 
the wagon, was all the earthly goods 
they possessed. On the entire journey, 
which was rendered very difficult by 
reason of bad roads and many severe 
rainstorms, his sick father lay in a bed 
which had been placed in the wagon-box 
for that purpose. 

Having reached their destination, 
they put up with a family which- had 
arrived there the preceding year. Here 
they remained ore year, and his father 
died. Now his brother, who was mar- | 



ried, took land, and young Hoyme with 
his mother made their home with him. 
They supported themselves mainly by 
selling the butter they could spare of 
one cow, and by picking and selling 
berries. 

In 1856 the Rev. P. Asbjornson came 
to Springfield in the capacity of colpor- 
teur. Besides selling Bibles and other 
good books, Mr. Asbjornson also preach- 
ed the Gospel to the scattered Nor- 
wegian settlers, which resulted in a 
marked spiritual awakening. Hoyme's 
mother and brother were among those 
who, from that time, began to seek the 
grace of God in Christ; and Hoyme, 
who was then only about eight years 
old, was often observed to be engaged 
in fervent prayer, and was frequently 
deeply moved by the Spirit of God. 

Some time later his mother married 
again, and Hoyme, eager to contribute 
to his own support, hired out to the 
neighboring farmers, his first year's 
salary being $10. 

Even as a young child young Hoyme 
had an insatiable thirst for knowledge 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



381 



From ministers and others he would 
borrow books, and read early and late. 
In the summer he would work on the 
farm, and in the winter he would stay at 
home and go to school. When he was 
sixteen years old he wap confirmed by 
the Rev. O. Estrem, then of the 
Augustana Synod. During the time of 
his catechetical instruction, preparatory 
to confirmation, he was deeply im- 
pressed with the truth of God. After 
confirmation, being desirous to try city 
life, where he frequently came into 
rather questionable company, his earli- 
er impressions were almost forgotten, 
and his affections were drawn toward 
the world with its vain attractions. 
But he found no peace in sin. Although 
he diligently attended church services, 
a considerable time elapsed before he 
broke with sin, and in faith embraced 
Christ as his Saviour. 

During twelve successive winters he 
attended English schools, and, being a 
very talented youth, he made rapid 
prog I ess in all his studies. And, al- 
though it was quite evident that his 
youthful mind had not yet received that 
serious bent which characterizes the 
sincere child of God, several of the 
earnest Christians in the congregation, 
who knew him best, entertained the 
thought that he would some day become 
a Christian minister, and often ad- 
monished him to prepare for the gospel 
ministry. But he was poor, and did 
not consider himself a fit subject for 
such a holy ofiice. Also ministers, with 
whom he was acquainted, encouraged 
him to enter some seminary for the 
purpose of preparing for the ministry. 
But he was, for a considerable time, 
unable to reach any definite conclusion 
in this matter, which seemed to him so 
overwhelmingly important. In the mean- 
time he continued to read all the good 
books he could obtain, and his desire to 



enter some higher institution of learn- 
ing, especially one where he could fit 
himself for the ministry, became stronger 
day by day. But whenever he reflected 
seriously upon making this holy ofiice his 
choice, the following words occurred to 
him like a warning voice: 'AVhat hast 
thou to do to declare my statutes, or 
that thou shouldest take my covenant 
in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest 
instruction, and castest my words behind 
thee,' Ps. 50: 16, 17. This made him 
hesitate. He knew that he lacked the 
one thing needful, and, if he should 
enter the gospel ministry, he was 
determined to become a sincere Christian 
minister. But this inner call became 
irresistable, and he sought in vain to 
pacify his mind by looking forward to 
other pursuits in life. 

It was at this time that the peaceable 
division took place between the Swedes 
and the Norwegians in the Augustan a 
Synod. . The school of the Norwegian 
Augustana Synod was to open in the fall, 
at Marshall, Wis. Prof. A. Wenaas visit- 
ed the Springfield congregation, and, on 
a certain Sunday, he preached on the 
subject of "Contrition, and the Distress 
of Soul occasioned by the law of God." 
Although this sermon made a lasting 
impression upon Hoyme's mind, he was 
yet unable to realize, that his soul's 
distress was due to the operations of 
God's Spirit. But he was soon to learn 
by experience the deep significance of 
that sermon. 

After many solicitations, he finally 
ventured to apply for admittance to the 
new school at Marshall, Wis. On the 
night after he had made his application, 
while reflecting upon his unfitness and 
utter unworthiness to enter upon the 
solemn preparation for which he liacl 
just applied, he learned better to com^ 
prehend the significance of true con^ 
trition The multitude of his sins were 



382 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



clearly before him. He was unable by 
faith to appropriate to himself the 
atoning and justifying merits of the 
blood of Jesus. He feared that he had 
been hardened to the extent that he 
was beyond the hope of salvation. 
With reference to this period of his 
life, Mr. Hoyme writes: 

"Oh, these were most fearful and try- 
ing hours that I have ever lived! 
Satan tempted me in a number of ways, 
but especially did he trouble my mind 
with the terrible thought that I should 
put an end to my miserable existence." 

But the Lord held His protecting 
hand over him, the tempter had to 
flee, and it soon became light in the 
midst of his dark night of his sin and 
despair. A voice whispered to him: 
"Oh, how could you doubt the tender 
love of God! He loves you still, and 
will save you." From this moment his 
spirit, so long pent up in disguised and 
frigid gloom, found relief in a flood of 
penitent tears. He wept like a child on 
account of his many and grievous sins, 
and at the thought of God's infinite 
love, by which he now felt even him- 
self embraced. Although the Lord had 
in reserve for him other lessons, which 
should give him a still deeper insight 
into the depravity and corruption of 
his heart and the all-sufiicient mercy of 
God, the important change had now 
taken place in his life, and he now be- 
gan earnestly to exhort his companions 
to quit the ways of sin and seek the 
living God. 

In due time Mr. Hoyme entered the 
school at Marshall, Wis., where he 
assiduously prosecuted his studies for 
two years. He was then sent, together 
with two other students, to the Wis- 
consin State University for the purpose 
of perfecting himself in the languages, 
especially in English, German, Latin, 
and Greek. Mr. Hoyme came to the 



university utterly destitute of means. 
But the Lord opened a way for him also 
there. Senator John A. Johnson, so 
well known among the Scandinavians 
in America, determined to give this 
hopeful young man his kind assistance. 
Hence, on the arrival of Mr. Hoyme, 
the senator met him at the depot, and 
took him to his house, where he re- 
ceived a cordial reception. In Mr. 
Johnson's family he had a very pleas- 
ant home during his entire course at 
the university. Besides Senator John- 
son and his family, Mr. Hoyme also 
holds in grateful remembrance Prof. B. 
B. Anderson, who then occupied a pro- 
fessor's chair in the university, and who 
took particular pains to interest himself 
in Hoyme's behalf. 

Having finished his course at the 
university, he resumed his studies at the 
Augsburg Seminary, then removed to 
Minneapolis, Minn. Because of his 
lack of pecuniary means, the great need 
of ministers, the solicitations of his 
teachers, and the urgent call which he 
had received, he was not permitted to 
, prosecute his studies at the seminary as 
long as he had at first calculated. 
Having received a most urgent call from 
the Norwegian Danish Evangelical 
Lutheran Church at Duluth, he was or- 
dained to the holy office of the Gospel 
Ministry at the annual meeting of the 
Conference, held at Eau Claire, Wis., 
in the month of June, 1873. 

In a communication addretjsed to a 
friend Mr. Hoyme speaks of his experi- 
ence as follows: 

"Being destitate of the necessary 
means of support, my stay at the Uni- 
versity, and especially at the seminary, 
was often very trying. The money I had 
earned at hard labor during the summer 
vacation, was not sufficient to carry me 
over to the next vacation. It frequent- 
ly happened that I did not have enough 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



383 



money to pay postage on a letter to my 
old mother. The books which I so 
highly needed, and desired so much, I 
was obliged to dispense with; and my 
apparel was often too plainly an index 
to the condition of my purse. When a 
change of clothes seemed indispensable, 
my method of renovation generally con- 
sisted in giving the old and thread-bare 
ones a thorough brushing. Nor could 
I entirely escape contracting some debt, 
despite my strong aversion to this dan- 
gerous policy. Spiritually, however (I 
say it to the glory of God), I had made 
some progress. My two first years at 
the seminary were especially helpful to 
me. Among the students with whom I 
associated there were several older and 
more experienced brethren, who kindly 
directed me in the way of Truth with 
brotherly affection and wisdom. Our 
morning devotions, conducted by the 
earnest and devout Christian professor, 
A. Wenaas, our evening prayer-meet- 
ings, mostly held in our own private 
rooms, and, on the whole, the decidedly 
Christian spirit that predominated in 
the school in those days of poverty and 
conflict, did considerable towards mould- 
ing my Christian character. I really 
attended a double school — in the one I 
learned, under the faithful guidance of 
God's Spirit, to know more and more of 
sin and grace; and in the other I learned 
gradually to appreciate how very little 
I knew, and how much I had to learn." 
While at Duluth, Mr. Hoy me applied 
himself to his work with unwearied 



diligence. During the winter he taught 
a Norwegian religious school, devoting 
the evenings to English instruction, 
besides preaching twice every Sunday. 
His pastorate at Duluth, however, did 
not continue long. Jay Cook's failure 
so paralyzed the young city, that a 
considerable number of the laboring 
people were obliged to leave for some 
other quarter, which greatly reduced 
the congregation in numbers, and so 
entirely crippled it that they were 
unable longer to support a pastor. 
Mr. Hoy me then moved to Menomonie, 
j Wis., where he had accepted a call from 
a charge consisting of three congrega- 
I tions. While at Menomonie he was 
married to Ida Othelia Olsen, of Duluth. 
After having labored faithfully, as well 
I as successfully, for two years atMenom- 
I onie, he accepted a call from Eau Claire, 
j Wis., where he was installed on the 8th 
of October, 1876, and where he still 
continues to labor with exceptional 
success. 

Mr. Hoy me became a member of the 
Conference in 1874. Having served as 
Mission-Treasurer of this body for two 
years, he was elected secretary in ]881, 
which position he held until 1886, when 
he was elected president. He served 
in this capacity for four years, when, 
in 1890, he was unanimously elected 
president of The United Norwegian 
Lutheran Church in America, a body 
which numbers upwards of three hundred 
ministers with one thousand congrega- 
tions. J. C. J. 




384 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. ELI HUBEE, D.D. 



Dr. Eli Huber was born Jan. 14, 1884, 
in Pinegrove, Schuylkill Co., Pa., and 
belonged to that class of people known 
as Pennsylvania Germans, who are the 
descendants of the emigrants who came 
to this country at an early period from 
the southern part of Germany. Jacob 
and Sarah Huber are the names of his 
parents. His father's ancestors are re- 
ported to have come from Switzerland. 
Both parents possessed good natural 
abilities though deprived by force of 
circumstances and the times of a good 
education. His father used to say 
laughingly, that he completed the usual 
course of that day — from the alphabet 
to the Psalter — in three months. But 
though themselves deprived of the ad- 
vantages of even a good common school 
education, they valued it all the more 
highly, and used all diligence and 
practiced self-denial even to secure bet- 
ter opportunities for their children. 
Both his father and mother were per- 
sons of superior moral character and 
earnest, warm-hearted Christians. His 
father was at first a member of the Ger- 
man Eeformed church but subsequently 



united with the Lutheran church to 
which his mother belonged. He received 
his preliminary education in the public 
schools of his native place, and was pre- 
pared in chief part for college by Hon. 
James L. N^utting, a graduate of Bowdoin 
College, Maine. He entered the Fresh- 
man class of Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, in the fall of 1851, and 
graduated with honor from the same 
institution in 1855. 

After leaving college he taught an 
academy at Green Castle, Franklin Co., 
for several years. He also held the 
position of tutor in Pennsylvania Col- 
lege during the summer of 1857. Whilst 
teaching at Green Castle during the 
winter of 1855-6, he felt the necessity 
of beginning a decided Christian life. 
Lying awake one night from pain caused 
by toothache, he made up his mind 
to postpone the work of repentance no 
longer, and accordingly resolved within 
himself that from that hour he would 
yield obedience to all God's will, doing 
what he commanded, and abstaining 
from everything that was displeasing in 
His eyes. Instantly a voice within 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



385 



seemed to say: To-morrow morning 
when you go to breakfast you ought to 
say grace, thanking God for his good- 
ness in supplying all your needs. He 
had to admit that he ought to do this, 
but the time was so near at hand when 
it was to be done, and he imagined that 
the family with whom he was boarding 
would think it strange on his part, and 
the result was he immediately recalled 
the promise made but a moment before 
and decided to postpone further consid- 
eration of the matter until the morning. 
Morning came and he awoke and took 
up his little Bible to read; he happened 
to get hold of the tenth chapter of St. 
Matthew, and in that met the passage 
concerning confessing Christ before 
men. This pointed declaration by 
Christ himself had sufficient influence 
to bring him to the determination to go 
to the table and do his duty. This 
simple act of asking a blessing before 
meals was his first open and decided 
step in his religious course, and it has 
had its influence over his thinking and 
teaching during his whole subsequent 
ministry. Acting on this same jDrinci- 
ple of doing what Grod wished, he made 
up his mind to join church. He accord- 
ingly entered the class of catechumens, 
which Rev. E. Breidenbaugh, pastor of 
the Lutheran church at Green Castle, 
was at the time preparing for confirma- 
tion. Soon after uniting with the 
church, he also abandoned his purpose 
of studying law, and decided to fit him- 
self for the Christian ministry. A few 
words si^oken by two Christian women, 
— Mrs. E. Breidenbaugh and Mrs. John 
Kitzmuller — had much to do in bringing 
about the decision to study theology. 
After studying privately for several 
years under the direction of Mr. Brei- 
denbaugh, he entered the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg and prepared 
himself for licensure at the meeting of 
49 



the Synod of East Pennsylvania, held 
in Bloomsburg, September, 1858. He 
was, after due examination, admitted to 
the Christian ministry as a licentiate. 
He was ordained one year later at the 
meeting of this same Synod at Harris- 
burg, and is at this date a member of 
the Synod that licensed and ordained 
him. 

He was married in the spring of 1860 
to Miss Ellen Dubert, of Schuylkill 
Haven, Pa. 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
conferred upon him in 1884 by Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, his Alma 
Mater. 

His first field of labor was at Schuyl- 
kill Haven, having been directed there 
by prominent members of the East 
Pennsylvania Synod to start an English 
Lutheran church. An organization, 
consisting of twenty-nine members, was 
soon effected, and in a year thereafter 
a small brick church was erected. The 
fruit of this planting is the present pros- 
perous St. Matthew's Lutheran church 
building and parsonage, surpassed by 
none in the place. 

This work was accomplished without 
any aid from the Board of Home Mis- 
sions. His salary the first year amount- 
ed to $300 and he boarded at the best 
hotel in the place at that. At the end 
of two years he accepted a call to one of 
the Lutheran churches at Danville, but 
remained there only nine months. In 
the fall of 1861 he took charge of the 
church in Hummelstown, with which 
were connected two smaller congrega- 
tions near by. He labored here for five 
years, till September, 1866, at which 
time he was appointed as a home mis- 
sionary to Nebraska City, Neb., begin- 
ning his work there in the latter part 
of October, 1866. He established a 
church here, and also one in the coun- 
try, about ten miles from the city, 



386 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



On the 1st of March, 1876, he began 
his labors as pastor of Messiah Luther- 
an Church of Philadelphia, which is his 
present charge. 

Whilst Dr. Huber's success in the 
ministry cannot be regarded as unusual, 
those who know him and his work look 
upon him as an efficient workman. 

His method of preaching as to matter 
is expository, and in this he greatly de- 
lights and indulges in perhaps to excess. 
His manner of speaking is extemjDora- 
neous, but with careful preparation. 
He talks rapidly — too much so till 
people become accustomed to him — and 
with perhaps more animation than is 
generally agreeable. But though fast 
he is distinct, his ideas being clearly 
conceived and well arranged, and his 
language plain. He is easy to under- 
stand, even though his mode of thought 
is somewhat abstract. 

After quitting his work in Nebraska 
he accepted a call to the Messiah Luth- 
eran Church, of Philadelphia, March 1, 
1876. The congregation at that time 
numbered about 125 members, and were 



worshipping in the basement of their 
present fine edifice. The church has 
been completed at an additional cost of 
$30,000, which has been paid off by de- 
grees, together with part of a mortgage 
previously on the property. The pres- 
ent membershixD is between three and 
four hundred, and that of the Sunday 
School two hundred and fifty to three 
hundred. 

He is at present a member of the 
Board of Directors of the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg; was for three 
years president of the East Pennsylva- 
nia Synod, and also a member of the 
Board of Publication and of the Exam- 
ining Committee. 

He was appointed to deliver the Hol- 
man Lecture for 1885, on the Second 
Article of the Augsburg Confession. 
This lecture is delivered annually to the 
students of the seminary, and the lec- 
turer is appointed by the seminary's 
Board of Directors. He also prepared 
the little book intended to be put into 
the hands of iDcrsons after confirmation, 
called "Food for the Heavenly Way." 




EEV. W. E. HUBBEET, A. M. 



Eev. W. E.Hubbert, A. M., was born 
in Eoanoke Co., Va., Oct. 23, 1844, 
and is an Alumnus of Eoanoke Col- 
lege (1867), and of the Theological 
Seminary, Philadelphia ( 1871 ) , and was 
Professor of Ancient Languages in 
North- Carolina College for four years; 
for a decade or more. He has been 
from its establishment editor of Our 
Church Paper. He has very superior 
business tact and is a most valued coun- 
sellor in all practical work of the Synod. 
He is secretary of the Southwest Vir- 
ginia Synod. He has given as much 



valuable time, without jDrice, to the 
general work of the church, as any man 
in Southwest Virginia. Among those 
who have taken the commercial tide at 
its flood, Mr. Hubbert is a recognized 
leader, but he always keeps an eye on 
the Synodical work. To his enterprise 
we owe the success of the Pulaski mis- 
sion and the work at Eadford was also 
begun under his supervision. 

He married Miss Mattie, youngest 
daughter of Col. Wm. Pettit, of Eoan- 
oke Co., who departed this life after a 
few months. In 1873 he married Miss 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



387 



H. Virginia, daugliter of Dr. Henry 
Kibble, of Montgomery Co., Va., with 
whom and three children he resides in 
Blacksburg, Va. He was delegate to 
the last convention of the General Synod 
South, held in Roanoke City in 1886, 
and to the first and second conventions 



of the United Synod, in Savannah, Ga., 
1887, and in Wilmington, N. C, 1889, 
respectively. He has repeatedly served 
as secretary of his Synod, and is the 
author of several pamphlets on current 
subjects. 




EEV. JAMES A. HUFFARD, A.M. 



Rev. James Albert Huffard, A. M., 
was born at Wytheville, Va., July 26, 
1862. Confirmed by Rev. A. Phifippi. 
Received preliminary education in 
Wytheville high schools. Graduate of 
Roanoke College, 1884. Principal of 
Prosperity High School, Prosi:)erity, S. 
C, 1884, '85. Spent three years in 
Lutheran Theological seminary, grad- 
uating 1888. Ordained to the holy 
office of the ministry immediately after 
graduation by the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania. His first pastorate was 
the Montgomery parish where he labored 



for nearly two years. In the spring of 
1890 he accei)ted a call extended him 
by the council of St. Mark's Lutheran 
church, Roanoke, Va., to act as assistant 
pastor with sioecial reference ^ to the 
Mission interests in the congregation. 
He is a consecrated worker, a graceful 
writer, one of the most promising among 
our younger theologians, and a preacher 
of recognized ability. He represents a 
conservative type of Confessional Luth- 
er anism and is an A. M. of Roanoke 
College. 




REV. S. P. HUGHES. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Barnwell Co., S. C, July 20, 1845. 
His father was of Welch or English 
extraction, while his mother's ancestors 
were Germans. He was born, baptized, 
confirmed, and reared a Lutheran. He 
was educated at Newberry College, 
graduating from that institution in the 
sirring of 1873. In October of the same 
year he entered the Southern Lutheran 
Theological Seminary during its brief 
sojourn at Salem, Va., graduating there- 



from in the spring of 1876. In the 
summer of 1874, while a student at the 
seminary, he visited some vacant fields 
along the Ohio river, and was instrumen- 
tal in the erection of a Lutheran church 
at New Haven, W. Va. During the 
summer vacation of 1875 he supplied 
the church at Floyd Court House, Va., 
XDreaching at other x^oints in the neigh- 
borhood, notably Burk's Fork, where a 
church was completed and dedicated 
while he remained with this people. 



388 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 







BEY. S. P. HUGHES. 



The last year (1875-6) of his course at 
seminary he supplied the church at 
Madison Court House, Va., preaching 
there once a month, and oftener when 
circumstances permitted. Prior to his 
graduation from the theological school 
he accepted the financial agency of his 
Alma Mater, returned to South Carolina 
in September, 1876, was ordained to the 
holy ofiice of the ministry on the 15th of 
October following, and at once began 
the prosecution of the work of collecting 
for the Bachman Endowment Fund to 
which he had been assigned. This was 
continued without interruption for a 
period of more than two years. During 
this time almost every Lutheran church 
in the state of South Carolina was 
visited, and several trips made to Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston, in the interest of the College. 
In the spring of 1878 he went to 
Washington with a claim against the 
United States government, endeavoring 
to recover something for damages done 
the College building by U. S. soldiers 
just at the close of the war. Weary of 
this constant travel and excitement he 



accepted a call to Luther Chapel, New- 
berry, S. C, and began his work as 
pastor of that church, in the early part 
of 1879. This relation continued until 
the fall of 1881. Having received and 
accepted a call to St. Paul's Lutheran 
Church, WilliamsiDort, Pa., he resigned 
the pastorate of the church in Newberry, 
and entered upon his duties as pastor 
at Williamsport November 10 of that 
year. In March, 1882, the project of a 
new church was undertaken. This was 
pressed to completion and dedicated to 
the service of Grod March 18, 1883, and 
now stands as a splendid monument to 
the devotion of the good people of St. 
Paul's congregation. 

On May 18, 1886, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Emily Hancock, of 
Lewisburg, Pa., with whom, on the 22nd 
of the same month, he set sail for Europe, 
spending the summer in different parts 
of the old world. He is the originator 
of the "Young People's Lutheran Alli- 
ance." He has passed the ninth anni- 
versary of his connection with St. Paul's 
congregation, Williamsport, Pa. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



389 




REY. WILLIAM HULL. 



Rev. William Hull was born on the 
17th of April, 1830, in the town of 
Clavarack, about three miles from the 
city of Hudson. His mother, Alice 
Clum, was descended from the Palatines 
who settled in Germantown, in 1710. 
His father, Samuel Hull, was the son of 
John Hull, a New Englander, and 
Hannah Hermance, a lady of Dutch 
lineage, of Dutchess County. His pa- 
rents subsequently removed to Dutchess 
county and from thence to Ulster. In 
1848 he went to Hartwick Seminary to 
pursue classical studies, and while there 
he was baptized and confirmed as a 
member of the Lutheran Church by 
Rev. Dr. George B. Miller. He subse- 
quently read law and was admitted as 
an attorney and counselor in the autumn 
of 1851, and soon after he commenced 
practice at Stone Ridge, in Ulster 
county. In 1853 he purchased the 
Saugerties Telegraph, removed to Sauger- 
ties in the same county, and for four 
years practiced law and edited the 
paper. In 1853 he married Elizabeth 
Skinner, daughter of Dr. Levi B. Skin- 
ner, of Hartwick Seminary. Six chil- 



dren have resulted from this union, of 
whom three survive. Feeling called of 
God to the work of the gospel ministry, 
he removed with his family to Hartwick 
Seminary, in 1857, and pursued a course 
of theological study under Rev. Dr. 
Miller. In 1859 he was sent by the 
missionary committee of the New York 
Ministerium to Brooklyn, where he 
founded St. Matthew's English Luther- 
an Church, with . nineteen members. 
He was licensed by the New York Min- 
isterium, in Wurtemburg, in 1859, and 
ordained the following year at Syracuse. 
In 1862 he removed to Ancram, and la- 
bored there four and a half years. In 
October, 1866, he became pastor of Zion 
Lutheran Church, Athens, Greene Co., 
and at the same time organized St. 
John's Lutheran Church, in the city of 
Hudson, and se-rved it as pastor. On 
building a church edifice in Hudson in 
1869, he resigned the pastorate of the 
Athens Church, removed to Hudson and 
has since confined his labors to that 
field. In 1870 he was elected a trustee 
of Hartwick Seminary; in 1877 he be- 
came the secretary of the board, and in 



390 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



1888 he became the i3resident of the 
board. 

For thirty-one years he served the 
Lutheran Observer as its New York cor- 
respondent, and wrote four hundred and 
thirty-four letters over the signature of 
"Manhattan." For nine years, ending^ 
in 1890, he was New York correspond- 
ent of the Lutheran Evangelist^ and wrote 
one hundred and thirty-four letters 
under the signature of "Hendrick Hud- 
son." He has contributed eighteen ar- 
ticles to the quarterlies. Since 1886 he 



has been editor of "T/ie Drafted Men^s 
Advocate," and he is chairman of the 
State committee of Drafted Men, and is 
managing interests involving over twelve 
millions of dollars. On the first of Jan- 
uary, 1891, he founded ^'The Eastern 
Lutheran,'^ IDublished monthly at Hud- 
son, N. Y., of which he is the editor. 
Mrs. Hull died Jan. 30, 1890. Rev. 
Hull's son. Rev. William E. Hull, is 
pastor of the Lutheran church at Coble- 
skill, N. Y. 



7^P\ 



REV. A. J. IMHOFF, D.D. 



Dr. Imhoff was born July 8, 1823, in 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. His parents 
were Pennsylvania Germans for three 
generations or more. When they came 
from Germany is not known. His father 
was William H. Imhoff and his mother 
Susanna Glessner. In 1833 they loca- 
ted in Ashland, O., and, when in 1835, 
they obtained a Lutheran pastor, they 
became very active members of the 
church, and continued so until death. 
Dr. Imhoff was educated at Wittenberg 
College, and graduated in 1851 with 
average standing. In 1852 he was 
married to Miss Margaret Ann Ruhl, 
and ordained to the ministry at Findlay, 
O., by the Wittenberg Synod in 1853. 
He is at present (1891) a member of 
the Miami Synod. In 1877 or 1878, the 
degree of D.D. was conferred upon him 



by Wittenberg College. Dr. Imhoff 's 
fields of labor in Ohio have been: Tarl- 
ton, Peckaway Co., 1852-55; Findlay, 
1855-65 ; Ottowa, 1865-67 ; Urbana, 1867- 
73; Leipsic 1872-76; Urbana, 1876-89, 
when he retired from the ministry. He 
is now working for the Lutheran Evangel- 
ist as correspondent and traveling agent. 
While at Ottowa he organized a female 
academy which he taught for eighteen 
months in addition to his pastoral work. 
Through the efforts of Dr. Imhoff, the 
charge at Findlay has grown into four 
charges, each with a pastor. He is the 
author of "The Life of Morris Officer," 
published in 1876, which was well re- 
ceived, although the fact that Mr. Offi- 
cer left the Lutheran church hindered 
to some extent the sale of the book. He 
has also published some sermons. 




AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



391 



REV. DAVID JACOBS. 



David Jacobs was born in Franklin 
Co., Pa., on the 22d of November, 1805. 
His parents, Henry and Anna Maria 
Jacobs, were of German extraction, and 
exemplary members of the Lutheran 
Church. Although early deprived of 
his parents, — his mother dying when he 
was in his fifth year, and his father 
before he had reached his sixteenth, — 
their good influence was still manifest 
in the formation of his character. From 
his earliest childhood he showed a mild 
and gentle dis j)osition ; and, before he 
had passed many years, he became 
fond of reading the Bible, and thoughtful 
concerning his immortal interests. He 
was diffident and retiring, and sought 
his enjoyment in books rather than in 
the sports in which young people are 
usually prone to engage. He sj^ent his 
early years in the quiet of rural life, 
assisting his father in cultivating his 
farm. Though he had only the ad- 
vantages of an ordinary country school, 
his very rapid progress in the different 
branches of study was noticed by his 
teachers and others, and suggested the 
desirableness of his being placed in 
circumstances favorable to a higher 
intellectual culture. Indeed, he under- 
took, of himself, studies outside of the 
prescribed course; and the farther he 
advanced, the more obvious it became 
that he had talents, which, if suitably 
cultivated and directed, would ensure to 
him an eminently useful life. 

In the spring of 1822, a few months 
after the death of his father, Mr. Jacobs 
attended a course of catechetical instruc- 
tion under the ministry of his pastor, 
the Rev. John F. Ruthrauff, who 
possessed remarkable power in interest- 
ing his catechumens in the truths of 
religion. Lender this influence he con- 



secrated himself to tha_ service of God 
in an evangelical profession, the sincerity 
of which was made fully manifest by 
his subsequent life. About the same 
time he also determined to offer himself 
a candidate for the sacred office. From 
this point his piety assumed a more 
strongly marked character, and his path 
continued to shine brighter unto the 
perfect day. 

In June, 1822, immediately after he 
had made a profession of his faith in 
Christ, Mr. Jacobs visited Hagerstown, 
and made known to the Rev. B. Kurtz, 
then the pastor of the Lutheran congre- 
gation in that place, his purpose to 
become a minister of the Gospel. Mr. 
Kurtz encouraged him to proceed in his 
preparation, and actually received him 
into his own family, and became, to a 
considerable extent, both his instructor 
and counsellor. Here he attended the 
Hagerstown Academy, then in charge 
of a Mr. Wilson, and engaged in a course 
of classical study. He began by the 
somewhat remarkable feat of committing 
the Latin Grammer to memory in nine 
days; and his subsequent progress was 
what might have been expected from 
this very favorable beginning. In all 
his studies he was distinguished for 
accuracy, thoroughness and facility of 
acquirement. 

In the fall of 1823 he entered the 
Junior Class in Jefferson College, then 
under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. 
Brown. Here, also, he took a very high 
rank as a scholar, being more especially 
distinguished for his attainments in the 
languages. Here, too, he showed him- 
self an eminently spiritually minded 
Christian, and his influence for good 
was powerfully felt throughout the 
institution. He graduated, with high 



392 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



honor, at the Commencement in 1825. 

Shortly after his graduation he placed 
himself again under the care of his 
friend, Mr. Kurtz, for the purpose of 
prosecuting his theological studies. 
But as the Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg went into operation the next 
year, under the direction of Professor 
Schmucker, he removed thither in the 
autumn of 1826, and became one of the 
first students in that School of the 
Prophets. On the 25th of June, 1827, 
he took charge of the classical depart- 
ment, organized in connection with the 
Theological Seminary, and this proved 
the germ of Pennsylvania College, — an 
institution which has since risen to great 
respectability and usefulness. He ac- 
quitted himself here, in every way, with 
great credit. Not only was he highly 
successful in ins^Diring his pupils with 
the desire for thorough scholarship, and 
advancing them rapidly in the different 
branches of study, but he paid great 
attention to their moral and religious 
well-being, and the savor of his earnest 
and yet unostentatious Christian spirit 
was felt throughout the institution. 

At the meeting of the West Pennsyl- 
vania Synod, in 1829, Mr. Jacobs was 
licensed to preach the GosiDel; but, as he 
continued to be engaged in teaching, 
and as his health was delicate, he rarely 
appeared in the pulpit. He remained 
in his field of labor until the summer 
of 1830, when the enfeebled state of his 
health rendered it imperative that he 
should relax in the severity of his 
engagements. Though his friends were 
far from regarding him as alarmingly 
ill, yet they urged him, as a matter of 
prudence, and even necessity, to intermit 
temporarily his labors, and give himself 
to relaxation and rest. He, accordingly, 
made his arrangements for a journey to 
the South, and he did it the more cheer- 
fully for the sake of accompanying to 



his home in South Carolina a fellow 
student, the Rev. Jacob Wingard, whose 
health had for some time been in a 
declining state, and who died at the 
beginning of the next year. He left 
Gettysburg on the 10th of September, 
but it was eighteen days before he 
reached Lexington, S. C, the extreme 
southern point of his journey. On the 
seventh day after he set out, the stage- 
coach in which he was traveling was 
upset, though he received no serious 
injury from the accident. The next 
day, however, the coach was precipitated 
over the abutment of a bridge, seven or 
eight feet high, and broken to pieces, 
and he was so rfiuch injured as to be 
obliged to stop for several days. But 
in all these adverse circumstances he 
recognized the hand of an infinitely 
wise and gracious Providence, and was 
disposed to dwell more upon the mercies 
by which the afflictions were qualified 
than upon the afflictions themselves. He 
commenced his homeward journey on 
horseback. But he found it irksome 
and solitary; and the fatigue, together 
with unfavorable weather, and still much 
impaired health, served greatly to de- 
press his spirits ; though he did not lose 
his hold of God's gracious convenant. 
On reaching Shepardstown, Va., he 
found himself too feeble to proceed 
farther; and he stopped, as it turned 
out, to die among strangers. Mr. Smith, 
the Lutheran clergyman of the place, 
having heard that there was a minister 
of his denomination dangerously ill at 
one of the inns in the town, immediately 
called upon him, and had him removed 
to his house, where he received the 
kindest attentions as long as he was a 
subject for them. His disease was a 
violent fever, and, during part of the 
time, the exercise of his reason was 
suspended; but when he had the com- 
mand of his faculties, he was sustained 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



393 



by an unfaltering trust in his Redeemer. 
He died on the 4th of November, 1830, 
in the twenty-fifth year of his age. His 
remains were conveyed to his native 
place, and interred in the cemetery 



connected with the church in which he 
first made a profession of religion. The 
funeral services were conducted by the 
Rev. John F. Ruthrauff, and the Rev. 
Dr. Kurtz, of Hagerstown. — Sprague. 




REY. HENRY E. JACOBS, D.D. 



Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs, D. D., was 
born at Gettysburg, Pa., on November 
10, 1844, of Lutheran parentage, his 
father being at the time Professor of 
Natural Sciences and Mathematics at 
Pennsylvania College. 

At a very early age he evinced that 
systematic and zealous ability which has 
always since been one of his leading 
characteristics, and which has placed 
him, though not yet past middle-age, 
among the foremost ranks of the Luth- 



eran theologians of America. 



He grad- 



uated in 1862 from Pennsylvania College 
and in the ensuing scholastic year be- 
gan his studies in the theological semi- 
nary there. In the following two years 
of his seminary course the country was 
imdergoing the frightful throes of civil 
war, and much of his time during vaca- 
50 



tion was spent in administering to the 
wants of wounded soldiers of the Union. 
He finished the theological course in 
1864 and was at once engaged as tutor 
in the college. This position he re- 
tained until 1867, when the pressing 
needs in the Home Mission field called 
him to Pittsburg, Pa. 

After several years of labor in this 
important work he was made principal 
of Thiel Hall, then at Phillipsburg, Pa., 
at the same time undertaking the office 
of pastor to the church there. In 1870 
he was elected to the chair of Latin and 
History in Pennsylvania College, in 
connection with which institution he re- 
mained until 1883, when he was called to 
fill the chair of Systematic Theology in 
the Evangelical Lutheran Theological 
Seminary at Philadelphia, made vacant 



394 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



by the death of that eminent scholar and 
theologian, Eev. Charles Porterfield 
Krauth, D.D., LL.D. 

During all these many changes of 
work and location it is to be remem- 
bered that Dr. Jacobs diligently kept up 
his studies of the Lutheran Confessions 
under circumstances and hindrances 
which would have discouraged any but 
the most thorough and determined 
student. 

The death of Dr. Krauth caused an 
opening in the ranks of the Lutheran 
Church in America, which has never 
since been closed. His loss will always 
be felt by the Church at large, but the 
most pressing want was that which was 
created by his removal from the faculty 
of the Seminary. In the Providence of 
God, however, a man was being raised 
up to fill such a want. More than twenty 
years of unremitting research had 
ripened a scholar, and when the time 
came, the Church did not have to suffer 
for lack of the necessary instrument to 
carry on her work, but at once Dr. 
Jacobs was called forth to perform the 
service for which his rare attainments 
so well fitted him. 

In another sphere of work also. Dr. 
Jacobs promises to make his scholarship 
felt to the advantage of the Lutheran 
Church. In the death of Dr. Schmucker, 
theological science lost one of its most 
distinguished specialists, and the Luth- 
eran Church a devoted son, whose 
noblest monument will be her forms of 
worship and of pastoral ministration. 
The appointment of Dr. Jacobs to the 
General Council's Liturgical Committee, 
with Drs. Seiss and Spaeth, enlisted his 
energy and scholarship in this work. 

In the literary field Dr. Jacobs' labors 
have been eminently those of the dog- 
matician, and he deserves the unbounded 
gratitude of the English-speaking 
Church for his successful work in the 



translations of the Lutheran Confessions 
into English from their German and 
Latin originals. His historical intro- 
ductions and explanatory notes to these 
translations have secured for him a wide 
celebrity. 

He has, since 1883, been editor-in- 
chief of the Lutheran Church Review, 
through the pages of which periodical 
there have emanated articles from his 
pen such as his reviews of works of Drs. 
Schaff and Shedd, which have earned 
for the theological views represented 
by him broader and more intelligent 
recognition among the leading minds of 
other denominations in this country. 

He is also a regular and frequent 
contributor to the Church papers, and 
in this field his productions have treated 
of questions which are constantly arising 
in connection with the growth and 
development of the Church, and in 
which it is most necessary to direct and 
educate the popular mind. 

Dr. Jacobs has always belonged to the 
conservative wing of the Lutheran 
Church, and has steadily and ^ ably 
opposed all innovations and changes 
which are the result of the Church's 
coming in contact with surrounding 
denominations and sects whose founda- 
tions are not built of the same rugged 
and enduring material of truth as those 
of our own beloved Lutheran Church. 

His experience as a teacher has been 
an almost uninterrupted one, extending 
over a period of a quarter of a century, 
and he possesses, pre-eminently, the 
invaluable requisite of being able to 
impart the same clear, decided knowl- 
edge which he himself possesses, and a 
magnetic personality which secures 
interest in, and attention to, his in- 
structions. 

His deciding to move to Mt. Airy, 
followed naturally after his election as 
House Father or rector, and the classes 



AMEPvLGAN LUTHERAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



395 



of future years will inevitably derive 
much benefit from coming into close 
personal contact with one. who so well 
understands a student's strength, a 
student's weaknesses, and a student's 
wants. — Indicator. 

There are in Dr. Jacobs special quali- 
fications for the important post he holds 
at the seminary. Like Dr. Krauth, a 
child of the covenant, he grew up like 
him in the sanctity of a Christian home 
and the atmosphere of thorough scholar- 
ship. The growth of faith and learning- 
went hand in hand, and before men were 
aware, the modest student had developed 
into a Christian manhood and a scholar- 
ship of unusual prominence. First a 
tutor in the college at Gettysburg, then 
principal of Thiel Hall, then Latin pro- 
fessor in Pennsylvania College, and 
afterwards Greek professor in the same 
institution, he passed up, step by step, 
through the varied branches and studies 
of these positions, mastering every one 
thoroughly and making full proof of his 
ability in all. So, too, his studies dur- 
ing these years made him at home in 
the German language, out of whose 
treasures of theology and literature he 
has already done so much, by transla- 
tion and otherwise, to increase the 
sphere of the Church's knowledge. 

The long familiarity with young men, 
the intimate acquaintance with their 
weaknesses and their virtues, the help- 
fulness of his spirit, and the entire ab- 
sence of every element of cheat and 
sham, and the felt presence of Christian 



nobility in his character, all give him 
special qualifications for the training of 
our future ministry. But most of all, 
and best of all, there is in Dr. Jacobs 
not only the assurance of a personal 
faith in Christ, but the assurance of the 
absolute truth of Christ's teachings, as 
confessed by our Evangelical Church. 
How he was led to both, need not here 
be told. It is enough to say that, as in 
the case of some others, it was not by 
earthly teachers, but by the Holy One, 
"who hath the key of David, who open- 
etli and no man shutteth, and shutteth 
and no man openeth." In bowing be- 
fore the authority of Christ he literally 
gave up all, resigning position, and go- 
ing forth he knew not where, that he 
might be free to confess the whole truth 
as it is in Jesus, The strange result is 
known. He returned to honorable posi- 
tions, to confidential relationships, to 
helpful associations, and to important 
services in confessing, defending and 
propagating the faith which was dearer 
to him than life. — Workman. 

Some of Dr. Jacobs' publications: 
"Question of Latinity," "Adoption," 
"Conservative Reformation," "Luther as 
a Translator," "Confessional Principle 
of the Lutheran Church," "Book of 
Concord," "Address at Greenville," 
"Augsburg Confession, translated by 
Taverner," "Schmid's Dogmatik (with 
Dr. Hay)," "St. Stephan's Tracts," 
"Modern Calvinism," "Hutter's Com- 
pendof Theology (Tr.)," "Doctrine of 
the Ministry." 



REV. MICHAEL JACOBS, D.D. 



Pvev. Michael Jacobs, D.D., was born 
in Waynesboro, Pa., Jan. 18, 1808. He 
graduated at Jefferson College, in 1828, 
and, after teaching in Maryland, went 



to Gettysburg to assist his brother David, 
in 1829, taking the professorship of 
mathematics and natural sciences. On- 
the organization of Pennsylvania Col- 



396 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



lege in 1832, he became professor of 
mathematics and natural science, in 
which position he continued until 1865, 
when he resigned the chair of natural 
science. A year later he was made 
emeritus professor. He was licensed to 
preach in 1834, and received the degree 
of D.D. from Jefferson and Wittenberg 
colleges in 1858. He invented a process 
of canning fruit in 1845. In 1846 he 
read a paper on "Indian Summer," be- 
fore the Society for the Advancement of 
Science; he published "Notes on the 
Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Penn- 
sylvania, and the battle of Gettysburg," 
(Philadelphia, 1863), contributed an 



article on the same subject to the United 
Service Magazine^ published articles on 
theological subjects in the Evangelical 
Review, and scientific papers in the 
Linnaean Record a^c^Jozirwa/, edited the last 
named publication for two years, was 
for more than thirty years a contributor 
to the publications of the Franklin In- 
stitute in Philadelphia, and the Smith- 
sonian Institution in Washington, and 
left manuscript "Lectures on Meteor- 
ology," containing the fruits of his in- 
dependent observations in that science. 
He died in Gettysburg, Pa., July 22, 
1871. — Appl. Cyclo. Am. Biogr, 








REY. ABRAHAM JACOBSEN. 



Rev. Abraham Jacobsen was born in 
Norway, Jan. 3, 1836; came with his 
parents to the United States in 1848, 
and located at Muskego, Wis. In 1850 
they moved to Iowa, settling in Winne- 
shiek Co. 

The subject of this sketch began at- 
tendance at the Illinois State University, 
at Springfield, in the autumn of 1852, 
having accomplished about ninety miles 
of the jouruey on foot. He remained 



Church. After 
home and soon 
s a missionary; 



there until I860, when he went to Chi- 
cago as pastor of the first Norwegian 
Evangelical Lutheran 
one year he returned 
after went to Dakota 
thence in 1862 to Quebec, Can., as mis- 
sionary; thence he returned to Iowa and 
for three years was engaged in farming. 
In 1866 he went to St. Louis to attend 
the German Lutheran Concordia Col- 
lege and in 1868 went to Perry, Dane 



AMEKICAN LUTHEllAN BiOGEAPHIES. 



397 



Co , Wis., as pastor of the church, where 
he remained until 1878. He then re- 
turned to his present home near Nord- 
uiis, Iowa, owing to ill-health, and has 
since been engaged in farming. 

In 1860 he was united in marriage to 
Mar)/ H. O'Connor, who died in 1861. 
January 3, 1863, he was married to Nic- 
oline Hegg, with "^ whom ^he has^ eleven 
children. 



Rev. Jacobsen was the first Norwegian 
Lutheran minister that labored in Da- 
kota, having preached the gospel there 
as early as 1861. He was the first Nor- 
wegian that settled in Decorah, la., 
settling there in 1850. 

In 1888 he made a trip to Norway. 
During the summer of 1890 he served, 
temporarily, Blue Mound's congregation 
in Dane county, Wis. 




KEY. PEOF. J. D. JACOBSEN. 



This exceptionally talented man was 
born near Skien, Norway, on the 16th 
of July, 1842. His parents were Daniel 
Jacobsen Ballestad and Anne Kirstine 
Olsen. In the spring of 1843 the family, 
consisting of the parents, three daugh- 
ters and the only son, Jacob, emigrated 
to America, where they settled in Wau- 
kesha Co., Wis,, one of the most beauti- 
ful tracts in the southern part of that 
state. After one of the lakes in this 
vicinity the Norwegians called this set- 
tlement "Pine Lake." On the 7th of 
February, 1847, Rev. W. Dietrichson or- 
ganized the Norwegian Lutheran con- 
gregation at Pine Lake, in which the 



names of Daniel Jacobsen and his family 
are found. From 1851 Rev. N. Brandt, 
of Rock River, served as pastor of 
the church. 

While Prof. Jacobsen, even when 
quite young, had a weak constitution, 
his remarkable aptness to learn, his re- 
tentive memory and great fondness of 
reading gave early evidence of a power- 
ful mind in a weak body. His superior 
mental traits attracted the attention, es- 
pecially of his pastor, from his twelfth 
year — the time he joined the catechetical 
class preparatory to confirmation. 

On the 29th of September, 1854, his 
father died of consumption, and from 



398 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



this time on the duty of supporting a 
sickly mother devolved upon Jacob, who 
was the oldest son of the family. On 
the 10th of May, 1857, he was confirmed 
in the Rock River congregation, when 
the pastor gave him the flattering testi- 
mony of having acquired an excellent 
religious knowledge. During the win- 
ter following his confirmation he took 
private lessons in Latin and German 
from Rev. N. Brandt. Being now de- 
sirous of entering the Concordia College 
and Seminary at St. Louis, Mo., but 
lacking the necessary means for this 
purpose, Rev. Brandt kindly applied to 
his congregation on behalf of young 
Jacobsen for pecuniary aid, which was 
cheerfully and liberally responded to. 
Tims the Lord made an opening for 
liim and he immediately began to make 
preparations for leaving home for St. 
Louis; but before he got started on his 
journey the strongest tie that yet bound 
him to the home should be broken, his 
dearly beloved mother dying of con- 
sumption on the 8th of August, 1858. 
Mr. Jacobsen then ^entered the college 
at St. Louis, together with Mr. Lasse 
Dasse and Mr. Torger Andreas Torger- 
sen, the three first students of the Nor- 
wegian Synod in America to enter 
school with a view to the gospel ministry. 
Without interruption Mr. Jacobsen 
prosecuted his studies at St. Louis until 
the spring of 1861, his expenses being 
largely defrayed by the churches that 
had aided him from the beginning. The 
college at St. Louis having closed in the 
spring of 1861, on account of the dis- 
turbances that were occasioned by the 
breaking out of the war, Mr. Jacobsen 
spent the summer teaching school in his 
home congregations, and in the fall he 
entered Concordia College at Ft. Wayne, 
Ind., whence the college that he had 
formerly attended had been temporarily 
removed. Before the expiration of the 



year, however, he returned to St, Louis, 
where he remained until the spring of 
1863. For three months, in the fall of 
1863, he was temporarily employed as 
assistant professor at Luther College, 
Decora h, la.; the remainder of this year 
he devoted to teaching English school 
in Big Canoe, la. The following year 
(1864-5) he studied at Luther College, 
Decorah, when he again entered Con- 
cordia College at Ft. Wayne, finishing 
his collegiate course and graduating in 
the spring of 1867. He thereupon took 
a regular theological course under Dr. 
Walther in the Concordia Seminary at 
St, Louis, graduating in the year 1870. 
He received a call to become assistant 
pastor of Rev. Ottesen on Koshkonong 
Prairie, Wis., and was ordained by Rev, 
H. A. Preus at a pastoral conference 
held in Whitewater, Wis., in April, 1870. 

Mr. Jacobsen was married on the 
24th of May, 1871, to Miss Guro Inge- 
brigtsen, which union the Lord blessed 
with one daughter and three sons. 

AVhen, in December, 1871, Prof. S. A. 
Schmidt resigned his position as theo- 
logical professor at Luther College, 
Decorah, to accept a chair in the Con- 
cordia Seminary at St, Louis, Mr. 
Jacobsen was called as Prof. Schmidt's 
successor at Luther College, where he 
entered upon his duties on the first of 
January, 1872. 

The range of Prof. Jacobsen's knowl- 
edge was simply wonderful. He was a 
sound, loyal Lutheran theologian and 
perfectly at home in the standard litera- 
ture of our Church. As a linguist he 
had few equals, speaking and writing 
fluently and correctly Norwegian, Eng- 
lish, German and Latin. He had ac- 
quired a rernarkable familiarity with all 
of the more noted authors. As a teacher 
he was clear and precise, always success- 
ful in holding the attention and interest 
of the students. From 1873 he was 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



399 



secretary o£ the college board of trustees. 
In 1874 he took a trip to Norway, hoping 
thereby to benefit his failing health. 
While in Norway he met his friend and 
colleague, Prof. Knnt E. Bergh, who 
had arrived there the previous year, and 
who had also gone there w^itli a view to 



benefit his health. His health having 
improved somewhat by his Norway trip 
he resumed his labors at Luther College 
in 1874, where he continued until 1880, 
when his old complaint terminated fa- 
tally on the first of April, 1881. — 
MemoriaL 




KEY. K. JAEGGLI. 



Rev. R. Jaeggli was born in the 
Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, on the 
6th of April, 18»^5. After a good educa- 
tion, he entered upon the mission work 
in Texas, in the year 1861. His first 
charge was in Ross Prairie, Fayette Co., 
which he faithfully served for eleven 
years. He was then called to Round 
Top, whither he removed, but the sep- 
aration was an unnatural one, and he 
was recalled to his first charge where he 
served the church another eleven years. 
Believing that the time had come for a 
change, he accepted a call to Zionsville, 
where he labored until his death. 



Pastor Jaeggli was president of the 
Texas Synod for a number of years, and 
rendered excellent service by his ju- 
dicious and earnest counsels. The dis- 
ease which carried him away was a 
most painful and lingering one. The 
Ijhysicians seemed not to understand 
his disease and could give him little re- 
lief, and he died on Friday, Nov. 26, 
1886. His last words were, "Oh Lord, 
why so long!" But it is all over now, 
his toils and sufferings, and he rests 
from his labors, while his w^orks follow 
him. 




REY. RASMUS JENSEN AARHUS. 



The Swedish Pastor Reor Torkil 
(Reorius Torkillus), who was sent out 
in 1636, or xjerhai:)s 1638, is generally 
spoken of as the first Lutheran pastor 
in America, and he certainly stands at 
the head in the later important Swedish 
Lutheran ox^erations on the Delaware. 
Lutherans from Holland had arrived 
before the Swedes (about 1620), but 
they had no pastor before J. E. Goet- 
water arrived on the 6th of June, 1657, 
and he was sent home again by the 
Reformed, who had the control, and 
the Lutherans were without a pastor 



until the arrival of J. Fabricius, A. M., 
in 1669. Thus the Swedes occupy the 
front rank of the entire Lutheran work in 
North America, and to Pastor Torkillus 
is due the honor of being the first pastor 
in America. 

If, however, the efforts are taken into 
consideration, which were made by 
other Lutheran countries at explorations, 
where i^astors were sent along as shii:)- 
chai^lains, and if we include not only the 
United States w^ith its neighboring 
countries, but also that part of America 
which belongs under Eurojiean govern- 



400 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



ment, then, which is not generally known, 
the Danish -Norwegian fleet was the 
first, and there was a Danish -Norwegian 
pastor in America before a Swedish 
pastor arrived. 

Denmark sustained a friendly relation 
to Holland, which at that time had great 
power at sea. On their expeditions to 
East India, there were many Danish- 
Norwegian sailors in the service of 
Holland and when the decree was issued 
not to take strangers aboard on Holland 
vessels, the Danes were excepted. Chris- 
tian the IV. applied to the Holland 
government and an East India Com- 
pany was organized at Antvorskov in 
IBI6. Then came Admiral Ove Gjedde's 
voyage to India with the vessels "Ele- 
fanten," "David," and "Christian," on 
the 14th of November, 1618. On these 
voyages there were ship-chaplains along. 
Then followed the Trankebar Mission, 
and the Danish congregation in India 
with Danish pastors. The re-exploration 
of Greenland, which had earlier been 
settled by Northmen, became the subject 
of serious thought. Christian the IV. 
sent out three expeditions in the years 
from 1605 to 1607, then the thought 
occurred of seeking a passage from 
North America to India. For this 
purpose two vessels were fitted out, the 
"Enhjorningen" with forty-eight men 
and the "Lamprenen" with eighteen 
which men, started on their voyage on the 
9th day of May, 1619, under command of 
Captain Jens Erikson Munk (born 1579 
on the "Gaard," Barbo, near Arendal, 
Norway, of Danish parents). 

June twentieth they discovered the 
southern coast of Greenland, and on the 
8th of July the American coast ; then they 
took a southerly course and entered the 
Hudson Strait, which Munk, in honor 
of the King, called "Fretum Christiani," 
and the north point he called after 
himself "Cape Munk" (Munkenas). In 



August they entered the Hudson Bay, 
which he called "Mare Novum" (the 
New Sea), and "Mare Christiani" 
(Christian's Sea). He took possession 
of the land for the Danish crown under 
the name of "Nova Dania" (New Den- 
mark). His winter-harbors he took 
near the Churchhill River, where they 
suffered untold misery by want and 
sickness, nearly the whole crew dieing 
from scurvy. 

On this voyage the ship-chaplain. 
Pastor Rasmus Jensen was along, and 
in all probability he was the first 
Lutheran pastor, who came to America. 
In the "Ecclesiastical Archives" (Kirke- 
historiske Samlinger), 3rd Series, Vol. 
V, p. 845 seq., is given a list of ship- 
chaplains, where it is stated that 22 
pastors were ordained from 1610 to 1670 
to accompany the vessels to East India. 
The given list of ship-chaplains from 
1610 to 1670 contains names of 81 ship- 
chaplains, but as they are not arranged 
in rotation, and no year is given in 
several cases, it can not be said for 
certain, whether Pastor R. Jensen is 
mentioned among them. It must cer- 
tainly, however, be him that is mentioned 
after Pastor Povel Erichsen Fionus (at 
whose name is given the year 1610), 
as "Rasmus Jensen Aarhus ad naves 
oestindia." After him is given the name 
of the Norwegian, Pastor Peder Jensen 
Skeen, 1618, also for East India. 

Concerning the celebration of Christ- 
mas in Nova Dania, Munk writes: On 
the 24th of December, which was 
Christmas Eve, I gave the people wine 
and strong beer, which they had to thaw 
out ("finde om igjen") for it was frozen 
to the bottom, so that they became 
somewhat intoxicated, and were very 
jolly, though they did not with a single 
word insult one another. 

The holy Christmas Day we jointly 
celebrated in a Christian manner, had 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



401 



preaching and mass, and after the 
sermon, according to old usage, we 
offered to the pastor, each one according 
to his means. Although money was 
not very plentiful among the people, 
nevertheless they gave what they had, 
some giving white fox-furs which the 
pastor used for lining his gown, though 
he did not live long to wear it." 

Munk continues to write: "On the 
10th of January the pastor, Rasmus 
Jensen, and the barber, M. Casper 
Caspersea, had to take to the bed, after 
having been quite sick for some time ; 
and after this a severe sickness began 
among the people, which grew worse 
every day. The sickness which prevailed 
was of a singular character, the patients 
generally suffering about three weeks 
from blood-flux before they died. On 
the same day my best cook died." 

"On the 25th of January my helms- 
man, Hans Brock, who had been sick 
for about five months, died. The weather 
was fair that day, with beautiful sun- 
shine, and the pastor, sitting in his 
berth, preached to the people, which 
was the last sermon he preached in this 
world." "In the evening of the 20th of 
February (1620), the above mentioned 
Mr. Rasmus Jensen, the pastor, died, 
having been sick for a long time." 

Though the pastor died, M. Munk 
must have continued to conduct religious 
services, for he writes: 



"On the 14th of April it was very 
cold, and we were only five persons that 
could sit and listen to the Good-Friday 
sermon." In May Mr. Munk lay deathly 
sick in his cabin, not having tasted food 
for four days. He made his testament 
and reminiscences, which he requested 
whoever should find them, to send to his 
Lord and King, and concluded with the 
words: "All the world good-night, and 
my soul in the hand of God." 

The Lord helped; with two men Mr. 
Munk could sail with "Lamprenen" on 
the 16th of July, and all three arrived 
in Norway»safe and sound in September 
1620. arriving at Bergen on the 25th of 
that month. He closes with an earnest 
prayer to God. Munk died June 3, 1628. 

New Denmark on the Hudson Bay 
did not become the possession of Den- 
mark, nor does this voyage have much 
significance in the history of the church ; 
but Pastor Rasmus Jensen, who was 
along and continued to preach the Word 
of God to the people, even when he was 
confined to his berth, and who died on 
the 20th of February, 1620, and found 
his grave in the long since forgotten 
Nova Dania on the Hudson Bay, must 
assuredly be credited with being the 
first Lutheran pastor in America who 
preached the word of God and was 
buried in America. — Substantially quoted 
from Rev. R. Andersen's History of the 
Ev. Luth. Church in America. 




REV. ISAAC JENSSON. 



Rev. Isaac Jensson, son of Jens Chris- 
tian Abrahamson, son of Abraham Olsen 
Kleppe, was born in Norway, on a farm 
called "Roseland," in "Aarre Parish," 
in the diocese of Kristiansand, on the 
12th day of October, 1838. His mother's 
51 



name was Gullikka Maria, born Jacob- 
sen. Isaac was the youngest of four 
children, three sons and one daughter, 
Jacob, Abraham, Isaac, and Stina. His 
father was born in the year 1804, and 
died in 1838, being then thirty-foux 



402 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




KEY. ISAAC JENSSON. 



years old. At the time of his father's 
death Isaac was only twenty-two weeks 
old. By reason of overwork in her 
efforts to maintain herself and her 
fatherless children, his mother was taken 
severely ill and had to be placed in a 
hospital for over eighteen months, when 
Isaac was only a year and a half old. 
From this time the children were placed 
in the care of strangers. Jens Skadsem, 
an eminently pious and highly respect- 
ed man, who had no children, ado.pted 
Isaac in his family. Here he enjoyed 
the boon of a truly pious home, and 
was early brought under that excellent 
training upon which the Mother Church 
in his native country has always laid so 
much stress. His early education was 
attended to with truly parental solici- 
tude. As soon as possible he was sent 
to the parochial school, where under 
the instruction of a Christian teacher 
his youthful heart became early im- 
pressed with the infinite love of God. 
The home example, together with the 
devoted home and school instruction, 
concurred in the establishment of an 
educational basis, which proved an in- 



fluence of inestimable good throughout 
his life. In his fifteenth year he was 
confirmed in the Borre Church by pastor 
Hans Julius Knudsen, who on the day 
of his confirmation gave him highly 
commendatory testimonies for exem- 
plary deportment. Christian character 
and knowledge. 

Soon after his confirmation Isaac, to- 
gether with eight other young persons 
in that neighborhood, was brought by 
the Word of God to know his natural 
sinfulness, and the abounding grace of 
God in Christ Jesus. When about 
eighteen years old he emigrated to 
America in company with his brother 
Jacob, locating at Leland, 111., where he 
for a while followed his trade, black- 
smithing, which he had learned in the 
old country. Being a young man of 
fluent speech and thorough Bible knowl- 
edge, ardent in spirit, and anxious to 
improve his talents and opportunities 
in his Master's cause, he frequently 
took active part with the older Chris- 
tian brethren in their more private 
gatherings for mutual edification. While 
at Leland he is said to have been an in- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



403 



strument in the hand of God to lead 
a number of young persons to Christ. 

In 1857 he entered the Illinois State 
University at Springfield, 111., where he 
prosecuted his studies with character- 
istic diligence under the Rev. William 
M. Reynolds, D. D., the Rev. S. W. 
Harkey, D. D., and the Rev. L. P. 
Esbjorn, from which institution he 
graduated with high honors in 1861. 
Among his classmates in the university 
may be mentioned: Rev. Amund John- 
son, at present (1890) of Aurelia, la.; 
Rev. N. W. Lilly, of Leetonia, O.; Rev. 
W. A. LijDe, of Omaha, Neb.; Rev. J. L. 
Guard, of Deer Creek, Ind.; Rev. 
Abraham Jacobsen, of Decorah, la.; 
Rev. John Pehrson, of Norseland, Minn. ; 
Rev. G. H. Schnur, of Yutan, Neb.; 
Rev. John J. Nasse, of Newburg, Minn.; 
Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, son of Pres- 
ident Lincoln. * 

Being destitute of pecuniary means, 
Mr. Jensson was obliged to provide for 
his support at the university during the 
summer vacations, which he spent part- 
ly in Leland, 111., and partly in Mil- 
waukee, Wis., buying and peddling 
beef, and doing other work. During 
the summer vacation of 1860, he com- 
piled and published, in Milwaukee, a 
little hymn-book entitled "Some Spirit- 
ual Songs" ("Nogle aandelige Sange"), 
which he sold with some profit among 
his friends in the various Scandinavian 
congregations. 

The Rev. J.J. Nasse, one of his class- 
mates, and for two years also his room- 
mate, tells the following incident, which 
occurred while attending the University: 
To make their scant funds carry them 
to the end of the school year, Mr. Nasse 
and Mr. Jensson were obliged to board 
themselves, maintaining themselves, the 
greater part of the time, on the plainest 
kind of fare. Toward the close of the 
school year, however, they found their 



funds completely exhausted. Mr 
Jensson, possessing an eminently cheer- 
ful temperament and a strong reliance 
upon the promises of God, did not allow 
this embarrasment to discourage him, 
but zealously prosecuted his studies, 
and bore up with such a remarkable 
cheerfulness, that it often provoked his 
anxious room-mate to criticise his ap- 
parent unsolicitousness. Finally, hav- 
ing been without a morsel to eat for 
two days, even Mr. Jensson's visage 
assumed a more grave expression, and it 
became evident that his mirthful spirit 
had become considerably dampened by 
this prolonged fast. On the evening of 
the second day, after he had talked over 
the situation with his friend, he threw 
himself upon his bed, and in a fervent 
prayer he laid the matter before his 
heavenly Father. Having finished his 
prayer, he sang his favorite lines : 

We'll stand the storm; 

It won't be long; 

We'll anchor bye and bye. 

That same evening a Danish student 
at the university loaned the two hungry 
young men fifteen cents, with which 
they provided a meal for themselves, 
which, though not particularly sump- 
tuous, was nevertheless relished with 
special gratitude to God. Through some 
one of the students their destitute con- 
dition was brought to the knowledge of 
the good old Prof. Esbjorn, when the 
kind and eminently Christian gentle- 
man immediately sent word to the 
boys to come and eat at his table until 
other arrangements could be made. But 
this seemed too much for the modest 
Jensson, and he therefore very politely 
declined to accept the generous offer. 
After a moment the professor himself 
called on them, urging them to come 
along with him. After some hesitation 
they finally consented. Nor did the 
poor boys ever forget the kind hospital- 



404 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ity with which they were received by 
their esteemed professor and his affec- 
tionate wife. 

In the summer of 1861 he was or- 
dained to the Gospel ministry, having 
accepted a call to the Evangelical 
Lutheran church in Neenah, Wis. At 
this place he labored very successfully 
for four years, organizing congregations 
at Waupaca and Oshkosh, and one 
about eight miles north of Neenah. 
Having applied himself with special 
earnestness to the acquisition of the 
English language, he was frequently 
called upon to preach in English, which 
he did with great acceptance. He de- 
voted himself wholly to the spiritual 
interests of the people for whom he la- 
bored. He fervently loved the cause of 
his Master, in which he was engaged 
with undivided affection, and he devoted 
himself to his arduous and self-sacrific- 
ing duties with untiring zeal. While 
ministering to these congregations dur- 
ing the severe winters of Northern Wis- 
consin, he was not exempt from the 
hardships of the early pioneer life, and 
being generally poorly clad, and always 
ambitious, scrupulously to discharge 
his pastoral duties and fill his appoint- 
ments, he contracted a severe cold which 
developed into a stubborn lung trouble 
to which his robust body finally suc- 
cumbed. 

In 1865 Mr. Jensson accepted a call 
from the Evangelical Lutheran church 
in Springfield township, Iowa, about six 
miles south of Decorah. It was thought 
that this change of climate would prove 
beneficial to his health, which had al- 
ready become seriously impaired. It 
gradually became more and more ap- 
parent that the dread disease to which 
he had fallen a victim was pulmonary 
consumption, and on Jan. 27, 1866, after 
having taken a touching and affection- 
ate farewell of his family, he died at the 



residence of Jens T. Venem, near Cal- 
mar, la., being at the time of his death 
in his twenty-eighth year. 

While at Neenah, Wis., Mr. Jensson 
was married to Miss Gretha Mikkaline, a 
daughter of Ole Sorli and his wife Anne, 
with whom he had two daughters, Olivia 
and Hannah, the latter having recently 
died. Gretha, his devoted Christian 
wife, followed her husband to the spirit 
world April 13, 1868, at the early age of 
25 years, 7 months, and 14 days. Mr. 
Jensson was buried in the grave-yard a 
short distance west of the church, where 
may now be seen six graves alongside of 
one another, namely that of his mother, 
his wife, his wife's parents, his daughter, 
and himself. Appropriate monuments 
have been erected upon the graves by 
the generous Christian father in Christ, 
Mr. Jens T. Venem, who was one of Mr. 
Jensson's parishioners and the foster- 
father of his two orphan daughters. 

Rev. Isaac Jensson's sister, Stina, and two brothers 
are still living, Jacob, having come t«» America in 1856, 
was for a number of years a very prosperous farmer in 
Fillmore Co., Minn. He is now living in the state of 
Washington. Abraham, (b. Dec. 12. 1836), came to 
America in 1862, settling for awhile in Neenah, Wis., 
where his wife, Maren, died in 1863. She was born in 
Norway, in 1837, her parents being Enok Gabrielsen 
Udsole and Karen. In 1858 she was married to Abraham 
Jensson Roseland. This union was blessed with three 
children: Jens Christian (b. March 25. 1859, confirmed 
1874; married March 14. 1879, to Mies Rosa Andrina 
Throndsen,— born in Marshall, Wis , March 17, 1862, of 
the parents Annanias Throndben and Britha— ; ordained 
June 6,1880); Karen Theonora Bertina (b. Jan. 2, 1861); 
and Abraham Ingeman iborn Nov. 4, 1862). In 1864 
Abraham was married again to a widow in B^illmore Co , 
Minn., Mrs. Anna Rasmussen, who had three children, 
Rebecca, Olaus, and Isebel. Their union has been 
blessed with three childrpn: Rasmus Ahasuerus, Mark 
Matthew, and Jacob Annanias. Abraham still lives in 
Fillmf)re Co., Minn., where he has been a successful 
farmer and school-teacher for a number of years. He 
is a graduate from a seminary in Norway, and has oc- 
cupied several important offices both in Church and 
state. Stina (born 1832), Isaac Jensson's only sist«r, 
was married in 1857, in Bergen, Norway, to Peter Reinert- 
sen,a prominent contractor and builder of that place. 
They live in FilJmore Co., Winn , having come to this 
conntry in 1880 They have twelve children; six boys and 
six girls Two of their sons have been ordained to the 
Lutheran ministry: Peter Ingbart Reinhard (b. July 18, 
1858; confirmed 1874; ordained June 17, 1873j, and Jens 
Christian (b. Sept. 30, 1863; ordained Nov. 17, 1889). 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



405 




REV. AMON JOHNSON. 



Rev. Arnon Johnson, the subject of 
this sketch, was born in Urdahl, Norway, 
Dec. 9, 1838. His parents were John 
Williamson and Ingeborg Am onsen. 
The family came to the United States 
in 1848, and settled in the town of Nor- 
way, Racine Co., Wis. There his mother 
died the same year. She was an earnest 
Christian woman, and her prayers and 
sincere piety left a lasting impression 
on her son. In 1850 his father moved 
to Dane Co., Wis., and Amon, at the age 
of thirteen, learned the printers' trade 
at the office of the Maanedstidende, in 
Janesville, and afterwards in Emigran- 
ten's office at Rock Prairie, Wis. In 
the latter place were a few earnest 
Christians who met in private houses 
for prayer and mutual edification on 
Sundays. One of these families, Lars 
Skavlem and his wife, Gro Skavlem, 
having heard of him, the lady came to 
the house where he boarded, and invited 
him to the meeting the Sunday follow- 
ing at their house. He went, and this 



family, becoming interested in him, 
through their efforts and recommenda- 
tions, sent him to the Illinois State 
University at Springfield, 111., in 1854. 
After devoting six years to study, he 
graduated in 1860, receiving the degree 
of A. B., and two years afterwards that 
of A. M. After his graduation he en- 
tered the Augustana Theological Semin- 
ary at Chicago, now located at Rock 
island, 111., and took a two years' course 
in theology. At this time he was led 
through the preaching and instruction 
of Prof. Esbjorn to rely on Christ 
through faith. Before that time he 
sought, mainly by his own efforts, to 
conciliate God. He was ordained by 
the Augustana Synod, June 29, 1862, in 
Wasa, Goodhue Co., Minn., and began 
his ministerial work in Leland, La Salle 
Co., 111. He remained there for three 
years and then went to Eau Claire, Wis., 
in the spring of 1865, where he remained 
until the close of the year 1876. Eau 
Claire was then ninety miles from the 



406 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



nearest railroad. The charge, besides 
Eau Claire, consisted of Running Val- 
ley, Big Elk creek and Little Elk creek. 
The Scandinavians were mostly poor 
immigrants who worked in the mills. 
When they had laid by some money, 
they generally settled on government 
lands in the county. During his labors 
in Eau Claire, upwards of ten thousand 
dollars were collected for two churches 
and a parsonage in the city. Besides 
the charge, congregations were organ- 
ized in Chippewa Falls, Sand Creek, 
Menomyiee, Springbrook and Drammen, 
most of which have since become sepa- 
rate charges, with resident ministers and 
flourishing congregations. It was a very 
laborious field. As the people had but 
lately come from Norway, the minister 
had to assist in locating and buying 
lands, and be general interpreter in 
business affairs. As Running Yalley 
and Sand Creek had Eau Claire for 
their market, the settlers had twenty to 
thirty-five miles to travel, mostly with 
oxen. Hence, the minister was asked 
to take their groceries with him when 
he came around to preach, to save them 
a journey to the city. His buggy be- 
came sometimes quite heavily loaded, 
but on Sundays he was hailed with 
much joy. There were a number of 
laymen who rendered valuable assist- 
ance. In Sand Creek was Benjamin 
Waade. He was a gifted speaker and an 
exemplary Christian, beloved by all. In 
Eau Claire may be mentioned Ole O. 
Aanstad and his amiable wife. Al- 



though no public speaker, he was an 
able business man; very firm, reliable, 
and of indomitable perseverance, and de- 
voted to the interests of the church. He 
has, for the last twenty years, been 
prominently connected with all the 
leading enterprises of the Conference. 
In 1876 Rev. Amon Johnson removed 
to Aurelia, Cherokee Co., la., and took 
charge of Aurelia, Sloan, Onewa, Sioux 
Rapids, and a settlement in Pocahon- 
tas Co. Sloan and Onewa, being organ- 
zed into a separate charge, he took 
Duncombe and Badger in Webster Co. 
They being again organized into a sep- 
arate charge, he took Fulton, besides 
organizing a Danish congregation in 
Alton. Under his ministry churches 
were built in Aurelia, Sioux Rapids, 
Fulton, Badger and Alton. His health 
not admitting of confinement, he has 
given, by preference, his attention to 
missionary work and building up dif- 
ferent congregations. Rev. Johnson 
was married at Leland, 111., to Miss 
Anna Moland, Feb. 14, 1863. She was 
an amiable wife and an earnest Chris- 
tian and was always prepared to sacri- 
fice for the Master's cause. She depart- 
ed this life, July 28, 1881, in firm faith 
in her Saviour. He was again married 
to Miss Carrie H, Oppegaard, Oct. 17, 
1883. By his first wife the following 
children were born: Martha, Henry, 
Arndt, Sven, Aron, Julius, Godfrey and 
Ida Mathilda. Two children were born 
of the second marriage, Anna Maria and 
Julia. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



407 



KEY. BENJAMIN KELLER. 



Rev. B. Keller was born in Lancaster, 
Pa., March 4, 1794. He was confirmed 
by Rev. Dr. H. E. Muhlenberg, and soon 
after felt a strong desire to devote him- 
self to the ministry. His classical and 
theological studies, in preparation for 
the work, were pursued at Frederick, 
Md., and at Lancaster Pa., under the 
direction of Rev. Dr. D. F. Schaeffer, 
and his revered and beloved pastor, Dr. 
Muhlenberg. On the completion of his 
course in 1814, before he had reached 
his twenty-first year, he was commis- 
sioned by the Synod of Pennsylvania to 
preach the Gospel, and at once entered 
upon the duties of the pastoral office. 
His first charge was Carlisle, Pa. Here 
he labored with zeal and fidelity for 
thirteen years, in serving eight congre- 
gations and performing an amount of 
service that seems almost incredible. 
In 1827, he received and accepted a call 
to the associated churches of German- 
town, Barren Hill and White Marsh, 
where he continued for seven years. In 
1834 he engaged in the service of the 
Parent Education Society. Bi;t his 
preferences for the pastoral ofiice were 
so decided, that after a brief and suc- 
cessful mission, he determined to resume 
the work, and accepted a call as pastor 
of the Lutheran church in Gettysburg. 
Here he continued to exercise his office 
for seventeen years. The relationship 
was terminated in consequence of the 
urgent desire of the Synod of Pennsyl- 
vauia to secure his services in its efforts 
to endow a German Professorship in the 
institutions at Gettysburg. The funds 
required were procured and warm friends 
secured wherever his labors extended. 
The enterprise having been accom- 
plished, he settled in Philadelphia, and 
devoted his time and energies to the 



German population in the northeastern 
part of the city. The effort was crowned 
with remarkable success, and the result 
was the organization of the large and 
prosperous congregation of St James, 
and the speedy erection of a beautiful 
and substantial church edifice. But his 
physical strength was found inadequate 
for so extensive a field ; he therefore 
withdrew, that another might enter into 
his labors. He did not, however, retire 
to rest. His active habits would not 
permit him to remain unemployed. He 
cheerfully yielded to the wishes of the 
Lutheran Board of Publication, and un- 
dertook a general agency and superin- 
tendance of its interests. His services, 
so faithfully rendered, have identified 
his name permanently with this institu- 
tion. He visited many of our churches, 
interested in the work pastors and people 
whose confidence and affection he en- 
joyed in a high degree, collected funds, 
suggested and secured the publication of 
some of the most valuable and popular 
books the society has issued, and con- 
tinued its general superintendent till 
his death; remained in the position by 
the unanimous wish of the board, even 
when the state of his health allowed him 
to give to the work only his wise and 
and faithful counsels. During the last 
two years of his life, when able to travel 
through the Church, he was anxious to 
serve his Master by preaching the Gos- 
pel, and for a season, feeble as he was, 
regularly performed missionary labor 
for a German congregation at German- 
town. Until the last, the master-spirit 
of his life was strong; the desire of his 
heart was to be useful; to labor for the 
advancement of the great work to which, 
in his early years, he had consecrated 
his powers. He died July 2, 1864, in 



408 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



the seventy-first year of his age, and 
after a service of fifty years in the Gos- 
pel ministry. They laid his remains in 



the cemetery of St. Michael's church, 
Germantown, once the scene of his 
active labors. — Morris. 




EEV. EZRA KELLEE, D.D. 



Ezra Keller was born near Middletown, 
Md., May 12th, 1812. He entered 
Pennsylvania College in 1830; became 
President of Wittenberg College in 1845; 
died December 29th, 1848, in his 37th 
year. 

Into so few years was compressed the 
work of Dr. Keller's mortal life. It is 
difficult to realize this, to one considering 
how large a place he occupies and how 
prominent a name he has as the founder 
of Wittenberg College. It might occur 
to some that perhaps his work was not 
so important as those about him were 
led to regard it and as it looks to be in 
the distance; that his name and fame 
are due to his circumstances and not to 
his intrinsic qualities. For it is often 
true that an ordinary man gets reputation 
from factitious surroundings, from sec- 
tarian emphasis laid upon him, or from 
a cunning skill in pushing himself into 
notice. But, however true this may be 
sometimes, it is not true in any of these 



particulars as it respects Ezra Keller. 
There was no putting forward of himself; 
he was an unpretentious man; taking the 
lower seat, and going up higher only as 
the Master called him. 

He was not lifted into eminence by 
sectarian zeal, for there was not enough 
sectarian zeal in his denomination to 
emphasize him or any one else. Hc^ 
was, indeed, praised more highly by 
people of other denominations than by 
those of his own. When the professors 
of Lane, Presbyterian, Theological Sem- 
inary visited Springfield, at the request 
of the New England Society for the aid 
of western Colleges, to inspect Witten- 
berg College and make report to said 
Society, they not only spoke favorably 
of the spirit and prospects of the new 
institution, but look occasion especially 
to speak highly of Dr. Keller. Other 
instances might be cited of like high 
estimate of him by others than his own 
particular people. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



409 



Nor was Dr. Keller rendered note- 
worthy simply by tlie fact of his having 
been the founder and first President of 
an institution that has since become 
great. Things that become great are 
not started by small men. Wittenberg 
College began as all things begin, that 
rise to a great future; it had, as all such 
things have at their beginning, the 
proper man Providentially fit to plant 
it and stand by it in its early years. 
Wittenberg College came not of any 
"private interpretation." It was moved 
in the hearts of a people who were just 
waking into a sense of their educational 
wants in this country, and ot* their 
crying need of an educational center in 
the west. Wittenberg College came in 
answer to that cry. It was begotten of 
the creative breath of God that was 
refreshing the hearts of the people, and 
the same creative breath filled and lifted 
into view the man to be at the head of it 
and carry it forward into fact. The one 
so chosen could not be other that an 
uncommon man. He was greatly open 
and responsive to the spirit of God. He 
was a man of unusual mold. Not 
physically. Most of the extant portraits 
of him make him appear to have been 
of large frame and ultra-severe brow, 
and in so far are incorrect. He was not 
physically tall nor broad. His weight 
did not exceed 140 pounds. But there 
was in him a gravity, strength of purpose, 
sincerity, natural wisdom, and an aggres- 
sive force that would have made him a 
marked man even if he had not had all 
these and other qualities enlarged and 
quickened by the spirit of the Master 
whom he so devotedly served. He pos- 
sessed an unusual combination of natural 
and spiritual qualities that fitted him 
for extraordinary things. And what his 
hand found to do he did with his might. 
Whatever work he had to do he took to 
his heart. It lay on his soul like the 
52 



"burden" of a prophet, and he rose under 
it with all the strength he had. No past 
estimate of him has been too great. No 
most careful analysis of the man and of 
the work he did, both before and during 
his connection with Wittenberg College, 
will reduce him to a lower place. He 
was capable of doing much in his short 
life and had the heart to undertake it; 
and he had that about him that made 
the churches turn to him and put im- 
portant work into his hands. 

Already while he was yet a student at 
the Theological Seminary, an extra- 
ordinary mission was put upon him. 
The scattered and spiritually destitute 
condition of the Lutheran people in 
what was then the "far west" was giving 
serious thought to the churches in the 
east. The Pennsylvania Synod decided 
to send an exploring missionary to visit 
the States of Indiana, Illinois and 
Missouri, and they appointed young 
Keller to the work. They had come to 
know enough of him to feel that he had 
the fit qualities for the arduous under- 
taking. It was as unexpected as it was 
unsolicited by him. He accepted the 
appointment, but wrote in his journal: 
"I somewhat dread the mission." He 
prepared for it at once, and e:ave to it 
six months, from September, 1836, to 
February, 1837, inclusive. Of his extra- 
ordinary labors and the perils of that 
mission tour, there is not room here to 
write, but he more than met the expecta- 
tions of those that sent him. In the 
close of his reports, he said: "The results 
of this mission, which cost me so much 
toil and anxiety of mind, eternity alone 
can reveal." The effect of the tour 
upon himself was to develop his native 
magnanimity of soul, but the extremities 
to which he was subjected, not im- 
probably, made some rents in his bodily 
health that never closed, and that helped 
to make him an early victim of death. 



410 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



During the following year, while at 
Taney town, Md., he was compelled to 
cease preaching for six months, owing 
largely to the effects of his severe ex- 
posure in the west. 

Hg continued in the pastoral office till 
May, 1844, about seven years. At that 
date he came to Wooster, O., to enter 
upon the duties of the Professorship in 
Theology which he had accepted. The 
following year the institution was re- 
moved to Springfield in obedience chiefly 
to the judgment of Professor Keller. 
He was first selected solely to be teacher 
of theology, but by the time he had been 
on the ground some months and Spring- 
field had been made the location of the 
school, he yielded to the repeated solici- 
tation of the Board and became Presi- 
dent. Another that had been chosen 
for the position failed to come, and it 
had, in the meantime, become thoroughly 
manifest that he was the proper head of 
the institution. 

The few short years that remained to 
his shining light before it went out in 
the darkness of the grave, constitute to 
those who know it a wonderful record. 
It cannot be recounted here. 

Dr. Keller had exceeding power as 
a preacher. He had a soul on fire with 
the love of Jesus Christ and of men. 
When he could not preach he ceased to 
be happy. In this work he had the 
ardor of an apostle. He had wonderful 
power in the scriptural handling of a 
subject. His [preaching was plain and 
practical, but highly attractive to 
thoughtful men. 

Zealous as Dr. Keller was in his 
ministry, he was not narrow in the line 
of his work or in his sympathies. He 
was deeply interested in the progress of 
religious work in all the different de- 
nominations. 

The affairs of our country had a large 
place in his thought. Though a citizen 



of a slave state, he was decidedly opposed 
to slavery. While on his mission tour 
he became acquainted at Alton, Illinois, 
with Lovejoy, who was afterwards killed 
by a pro-slavery mob; and when he 
heard of his murder, he lamented him 
in the language of David's lament of 
Jonathan. He had formed a high 
estimate of Lovejoy 's noble qualities. 

Dr. Keller was also one of the foremost 
of his time in the cause of temperance. 
The frequent entries in his journal 
upon this subject show how deeply its 
iniquities stirred his soul. 

On December 14th, 1842, he notes the 
fact that it was Thanksgiving Day in 
Maryland, and it was the first appoint- 
ment of the kind ever made by the 
governor of that State. Nothing oc- 
curred in the wide field of public 
interests, indicative of progress, that 
did not catch his eye. His view of the 
Christian religion was, that it was the 
power of God for the advancing of all 
the interests of humanity in the church, 
the state, and in society. He was a 
man whose great soul was absorbed in 
getting Christ's work done in the world. 
He was unselfishly devoted to this. He 
made no effort to advance himself. He 
never sought a call from a congregation 
for the glory of having the fact published, 
wheQ it was, perhaps, never intended to 
be accepted. Indeed, he adopted the 
rule of Spener: "To make no efforts to 
enter a new pastoral charge; and not to 
regard it as a divine call unless it came 
without his seeking." 

A sketch of Dr. Keller's life intended 
for a college work must make some 
reference to his experience in getting 
an education. Impelled by powerful 
conviction of his duty to study for the 
purpose of fitting himself to preach the 
gospel, he sought the consent of his 
father. The history of his life for about 
a year at this point is very sorrowful. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



411 



The struggle of his soul between his 
deep sense of duty and the angry 
opposition of his father gave him great 
distress; but his "spirit became fixed 
on the work" before him. His father 
disowned him and did not become 
reconciled to him until nearly ten years 
afterward; but from that on, in his last 
days, he could not have enough of his 
son's society. When young Keller set 
out to college, he traveled on foot, and 
arrived at Gettysburg on the second day 
with "fifty cents in money, a scanty 
supply of clothing and a few books." 
To trace his ascending course through 
college would carry this sketch too far. 
It was no young fanatic that had 
wildly broken with his father; but it 
was a great soul, in which the spirit of 
God moved like the winds upon the 



deep. The young man had read himself 
aright. Never in his life did he show 
the wisdom of his judgment, or his 
willingness to do sacrifice, more than in 
his steadfast course "right onward" to 
fit himself for the work to which he felt 
himself called. 

Dr. Keller's moral qualities were 
perhaps greater than the intellectual, 
but this does not mean that in the latter 
he was ordinary. He was much more. 
He had very sensitive susceptibilities to 
the beautiful in nature. Many passages 
showing his descriptive powers might 
be ci ted from his journal. He had much 
of Wordsworth's enjoyment of a starry 
night, though in him there was a sense 
of solemn sadness which that poet did 
not have. — Hist. Wittenberg College. 



EEY. EMANUEL KELLEE. 



Emanuel Keller, a son of Peter and 
Catherine (Schaeffer) Keller, was born 
at Harrisburg, Pa., Sept. 30, 1801. En- 
joying the advantages of a Christian 
education, he was early brought under 
the influence of religious truth, and 
gave evidence of having experienced a 
spiritual renovation. His thoughts and 
desires were early turned to the Chris- 
tian ministry. He commenced his clas- 
sical studies under the direction of his 
uncle, the Eev. Benjamin Keller, and 
subsequently studied as a student of 
Dickinson College, though his name 
does not appear on the list of graduates. 
He pursued the study of Divinity with 
his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Lochman, and, 
in the year 1826, was inducted into the 
sacred office by the Synod of Pennsyl- 
vania. The first year of his ministry he 
labored at Manchester, Md. Thence he 
removed to Mechanicsburg, where he 
continued his labors without interrup- 
tion until a short time before his death, 



when his health had become so feeble 
that he was obliged to resign his charge. 
He died April 11, 1837, in the thirty- 
sixth year of his age, and was buried in 
the graveyard connected with Trindle 
Spring Church, by the side of his two 
sons who had died before him. Two 
discourses were delivered at his funeral, 
— the one by the Eev. D. Gottwald, from 
the words, — "Henceforth there is laid 
up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give me at that day;" and the 
other, by the Eev. J. Ulrich, from the 
text, — "Well done, good and faithful 
servant; thou hast been faithful over a 
few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things; enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord." 

On April 14, 1825, Mr. Keller was 
married to Sabfna Seltzer of Harris- 
burg, Pa. They had five children. — 
Sprague, 



412 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEY. THOMAS W. KEMP. 



Eev. Thomas W. Kemp, son of Col. 
Lewis Kemp, was born in Frederick Co., 
Md., Dec. 2, 1834: His childhood and 
youth was spent in the city of Baltimore, 
where he enjoyed the best advantages 
for mental improvement. In his fifteenth 
year he entered the preparatory depart- 
ment of Pennsylvania College, but an 
injury which he sustained from an 
accident, led to his temporary with- 
drawal from the institution, and, for a 
time, he continued the prosecution of 
his studies in Baltimore, under the 
instruction of Dr. Webster. In 1851 
he returned to College, and was graduated 
in 1853. He immediately commenced 
his theological course, part of the time 
pursuing his studies under the direction 
of Drs. Morris, Seiss, and Webster, and 
the other part in the Theological Sem- 
inary at Gettysburg. He was licensed 
to preach the Gospel by the synod of 
Maryland, in 1855, and was, for a season, 
associated with Rev. Dr. Stork, in the 
pastoral work of St. Mark's Church, 
Philadelphia. In the spring of 1856 
he was appointed by the Executive 
Committee of the Home Missionary 
Society, to take charge of a mission 
church in Chicago, 111. Here he labored 
faithfully and successfully for nearly a 
year, when the climate proving un- 



friendly to his health, compelled him to 
resign his position. In June, 1858, he 
sailed for Europe, in the hope of resus- 
citating his health. Spending the sum- 
mer, autumn and winter in Germany, 
France and Switzerland, the spring of 
1859, was passed through Italy, crossing 
the Mediterranean into Egypt, thence to 
Palestine and other countries; returning 
again to Europe, he remained for some 
time at the university at Berlin. He land- 
ed in New York, December, 1859. On his 
return he preached occasionally, and 
delivered several lectures on the Holy 
Land with great acceptance. He was 
also engaged in the preparation of a 
narrative of his foreign tour for publica- 
tion, which work was, however, never 
completed. On the 18th of Sept., 1861, 
in the city of Frederick, he gently 
passed away, full of hope, and with 
unswerving confidence in Him in whom 
he trusted for salvation, leaving the 
clearest and most decided testimony to 
the preciousness of Christ and His 
gospel. Gifted by nature, a man of 
more than ordinary culture, of a pure 
character, and earnest piety. Mr. Kemp 
won all who approached him, and excited 
the fondest expectations in reference to 
his future career. — The Lutheran and 
Missionary. 




KEY. ERNST G. W. KEIL. 



Rev. Ernst Gerhard Wilhelm Keyl 
was born in Leipzig, Saxony, May 22, 
1804. He graduated from the Nicolai 
Gymnasium and University of his na- 
tive city. Soon after his graduation 
he received a call from a congregation 
in Niederfrohna, near Penig, in Saxony, 



where he entered upon his pastoral 
duties on the ninth Sunday after Trinity, 
1829. In a brief biographical sketch of 
Rev. Keyl by Dr. Walther, in the Luther- 
aner, the latter tells us of a visit he made 
to Keyl's church at Niederfrohna, while 
a student in the year 1830, to hear this 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



413 



man who had obtained such a favorable 
reputation for his earnest piety and 
powerful preaching. Dr. Walther says 
that it seemed as if the whole cougrega- 
tion was in tears, and he received a 
deeper impression of Keyl's sermon, 
than any other sermon he had heard 
before. Rev. Keyl's labors in Nieder- 
frohna were attended with marked bles- 
sings and success, especially in awaken- 
ing the multitudes, who came to hear 
his earnest preaching, to a sober Chris- 
tian life. At one time he became warmly 
attached to pastor Stephan, of Dresden, 
whose influence upon him did not have 
the very best effect either for Keyl him- 
self or his work, which he frankly con- 
fessed as soon as he learned to know 
what Stephan really was. Mr. Keyl, 
with one hundred and nine persons, 
mostly of his own congregation at 
Niederfrohna, joined the company of 
persecuted Saxons, who, in 1838, emi- 
grated to America under the leadership 
of pastor Stephan. He left the German 
port Bremerhafen, on board the 
Johann Georg, Nov. 3, 1838, and arrived 
at New Orleans Jan. 5, 1839. On the 
passage it was the duty of Keyl, by 
order of Pastor Stephan, to minister to 
the spiritual wants of the passengers on 
board the Johann Georg. On Feb. 9, 
1839, he arrived at St. Louis, Mo., where 
the entire company of about seven hun- 
dred persons met, according to agree- 
ment, before they embarked for America. 
Mr. Keyl was one of the first to advo- 
cate the ill-reputed "Declaration of 
Submission," which Pastor Stephan had 
caused to be drawn up upon the steamer 
"Selma," and which he (Stephan) had 
signed, by way of an oath, by all the 
men and women of the company on the 
passage up the Mississippi. Concerning 
his regard for Pastor Stephan, Mr. Keyl 
tells the following incident: During the 
passage up the Mississippi, a young per- 



son revealed to Pastor Keyl under four 
eyes tbat he feared that Pastor Stephan 
lived in secret carnal sins. At this Mr. 
Keyl became highly indignant, as if he 
had heard a blasphemy of God, and 
smote the young person in the face, 
warning him from harboring such wicked 
thoughts against such a holy man, who 
had suffered so much for Christ's sake. 
In April, 1839, Mr. Keyl, with a con- 
siderable number of the other emigrants, 
removed to Perry Co., about one hundred 
miles from St. Louis, where they bought 
several thousand acres of land and 
settled. Here Mr. Keyl organized a 
congregation mostly of those who had 
accompanied him from his old charge at 
Niederfrohna, which he called "Frohna." 
A very bitter> doctrinal struggle soon 
arose among the emigrants in which Mr. 
Keyl at first stood on Pastor Stephan's 
side; but when he learned to know the 
real character of the so-called Bishop 
Stephan, he made an open and frank 
confession of his sad mistake. Mr. 
Keyl served this small Frohna congre- 
gation and shared its trials for about 
eight years, when, in 1847, he received 
and accepted a call from a congregation 
in Freistadt, and from the Evangelical 
Lutheran Trinity church at Milwaukee, 
Wis. At that time this large city num- 
bered about 9,000 inhabitants. Mr. 
Keyl arrived here with his family Oct. 7, 
1847. When the Evangelical Lutheran 
Sfc. Paul's church at Baltimore, Md., be- 
came vacant by the removal of Pastor 
Wyneken to St. Louis, in 1849, Mr. Keyl 
received a call from this church, which 
he accepted, preaching his farewell ser- 
mon in Milwaukee, June 23, 1850, and 
on July 14, 1851, he held his inaugural 
sermon at Baltimore. In this field Rev. 
Keyl labored with indefatigable devo- 
tion for nineteen years. He then 
accepted a call from Willshire, O., where 
he was installed by Dr. Sihler Sept. 26, 



414 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



1869, which he served until late in the 
fall of 1871, when he laid down the 
ministry, being sixty-seven years old 
and quite enfeebled. 

Mr. Keyl was married three times. 
His first wife was Miss Ernestine 
Amalia Walther, to whom he was mar- 
ried Nov. 15, 1836. She was a sister of 
Rev. Otto Hermann Walther and Dr. C. 
F. W. Walther. Four children was the re- 
sult of this union; two sons and two 
daughters. His first wife died May 23, 
1842. In 1843 he was married to Miss 



I Kathrina Popp, who died Sept. 30, 1845. 
In 1846 he was married to Miss Sophia 
Amalia Yogel. Mr. Keyl died Aug. 4, 
1872, at Monroe, Mich., whither he had 
removed after he had retired from the 
ministry. 

Mr. Keyl is the author of the ^'Predigt- 
entwuerfe ueber die Sonn- und Festtags- 
Evangelica aus Dr. Luther's Predigten 
und Auslegungen." He is also the author 
of Katechisniusauslegung aus Dr. Luth- 
er's Schriften und den Symbolischen 
Buechern." Four volumes. 




REY. F. TRAUGOTT KOERNER. 



The Rev. Fr. Traugott Koerner was 
born in New York City in 1845, where 
he attended the German Evangelical 
Parochial School of the Holy Trinity. 
His parents soon after moved to St. 
Louis, where he attended a parochial 
school until he reached the age of 
thirteen years. He then went to the 
college in Fort Wayne which is connected 
with the Missourian Synod. From there 
he went to the Concordia Seminary in 
St. Louis to prepare himself for the 
ministry, and completed his studies 1865. 
The first position he accepted was as 
assistant pastor of the Church of the 
Holy Trinity, in New York City, where 
he went to school before his parents 
moved to St. Louis. He only remained 
there for one year and then accepted a 



call to Harlem, where he became pastor 
of St. Johannes' Church. Two years 
later he went to Middle Yillage and 
Winfield, L. I., to remain there up to 
1871. His next pastorate was at St. 
Paul's Church, where the Rev. Mr. 
Strodach ofiiciated. In 1875 certain 
difiiculties arose among the congregation 
and the pastor concluded to organize 
a new congregation, which he called 
Emanuel Church. Pastor Koerner be- 
longs to the Missourian Synod and is a 
member of the Board of Managers of 
the Evangelical Lutheran Hospital in 
East New York and also of the Wart- 
burg Home for Aged People in East 
New York, and a member of the mission 
among the Jews in New York City. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



415 



KEY. DAYID J. KOONTZ. 



It may not be generally known tliat 
there is one synod of colored Lutherans 
in the United States. This is found in 
the state of North Carolina and was or- 
ganized in the old historical St. Joha's 
Church, Cabarrus Co., N. C, seven 
miles from Concord and twenty miles 
from Charlotte. It was organized by 
the sanction and under the auspices of 
the North Carolina Synod, by a com- 
mittee consisting of Revs. W. G. Camp- 
bell, F. W. E. Peschau, Geo. H. Cox, 
and T. S. Brown. It was organized 
May 8, 1889, at 11.30 a. m., in the Coun- 
cil Room of St. John's Church, while 
the North Carolina Synod was in ses- 
sion, and assumed the name of The 
Alpha Synod of the Evangelical Luth- 
eran Church of Freedmen in America. 
The organization thereof ip recorded in 
the minutes of the eighty-sixth conven- 
tion of the North Carolina Synod, as 
follows: 

"Report of Committee to organize col- 
ored Evangelical Lutheran Synod. — 
We, your Committee, appointed to or- 
ganize the Colored Evangelical Luther- 
an Synod, met in the council room of 
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran con- 
gregation, Cabarrus County, N. C, 
Wednesday, May 8, 1889, at 1L30 A. m. 
Rev. W. G. Campbell, the chairman, 
called the committee to order. Rev. 
Geo. H. Cox was elected secretary. 
After prayer by Rev. F. W. E. Peschau, 
the colored brethren were organized 
and constituted under the name and 
title of 'The Alpha Synod of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church of Freedmen 
in America.' 

The constitution of the North Caro- 
lina Synod was then adopted as the 
constitution of this Synod. Rev. David 
J. Koontz was then elected president; 



Licentiate W. P. Phifer, recording and 
corresponding secretary; Rev. Samuel 
Holt, treasurer." 

The^rs^ president of the ^rs^ colored 
Lutheran Synod of the United States, 
and as far as we know, in the world, 
was Rev. David James Koontz, who had 
been ordained by the North Carolina 
Synod in 1880, and was a faithful, hon- 
orable and honored member thereof, un- 
til the formatoin of the Alpha Synod. 

Pastor Koontz was born in Davidson 
county, N. C, in the year 1846. He 
was a slave and belonged to a Lutheran 
family, whose name he bore with pleas- 
ure and pride, as hundreds and thous- 
ands of slaves have done all over the 
sunny Southland. He was baptized by 
a white Lutheran pastor, and in due 
time was confirmed by Rev. W. A. 
Julian, now an honored member of the 
South Carolina Synod, who also in- 
stalled him as pastor of the Pleasant 
Grove Church, which is the first colored 
Lutheran Church the North Carolina 
Synod organized and received. 

Rev. W. A. Julian and Rev. Dr. G. 
D. Bernheim assisted him in his studies 
and prepared him for the ministry, and 
these brethren deserve the credit of 
having furnished the first colored syn- 
od its first president. 

President Koontz was a strong Luth- 
eran and labored most earnestly and 
faithfully amid discouragements that 
would have crushed the hopes and 
stopped the work of many an other man. 
Other denominations tried hard, but in 
vain, even with tempting offers, to win 
him away from the Lutheran Church, 
but he remained true and firm to the 
last. Serving one little band of colored 
Lutherans for years amid the almost 
overwhelming and powerful influences 



416 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



of other denominations, he ever kept a 
brave and courageous heart, and mani- 
fested a kind and pleasant spirit. 

He was, considering the limited ad- 
vantages he enjoyed, quite a good, plain, 
practical preacher. Preaching once at 
night during the sessions of the North 
Carolina Synod, he won the admiration 
of all who heard him. 

He laid the foundation of the various 
congregations that constitute the Alpha 
Synod and to his great joy lived to see 
two young men whom he had baptized, 
instructed and confirmed in the Luth- 
eran ministry. One of these is Candidate 
A. M. Parks, at present teaching in the 
West, and the other Rev. W. P. Phifer 
is the Secretary of the Alpha Synod 
and Pastor of St. Paul's colored Church, 
Charlotte, N. C, where he is doing a 



good work. Both of these young men 
are graduates of Howard University, 
AVashington, D. C, and are young men 
of promise. 

Unfortunately Pastor Koontz died 
suddenly and unexpectedly in Concord, 
N. C, May 27, 1890, in the forty- 
fifth year of his life, dying all too soon 
according to human view, as he was so 
much needed among his people. He 
was serving the Concord Mission at the 
time of his death. The whole com- 
munity deplored the death of this humble, 
quiet. God-fearing man. He lies buried 
in the old Lutheran Cemetery at Concord 
to await the resurrection morn. 

He was truly a good and holy man, an 
honor to his race and a faithful minister 
in our dear great Lutheran Zion. P. 







REV. ULRIK Y. KOREN. 



Rev. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren was born 
in Bergen, Norway, Dec. 22, 1826, and 
received his education at the college in 
that city and at the University of Chris- 
tiania, from whose school of Divinity he 
graduated in 1852. The following year 



he emigrated to America, where he had 
accepted a call as minister in the neigh- 
borhood of Decorah, la., and although 
he has several times received calls to 
other places, he has remained where he 
first located. His charge at first com- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



417 



prised a large territory, as he was the 
first Norwegian Lutheran minister west 
of the Mississippi, but it has since been 
divided into a great many charges. Rev. 
Koren is one of the pioneers in the 
West, and he had to undergo all the 
hardshii^s so familiar to the early settlers. 

A little earlier in the same year in 
which Rev. Koren came to America, the 
i^orwegian Lutheran Synod was organ- 
ized, in whose affairs he has taken a 
most prominent and conspicuous j)art. 
Since 1861 he has been a member of the 
Church Council or the executive board 
of the Synod, and since 1876, when the 
Synod was divided into districts, he has 
been the president of the Iowa district. 

Rev. Koren was most active in 
securing the location of the Lutheran 
College at Decorah in 1861, and ever 
since he has taken great interest in this 
institution, and, outside those most di- 
rectly connected with this school, he has 
probably done more to make it prosx)er 
than any other man. His culture and 
attainments, his intellio-ent interest in 



the Synod's institutions of learning, his 
enthusiasm and earnestness, his elo- 
quent defense in speech and in print of 
what he has conceived to be the truth, 
and the missi(3n of the Synod, to which 
he has devoted his life, has made him 
the most prominent of Norwegian Luth- 
erans in this country. 

His published writings consist of a 
number of articles in the religious pa- 
pers of the Synod, and as the student of 
the history of the Norwegian Lutherans 
in this country will readily understand, 
these articles are mostly of a polemical 
character. For this reason, when an 
attack has been made on the Synod by 
its opponents, most of their missiles have 
been directed against him as the most 
conspicuous champion of the Norwegian 
Synod. 

His great gifts as a preacher and the 
devotion and God-inspired energy in his 
work, which has gone on unceasingly 
for more than a generation, have won for 
him the lasting esteem and love of the 
members of his charo^e. 




REY. C. P. KRaUTH, Sr., D.D. 



The older Dr. Krauth was born ir 
Montgomery county, Pa., May 7, 1797. 
His father- was a native of Germany, 
ai]d came to tins country as a young 
man, in the capacity of a school teacher 
and a church organist. His mother was 
a Pennsylvanian. They lived in New 
York, Pennsylvania, and in Baltimore, 
Md., also for many years in Virginia, 
highly respected and enjoying the con- 
fideLce of their neighbors. Of his early 
life comparatively little is known in 
consequence of his singular and habitual 
reticence with regard to himself. He 
seems to have been from, a youth of an 
53 



enquiring turn of mind and fond of 
books. He early evinced a decided 
taste for linguistic studies, and, in the 
prosecution of the Latin, Greek, and 
French, won for himself high credit. 
Having selected medicine as his pro- 
fession, he commenced its study when 
about eighteen years of age, under the 
direction of Dr. Selden, of Norfolk, Ya., 
and subsequently attended a course of 
lectures in tfie University of Maryland. 
But his funds having become exhausted, 
he visited Frederick, Md., with the view 
of procuring pecuniary aid from an 
uncle, the organist of the Lutheran 



418 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




EEV. C. P. KKAUTH, SR., D. D. 



church, or of negotiating a loan for 
the completion of his medical studies. 
During a visit to Rev. D. F. Schaeffer, 
of Frederick, his mind was led to the 
conclusion that the ministry was the 
work to which God had called him. 
He very soon commenced his theolog- 
ical studies under the instructions of 
Rev. Dr. SchaefiPer, and, at every step 
of his progress, was the more strongly 
convinced that he was acting in accord- 
ance with the Divine will. 

Whilst he was engaged at Frederick 
in the prosecution of his studies, in the 
year 1818, Rev. Abraham Reck, of 
Winchester, Ya., who was in feeble 
health, wrote to Dr. Schaeffer, inquiring 
if he could not send him a theological 
student to aid him in the discharge of 
his laborious duties. In compliance 
with his request, Dr. Schaeffer sent 
young Mr. Krauth, who continued his 
studies under the direction of Pastor 
Reck, and assisted hira in preaching the 
gospel and performing other pastoral 
labor. He studied under Mr. Reck one 
year, and the testimony of his preceptor 
is that he showed great comprehension 



of mind, and was a most successful 
student. 

Mr. Krauth was licensed to preach 
the gospel by the Synod of Pennsylvania, 
at its meeting in Baltimore in 1819. 
His first pastoral charge embraced the 
united churches of Martinsburg and 
Shepherdstown, Ya , where he labored 
for several years modt efficiently and 
successfully. It was at a district con- 
ference, held in the church at Martins- 
burg, whilst Mr. Krauth was pastor, 
that the enterprise of a theological 
seminary, in con nection with the Gen eral 
Synod, originated, and the first funds 
towards the ob j ect contributed. He was, 
iu 1826, elected a member of its first 
Board of Directors. In 1827 he received 
and accepted a call to St. Matthew's 
congregation, recently organized in 
Philadelphia. 

The removal of Mr. Krauth to Phila- 
delphia, in 1827, marks a new epoch, 
not only in the history of our English 
Lutheran interests in that city, but of 
his own life. Brought into new associa- 
tions, surrounded by active, earnest, 
living men, with large libraries at his 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



419 



command, the best books on all subjects 
accessible, new powers seemed to be 
awakened within him, new energies were 
developed. As a scholar, a theologian, 
and a preacher, he rapidly advanced, 
and made a deep impression upon the 
community. At first he encountered 
some opposition from the German 
churches in the prejudices which existed, 
even at that day, against the introduction 
of the English language into the services 
of the sanctuary, but this all vanished 
when his character and object were 
better understood. Dr. Krauth remained 
in Philadelphia six years, and during 
the whole period, enjoyed the highest 
reputation as a pastor and a preacher, 
gathering around him a large and 
devoted congregation, and accomplishing 
an amount of good that can scarcely be 
estimated. 

In the year 1833, when Dr. Hazelius 
resigned his professorship in the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Gettysburg, the 
attention of the Board of Directors was 
at once turned to Mr. Krauth as the 
man best qualified for the position. As 
a Hebraeist he had not at the time, in 
the Church, his superior, the result of 
his own earnest indefatigable application. 
He was unanimously chosen Professor 
of Biblical and Oriental Literature. It 
was agreed that part of his time should 
be devoted to instruction in Pennsyl- 
vania College, with the understanding 
that so soon as the proper arrangements 
could be made his duties should be 
entirely confined to the Theological 
Seminary. 



Professor Krauth was unanimously 
elected President of Pennsylvania Col- 
lege in the spring of 1834 The duties 
of this ofiice he faithfully performed for 
nearly seventeen years, during most of 
the time also giving instruction in the 
Theological Seminary. 

In the autumn of 1850, yet in the 
vigor of manhood, he relinquished with 
great satisfaction, the anxious, toilsome, 
and often ungrateful work of the College 
Presidency, for the more quiet, congenial 
and pleasant duties of theological in- 
struction. For five years, during his 
connection with the seminary, he also 
served with great acceptance as pastor of 
the congregation with which the in- 
stitutions are united. He continued his 
duties in the Theological Seminary until 
the close of life, delivering his last 
lecture to the senior class within ten 
days of his death, the subject, by a 
singular and interesting co-incidence, 
being the Resurrection. He died May 
30, 1867, in the 71st year of his age, 
and the 49th of his ministry. The 
honorary degree of D. D. was, by a 
unanimous vote, conferred upon him by 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1837. 

His published writings are: '"Works 
of Melanchthon," "The General Synod," 
"Early History of the Lutheran Church," 
"Schmidt's Dogmatic," "The Lutheran 
Church in the United States," "Present 
Position of the Lutheran Church," 
"Contributions to the History of 
Church," "Luther and Melanchthon," 
"German Language," "Henry Clay," 
"Baptism." — Morris. 




420 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. C. P. KEAUTH, Jk., D.D., LL.D. 



The ancestors of Dr. Charles Porter- 
field Krauth, on his father's side, were 
of German descent. His grandfather, 
Charles J. Krauth, came to this country 
as a young man before the close of the 
last century, and became teacher and 
organist in the service of the German 
Eeformed church. He was married to 
Catharine Doll, a Lutheran. When re- 
siding in Montgomery Co., Pa., their 
son Charles Phillip was born. May 7, 
1797. The parents afterwards removed, 
first to York, then to Baltimore, then to 



Lynchburg, Ya., where both died, the 
father in 1821, the mother in 1823. The 
son, Charles Phillip, at first studied 
medicine, but afterwards entered the 
ministry, having been licensed by the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania at Balti- 
more in 1819. His first charge was at 
Martinsburg, Ya., having also the care 
of Shepherdstown. While resident at 
Martinsburg, he was married, December, 
1S20, to Catharine Susan Heiskell, of 
Staunton, Ya., a ladyof English descent, 
whose family were persons of culture 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



421 



and prominence in xlugiista Co. There 
were two children of this marriage, 
Julia Heiskell, who became the wife of 
Rev. O. A. Kinsolving, an Episcopal 
clergyman, and Charles Portertield. 

Charles Porterfield Krautli was born 
March 17, 1823, at Martinsbnrg, the 
county seat of Berkeley Co., Ya. His 
mother died in January, 1824, and he 
was taken to her home at Staunton by 
Mrs. Heiskell, his grandmother and re- 
mained with her until after his father 
became pastor of St. Matthew's church 
in Philadelphia, and was there in care 
of relatives of his father's mother, who 
bore her name, Doll. x4.t the opening 
of the school year on the third Thurs- 
day of October, 1831, being then in his 
nintli year, he was sent to Gettysburg, 
Pa., to enter as a student in the Gettys- 
burg Gymnasium, in which he remained 
for three years. The teachers in the 
Gymnasium at that time were Rev. 
Henry L. Baugher, in charge of the 
Classical department, Michael Jacobs, of 
the Mathematical and Scientific, and Dr. 
Ernest L. Hazelius gave instruction in 
Latin and German; three more admira- 
ble teachers it would be difficult to find 
in any insdtutiou. In the fall of 1832 
the Gymnasium was erected into Penn- 
sylvania College, and Mr. Ernst T. H. 
Friederici became principal of the pre- 
paratory department, though the former 
instructors, now become professors in 
the college, continued as teachers. In 
October, 1833, William M. Reynolds 
became principal, and Ezra Keller as- 
sistant teacher. These were the teach- 
ers of Charles P. Krauth before his 
entrance into college. Except Mr. 
Friederici, all of them became very 
eminent as teachers, and three of them 
were afterward presideiits of colleges. 
He was a pupil of much promise, and 
he had admirable teachers. 

In 1834 Rev. Dr. Charles Phillip 



Krauth became first president of Penn- 
sylvania College, and entered on his 
duties in October. At the same time 
his son entered the Freshman class of 
the college, going over its studies two 
years in succession, because of his ex- 
treme youth. From 1834 until 1839, he 
pursued the usual college course of 
study. His teachers in that period were 
Drs. C. P. Krauth, H. L. Baugher, M. 
Jacobs, Wm. M. Reynolds, throughout 
the whole time, and Rev. J. H. JMars- 
den, 1834-5; Herman Haupt, 1837-9; 
Dr. H. L Schmidt, 1838-9; and David 
Gilbert, M. D., 1837- 9. He was gradu- 
ated in September, 1839, with a class of 
fourteen members. He was proposed 
as a member of the Pliilomathsean 
Society, Nov. 18, 1831, and elected Nov. 
25. Whether he began the study of 
German under Dr. Hazelins or under 
Dr. H. I. Schmidt, I do not know; but 
I know that through life he honored 
and revered them both, indeed toward 
all his teachers he ever kept warm his 
affection and regard. Under the in- 
struction of Mr. Marsden, he began the 
study of botany, which through life 
was a delight to him. 

In October, 1839, he entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Gettysburg, where 
Drs. S. S. Schmucker, C. P. Krauth and 

'H. L Schmidt were the Professors. At 
the close of the two years' course then 
provided, he was graduated at the Sem- 
inary, September, 1841, made M. A. by 
the College, and was licensed to preach 
by the Synod of Maryland at Hagers- 

itown, Oct. 16, 1841, being then nineteen 
years and six months old. 

When President Krauth removed to 
Gettysburg, he w^as married to Miss 
Flarriet Brown, a resident of that place, 
and a home was again formed, in which 
the son found kindliest care. For some 
time before the completion of the College 

i building. Dr. Krauth lived on Baltimore 



422 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Street, but afterward resided in the 
College building, until he relinquished 
the Presidency. The tender kindness 
and many admirable excellencies of Mrs. 
Krauth won an affectionate regard from 
the son, which was undisturbed to the 
close of his life. 

When a student at College, Charles 
P. Krauth was known to all to possess 
brilliant and versatile talents, and high 
hopes were entertained of the future 
years of his life. We do not know that 
he was unusually diligent in pursuing 
the routine course of study, and he 
received neither of the honors of his 
class at graduation; much of his time 
and thought were occupied in ranging 
through the wide domain of literature. 
Dr. Bittinger has drawn a vivid picture 
of him in his college years; unfortunately 
Mr. Bittinger entered the preparatory 
department in the same year in which 
Mr. Krauth was graduated. 

When Mr. Krautli left the Seminary 
and entered the ministry, we have 



no 



reason to believe that his theological 
views were any other than those then 
entertained by his Professors, and prev- 
alent in the Institutions at Gettysburg 
Of the stricter Lutheran confessional 
position of later years, we do not know 
that there was then even a beginning. 

In the fall of 1841 Mr. Krauth took 
charge of a mission at Canton, a south 
east suburb of Baltimore, where he re- 
mained but a year, when he was elected 
pastor of the Second English Lutheran 
Church on Lombard St., Baltimore, and 
was installed Sept. 23, 1843. During 
the four years of his pastorate in this 
church he attained a brilliant reputation 
as a preacher. His imagination was 
capable of lofty and sustained flights, 
his literary taste and culture were 
exquisite, his dramatic powers were of 
a high order, his mind in all its faculties 
was intensely active and quick in its 



movements, and these qualifications of 
intellect and culture were enkindled, 
controlled and used by fervent devotion 
to the spiritual work of his ofiice. Sin- 
cere spiritual earnestness was so trans- 
parently evident that no doubt of it was 
raised. Large crowds gathered in at- 
tendance on the services of the church. 
But the erection of the church where it 
stood was premature, the burden of its 
debt was crushing, it was doomed to a 
severe struggle for many years, and Mr. 
Krauth resigned June 2, 1847. His first 
publication was the farewell discourse 
on the Benefits of the Pastoral OflSce, 
preached on leaving Baltimore, though 
he wrote a number of articles for the 
Observer during the absence in Europe 
of Dr. Kurtz in 1846. During these 
years his preparation for the pulpit was 
made with extreme care. He made an 
exhaustive study of Chrysostom as a 
preacher, and began with him the series 
of diligent a ad critical examinations of 
the works of the Fathers, Eeformers 
and theologians, which were so great a 
delight to himself and so rich in results 
to the church. 

While at Baltimore, he was married, 
Nov. 12, 1844, to Susan Eeynolds, 
daughter of Isaac Eeynolds and Mary 
Margaret Hoffman, with whom his 
marriage was a source of happiness 
unbroken until disturbed by the in- 
sidious steps of the disease which so 
soon removed her. 

In June, 1847, Mr. Krauth became 
pastor of the church at Shepherds town, 
Jefferson Co., Va., as successor to Eev. 
Joseph A. Seiss, who had removed to 
Cumberland, Md. In the November 
following, upon the resignation of Eev. 
John Winters, he was also elected at 
Martinsburg, and thus had the entire 
charge occupied by his father at the 
time of his own birth. The two towns 
were ten miles apart, and services were 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



423 



held on alternate Sundays, the journey 
between them being made on horseback. 
The circumstances of his life and labor 
here are very familiar to me as I suc- 
ceeded him in the pastorate, and was 
witness of the universal affection and 
admiration felt for him by the whole 
community. The charge was widely 
scattered, and its care attended with 
much waste of time, the salary was not 
extravagantly large, and Mr. Krauth 
accepted a call and removed to Win- 
chester, Ya., in March or April, 1848, 
where the church was made vacant by 
the election of Rev. Jos. Few Smith as 
Professor at Auburn Theological Semi- 
nary of the Presbyterian Church. 

At Winchester were passed some years 
which I think were the happiest of his 
life. Those years stand very distinctly 
present to my memory; we were near 
neighbors, had known each other from 
childhood, and had even inherited friend- 
ship from our fathers. I had entered 
my first pastorate as his successor at 
his recommendation. We had a standing 
agreement each to spend a week with the 
other in every three months, our corre- 
spondence was regular and intimate, I 
was under infinite obligations to him, 
and formed then an affection which 
endured till death, and was never dis- 
turbed by one word or deed in all the 
years since then. 

The life within the household had 
even an idyllic beauty and sweetness, 
was then and ever since has been, in my 
vision, as near perfectness as even the 
Christian household may well be in this 
world. The relation to the congrega- 
tion and the labor within it, elevated by 
the zeal, devotion and diligence of the 
pastor, and brightened and made happy 
by the appreciation, love and care of 
the congregation, was full of peace and 
joy. The community at Winchester 
contained an unusually large proportion 



of persons of high intellectual and social 
culture and refinement, and by them all 
Mr. Krauth was greatly admired and 
appreciated. And his own intellectual 
life was marked by incessant activity; 
he was diligently acquiring in one 
sphere after another the stores of accurate 
knowledge which afterward gave him so 
high a place of honor among scholars. 

There was at that time a delightful 
usage among some neighboring congre- 
gations in Virginia, that each semi-an- 
nual administration of the Lord's Sup- 
per should be preceded by evening- 
services for three days, in which another 
pastor assisted, remaining over Sunday, 
often closing his own church. In such 
services on sundry occasions I was 
united with him in his charge and in 
my own. On one occasion, that of the 
re-opening of the church at Winchester, 
the services continued for a week, Mr. 
Seiss, I myself and others assisting; to 
this extent protracted meetings for the 
simple, earnest administration of the 
Word and Sacraments were held in Mr. 
Krauth's time. 

An interesting question arises as to 
the time at which the change in Mr. 
Krauth's theological views took place, 
and the influences by which it was 
caused. I cannot definitely ansv/er that 
question. During his stay at Baltimore 
I had no other intercourse with him 
than during occasional meetings at Get- 
tysburg. But in 1848 and 1849 and the 
following years, when I was admitted to 
a very near intimacy, when one subject 
after another was by agreement studied 
by us both, when we compared views 
both personally and in regular corres- 
pondence, when the whole course and 
results of his studies were familiarly 
open to me, I may safely affirm^ that the 
change of view and conviction was sub- 
stantially complete. Dr. Bittinger says 
that President Krauth declared his be- 



424 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



lief that a copy of the Loci of Chemnitz 
presented by him to his son, and care- 
fully studied by him, was the starting 
point of inquiries and examinations 
which wrought the change. It may 
very well be that that great masterpiece 
of Lutheran theology, with its array of 
scriptural evidence and its clear, cogent 
argument, had great power with so 
philosox3hical and logical a mind as that 
of Dr. Krauth. But wherever the start 
may have been made, at the time of 
which I speak, he had already made 
himself familiar with much of patristic 
theology ; he was engaged in following 
the course of thought in the Church 
through the ages; he was nearly as fa- 
miliar then with the very phrases and 
statements of the Book of Concord as 
we have all known him to be in these 
later years; he was then following the 
doctrinal disputations of the Reforma- 
tion, gathering in his library the siDCcial 
literature of its different periods, and 
subjecting the whole to a most thorough 
examination, and the result at each suc- 
cessive stage of the examination was to 
confirm and deepen the conviction that 
the whole truth of the authoritative 
Word was nowhere set forth with such 
clearness, purity and fulness as in the 
collected Confessions of the Lutheran 
Church, and that in all their doctrinal 
teachings they were in conformity with 
that Word. There remained still some 
incongruous rubbish of external usage 
and observance, perhax3S some inhar- 
monious views and feelings of weightier 
moment, . to be cleared away by the 
working .outward of inner conviction; 
wider reaching and fuller knowledge 
were to be obtained by the constant 
study and x^rayer of many after years; 
but the ground on which he stood was 
then firm and remained for him un- 
shaken to the end of life. How thorough 
his study of the Confessions at this time, 



how carefully he was engaged in trac- 
ing the history of their preparation, 
and how completely his convictions 
were in accord with the Confessions, 
may be clearly seen from his article 
in the Evangelienl Rt^vieiu for October, 
1849, on "The Relation of our Confes- 
sions to the Reformation." 

At the meeting of the Synod of Vir- 
ginia soon after his removal to Win- 
chester, and the first since he left 
Baltimore, Mr. Krauth was not present, 
being prevented by the illness unto 
death of his wife's father. He was re- 
ceived into the Synod at G erman Settle- 
ment, Preston Co., May, 1849. At that 
meeting the translation of the Pennsyl- 
vania Synod's Liturgy of 1842, published 
by the General Synod in 1847, was pre- 
sented and referred to a committee for 
examination, of which committee Mr. 
Krauth was chairman; they recommend- 
ed its adoption for use, but at their 
suggostion certain changes in it were 
to be j)rox30sed to the General Synod, 
and the delegates to the meeting at 
Charleston were made the committee to 
propose them. The delegates were C. 
P. Krauth and B. M. Schmucker, who 
carefully considered those changes; and 
although the subject was not taken up 
at the meeting at Charleston, the result 
of their deliberations was afterwards 
l^resented to the Virginia Synod in an 
elaborate report. It is interesting to 
see in how far the features of the future 
Church Book were then already dis- 
tinctly before the minds of some of 
those who were afterward engaged in 
its preparation. They propose that but 
one Order be provided for each service; 
they recommend the older forms; they 
ask for the restoral of the Epistles and 
Gospels, the Apostles' and Nicene 
Creeds, and the Lord's Prayer in the 
Sunday Service; that the Augsburg 
Confession and Catechism be included, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



425 



and that tlie Liturgy be printed uni- 
formly with the hymns, so that being 
bound together, they may alike go into 
the hands of all the people. From that 
time on, and even from before that time, 
the newly awakened and ever-increasing 
love to the old distinctive doctrine and 
life of the Lutheran Church of the 
Reformation included for him a warm 
and enduring interest in the restoral of 
her ancient order of worship, and he 
made that order of worship the subject 
of extended study, and gave to the work 
of its restoral much labor for many 
years. 

The delicate and cultivated taste of 
Mr. Krauth in Christian iconography 
were exhibited in the selection and de- 
scription of the design for a seal for the 
Synod in 1851. 

He was elected as Delegate to the 
General Synod in 1848 from the Synod 
of Maryland, and in 1850, 1858, 1855, 
from the Synod of Virginia. 

The health of his wife began to yield 
before the progress of an affection of 
the lungs, and his anxiety to preserve, 
if possible, the ]precious life led him to 
start in the fall of 1852 for Santa Cruz, 
purposing to spend the winter there. 
The route led him to St. Thomas, where 
his journey was unexpectedly arrested. 
Rev. Mr. Knox, pastor of a Dutch Re- 
formed Church there, was called home 
to i^ew York by a death in his family, 
and the elders besought Mr. Krauth to 
minister to them for a few months; he 
accepted and occupied the pastor's 
house. Those winter months in that 
semi-tropical clime to so fervent a lover 
and so close an observer of nature, were 
never to be forgotton, and the Danish 
Lutheran Church in Santa Cruz, where 
they arrived in February, 1853, was also 
an object of much interest in its history, 
its worship, and its song. The hope of 
relief for Mrs. Krauth was futile; re- 
54 



turning in the spring, she lingered 
through the summer, and then died 
Nov. 18, 1853. They were detained too 
late to allow Mr. Krauth to be present 
at the meeting in his own church in 
1853, at which the Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania was received again into the 
General Synod. In May, 1855, he was 
married again, his second wife being 
Miss Virginia Baker, daughter of Jacob 
Baker of Winchester, her mother being 
the daughter of the venerated father of 
the Lutheran Church in the Valley of 
Virginia, Christian Streit. Christian 
Streit's father was one of Muhlenberg's 
warmest friends on the Raritan in New 
Jersey, and came over to Providence to 
be married by him. His son, after 
years of labor at Easton, Charleston and 
New Hanover, had settled at Winches- 
ter, founded and built up churches 
throughout a wide district, trained men 
for the ministry, established with Dr. 
Hill a female seminary, and full of 
years, of labors, and of esteem from all, 
he went to rest. His daughter's house 
had hospitably entertained all Lutheran 
ministers who journeyed past or visited 
Winchester. It was the daughter of 
this hospitable house who became Mr. 
Krauth's wife, and who now has to en- 
dure so great loss. 

We may have dwelt unduly upon the 
years of Mr. Krauth's ministry in Vir- 
ginia; but they were years of special in- 
terest in his personal, intellectual and 
theological life, and are much less well 
known to you all than the later years. 

In the fall of 1855 Mr. Krauth 
accei)ted a call to the English Lutheran 
Church at Pittsburg as successor to 
Rev. Dr. Passavant; he was installed 
February, 1856, and remained until 
October, 1859. Of his ministry there 
we have little knowledge; but that he 
won the esteem of the people and did 
well his work is conceded by all, and an 



426 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



affectionate remembrance of him still 
abides. He was received into the Pitts- 
burg Synod in 1856. There had been 
published in that year a very small 
book, entitled "Definite Synodical Plat- 
form," which made a very large disturb- 
ance. It proposed to reject and did 
actually omit certain parts from the 
Augsburg Confession, and proposed this 
mutilated Confession for acceptance by 
Synods. Against this platform Dr. 
Krauth presented to Synod an extended 
written testimony, which was approved 
by the Synod. In this year the Doc- 
torate of Divinity was conferred on him 
by his Alma Mater. During his stay 
at Pittsburg sundry occasional dis- 
courses were published, Tholuck's Com- 
mentary on John was completed, and 
preparation made for Fleming's Vocab- 
ulary. He was also a delegate to the 
General Synod in 1857 and 1859. 

In October, 1859, he took charge of 
the pastorate in St. Mark's, Philadel- 
phia, and was installed March 22, 1860. 
The congregation was then in connection 
with the East Pennsylvania Synod, the 
lines between the differing views were 
becoming more closely drawn, and the 
position of Dr. Krauth in that Synod 
was unnatural. In St. Mark's itself, 
though his views were fully known 
when he was elected, there was not en- 
tire harmony. The editorship of the 
Lutheran and Missionary was tendered to 
him, and he resigned the care of St. 
Mark's in the fall of 1861. 

The Lutheran and Home Journal had 
made its first appearance July 6, 1860; 
in its second year a union with the Mis- 
sionary of Dr. Passavant was affected, 
and of the united Lutheran and Missionary 
Dr. Krauth became editor, the first 
number appearing Oct. 31, 1861. The 
paper during the time of his editorship 
had a most important influence upon 
the course of events in the church dur- 



ing those years and many which fol- 
lowed. It was a strong tower of defence 
upon the ramparts of the church. The 
editor's pen was as mighty as the sword 
and as sharp, and fought many a battle. 
It was a two-edged sword for attack and 
defence. It was unavoidable and need- 
ful that battles should be fought; but 
the editorials did much also to instruct; 
they set forth the faith and life, the ser- 
vices and work of our church with ful- 
ness and clearness, and enkindled love 
for our church in her members, while 
led to walk about Zion, and go round 
about her; to tell the towers thereof, to 
mark well her bulwarks, and to consider 
her palaces. 

When the Ministerium determined in 
1864 to establish the Theological Semi- 
nary at Philadelphia, Dr. Krauth was 
by the unanimous vote of the Synod 
elected one of the professors, July 27. 
He was chosen by the Faculty as their 
representative to declare the views and 
purposes with which they entered on 
their work and the theological position 
occupied by the Seminary. It was on 
the 4th of October, 1864, in St. John's 
church, when as yet the seminary had 
no building, and his utterance was clear 
and pure,' loyal and true. The ad- 
dresses on that occasion are very little 
known ; they were so incorrectly printed 
that Dr. Krauth would not allow them 
to be issued. Dr. Krauth was not at 
the time of his election a member of the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania, having 
been dismissed to it by the Synod of 
East Pennsylvania, Oct. 1, 1864. 

The Theological Professorship was 
probably the position above all others 
for which Dr. Krauth was adapted, and 
which he was qualified to adorn. All 
the habits and studies of his life had 
prepared him for it, and all his acquire- 
ments were to be made useful in it. 
And of all branches of science, dogmatic 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



427 



theology and the history of doctrine was 
the one with which he was pre-eminent- 
ly fitted to grapple. Could the whole 
system of theology, as he had proposed 
and exhibited it to his classes, have 
been completely wrought out by his own 
hand, it would have been an imperish- 
able monument to his memory and of 
immeasurable benefit to the ministry of 
this and after times. But though that 
may not be, he trained in the truth more 
than two hundred men who have gone 
out to witness for Christ. In his per- 
sonal relation to the students there was 
such unaffected singleness of heart and 
thought, such humility of spirit, such 
gentleness and kindliness, that the mem- 
ory of him will ever be precious to 
them. Toward his fellow-professors his 
amenity, courtesy and affection were 
such that his place in their love and 
esteem is established forever. 

In the history of the General Council, 
both in its establishment and during 
the whole period of its existence, Dr. 
Krauth had a very prominent part. He 
was present at the separation at Fort 
Wayne; he gave to the whole course of 
the delegates and of the Synod hearty 
support; he was a member of the com- 
mittee which prepared the appeal for 
the meeting which formed the General 
Council. While he had part as counsel- 
lor in these preparatory proceedings, in 
the determination of the doctrinal prin- 
ciples and in setting them forth he had 
the chief part. He wrote the Funda- 
mental Principles of Faith and Church 
Polity on which the Council ever since 
has rested. It may well be said that no 
living man could have prepared them 
more admirably. Surrounded as the 
Council has been from the beginning by 
opposers on this side and on that, 
though they have contested almost every 
other recent thetical statement of doc- 
trine, no one has been able to show 



reasonable ground of objection to those 
Fundamental Principles. And if there 
be any fundament on which sincere 
Lutherans in this land may hereafter 
stand together, it is on these principles. 
Dr. Krauth was a member of the Com- 
mittee to prepare the Constitution of 
the Council, and it was written by him. 
He prepared the Constitution for Con- 
gregations, and it would have been well 
had he completed that for Synods. The 
extended Theses on Pulpit and Altar 
Fellowship, which have long occupied 
the attention of the Council were of his 
writing, as well as others presented to 
this ministerium. The common consent 
of the Council for ten years made him 
its president and his eminent ability in 
the presentation of the weighty subjects 
claiming attention was very manifest. 
Nowhere else has his loss been felt more 
irreparably than upon the floor of the 
Council. 

The part taken by Dr. Krauth in the 
preparation of the Church Book claims 
attention. When, in June, 1865, Drs. 
Krauth and Seiss were received into the 
Synod, they were added to the commit- 
tee. At that time the committee had 
been at work for ten years; they had 
prepared the Liturgy of 1860; they had 
been instructed in 1862 to consider the 
question of preparing a collection of 
hymns, and in 1863 proposed and were 
instructed to prepare what in its result 
was the Church Book, and its contents 
were then defined. In 1865 they had 
made and printed the provisional collec- 
tion of hymns and had done much work 
on the other parts, but there remained 
the working out, arranging and final 
completion of all the changes which the 
Liturgy of 1860 was to undergo, and the 
careful revision of the collection of 
hymns and of the text of each hymn. 
In all this work, from 1865 on, Dr, 
Krauth took an active and prominent 



428 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



part in all consultations and decisions 
in the committee, and his elaborate 
liturgical studies gave his views great 
weight both in committee and in Synod. 
His suggestions and proposals made, 
considered and adopted in the com- 
mittee were very many; but I do not re- 
member that any part of the text of that 
edition was wrought out and presented 
by him, except the versicles and a few- 
collects. In November, 1869, the Gen- 
eral Council ordered the preparation 
and insertion of the Introits and Col- 
lects for each Sunday and Festival Day, 
and a collection of Special Collects. In 
the preparation of these, Dr. Krauth 
had a very prominent part. The Sun- 
day and Festival Collects were already 
determined, and only the translation of 
a few collects needed revision; but a 
large number of the special collects were 
sought out and translated by Dr. Krauth. 
But in all the work of revision, requir- 
ing many and protracted meetings, he 
participated, and gave much time and 
labor to the work, and they were of 
great service to the Church. 

With all the heavy burdens resting 
on him, he nevertheless at divers times 
in Philadelphia labored as pastor. 
When Dr. Seiss was absent on a tour in 
Syria, he was pastor of St. John's for 
eighteen months; and again, when Dr. 
Seiss withdrew to take his present 
charge. In 1866 he had care of St. 
Stephen's, and afterwards of St. Peter's. 

He had been charged by the Church 
with the preparation of a Life of Luther. 
It was thought that in this great An- 
niversary year English literature should 
be enriched with a Life of Luther such 
as it had not yet received. The eyes of 
all turned at once, and naturally, to Dr. 
Krauth as the writer. Through his 
whole life he had closely studied all the 
scenes and all the actors in the great 
drama of the Reformation. He had so 



profound an understanding of the mind 
and life-work of the Great Reformer, so 
familiar an acquaintance with his writ- 
ings, and so enthusiastic an admiration 
and love for bim; and he himself was 
known to us all to have such brilliant 
gifts of thought, description, grouping 
and portraiture, that we allowed our- 
selves to anticipate with delight a result 
which would do high honor to the writer, 
to our American Church, and to the 
great subject of portraiture. Kind 
friends insisted on sending him to view 
the scenes of Luther's life, that he 
might behold and describe as an eye- 
witness. And he entered so heartily on 
the work. He drew with delight the 
outlines of the life. He began to ar- 
range the material which a life-time had 
gathered. He thought out and allotted 
the proportion of parts. He even began 
to write out detached scenes and parts, 
— and then the pen fell from his hands. 
But it was not alone within the 
Church that his usefulness was mani- 
fested. He occupies a position of dig- 
nity and influence in the University of 
Pennsylvania, that venerable Institution 
with which for more than a century our 
church has been so closely allied, and 
in which many of our learned ministry 
have been professors. In 1866 he was 
made a Trustee, in 1868 I*rofessor of 
Mental and Moral Philosophy, in 1873 
Vice-Provost of the University, and in 
1881 Professor of History. The Facul- 
ties of the University, after his death, 
adopted the following beautiful tribute 
to his memory: The Faculties of Arts 
and Science desire to record their pro- 
found sense of the deep loss sustained 
not only by the University, but by the 
whole republic of letters, in the sudden 
and lamentable death of Dr. Charles P. 
Krauth. During fifteen years of his 
connection with the University as Pro- 
fessor of Moral and Mental Philosophy, 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPPIIES. 



429 



and the ten years of his Yice-Provost- 
ship, we have grown in our appreciation 
of his vast erudition, the soundness of 
his judgment, his conscientious attention 
to duty, his gentleness and patience in 
his intercourse with his students and 
his associates, and his Christian consist- 
ency and humility. We feel that his 
loss is irreparable to our University, 
while we rejoice in the influence he has 
exerted over so many hundreds of our 
graduates in the direction of sound 
learning and high principle. 

We shall cherish as a precious posses- 
sion the memory of his faithfulness and 
his thoroughness in his work as a 
teacher and his abounding kindliness in 
all social and official relations. We 
extend our heartfelt sympathy to his 
family in this time of our common 
bereavement. 

William Peppeb, Provost. 
John J. G-. McElroy, See'y. 



April 27, 1857, Rev. Charles P. 
Krauth, then of Pittsburg, was constit- 
uted a Life Director of the American 
Bible Society by the Pennyslvania 
Bible Society. In May, 1875, he was 
made a member of the Committee on 
Versions, the meetings of which he 
usually attended. The Annual Report 
of the Society for 1883 says: "His large 
and varied information and his logical 
habits of thought enabled him to render 
valuable service, and his loss is sincere- 
ly mourned by the Board." A sketch 
of his life, prepared by Dr. T. W. 
Chambers, was entered on the minutes 
of the Committee and published in the 
Bible Society Record. 

May 21, 1862, he was elected a mem- 
ber of the American Oriental Society, 
and attended for the first time a meet- 
ing of the Society at Princeton, Oct. 15, 
1862, at which he read a paper. 

Oct. 21, 1864, he was elected a mem- 



ber of the American Philosophical 
Society. In January, 187Q, he was 
made a member of the Library Com- 
mittee and served on it afterward, 1874- 
1877 and 1881. The society, after his 
death, caused a memorial address to be 
read by Eev. F. A. Muhlenberg, which 
has been published. 

At the formation of the American 
Committee on the Revision of the Old 
Testament, he was made a member, and 
took part in the labors on that import- 
ant w^ork. At the meeting of the com- 
mittee, Feb. 23, 1883, a memorial 
tribute was adopted and placed upon 
record. 

He was also a member of the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society. 

The honorary degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity was conferred on him by Penn- 
sylvania College in Gettysburg in 1856, 
and that of Doctor of Laws in 1874 by 
the same institution. 

Dr. Krauth left three children: Har- 
riet Reynolds, wife of Rev. Dr. Adolph 
Spaeth, his colleague in the Faculty of 
the seminary; Charles Philip, and 
Greorge Edward. 

For several years his health had been 
growing more infirm. In 1880, in order 
to the restoral of strength, he made a 
visit to Europe. The opportunity to 
visit the scenes of Luther's life and 
labors he hoped to improve as a prepa- 
ration for the intended life of Luther. 
But the unavoidable exertion of the 
journey was beyond his strength, and 
he returned not much imi)roved. Grad- 
ually he failed. His duties at the Uni- 
versity were heavier than before, as, 
since the resignation of Provost Stille, 
he was Acting-Provost. He was scarce- 
ly able to attend to duty after the open- 
ing of the fall term in 1882. He was 
relieved of all labor in both institutions, 
but it was of no avail. January 2, 1883, 
he fell asleep in Christ. On Friday, 



430 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Jan. 5, the Trustees, Faculty and 
students of the University and of the 
Seminary, a large body of clergy, and 
very many who had given him honor 
and esteem, assembled at St. Johannes' 
Church for the sad funeral rites. Ser- 
vices at his house had been held by his 
Pastor, Rev. J. K. Plitt. The services 
at the church were conducted by Drs. 
Sadtler, Krotel, and Seiss, and Rev. H. 
Grahn. Addresses were made by Profs. 
C. W. Schaeffer and W. J. Mann, and 
the last look was taken of his mortal 
body, when the remains were entombed 
at Laurel Hill where the burial service 
was said by B. M. Schmucker. The 
pall-bearers were two Professors and 
two Trustees of the University and four 
Lutheran laymen, warm personal friends 
from Pittsburg and Philadelphia. — 
B. M. Schmucker. 



Among the many articles from Rev. 
C. P. Krauth's pen we note the following: 

Articles in the Lutheran Observer. "Private Com- 
munion," against Dr. B. Kurtz. Benefits of the Pastoral 
Office; Farewell Discourse. The Person of Christ; trans. 
Chrysostom, considered with reference to Training for 
the Pulpit. The Relation of onr Confessions to the 
Keformation, and the Importance of their Study, with 
an Outline of the Early Hihtory of the Augsburg Con- 
fession. Ham on Feet Washing. Articles of Torgau; 
trans. The Transfiguration Popular Amusements. Dr. 
Martin Luther, the German Reformer; Review of Koenig 
and Gelzer's Luther. Works of Melanchthon; Biblio- 
graphical Notice; A Review of Corpus Reformatorum. 
The Bible a Perfect Book; Discourse before Bible Soci- 
ety of Pennsylvania College and the Theological Semi- 
nary. The Church as set forth in the (Confessions of 
Christendom; transl. The Services of the Church of 
the Reformation, on the Basis of Alt's <Celtus; translated 
wiih additions. The Unity of the Lutheran Church; 
transl. The Old Church on the Hill; at the Burning of 
the old Lutheran ('hurch at Winchester. Tholuck's 
Commentary on John. The Former Days and These 
Days; Thanksgiving discourse. The Lutheran ('hurch 
and the Divine Obligation of the Lord's Day. History 
of Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology in the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church from the middle of the 
17th to the beginning of the 19th Century. The Altar on 
the Threshing bloor; Thanksgiving discourse Tholuck's 
Commentary on John. Select Analytical Bibliograt>hy 
of the Augsburg Confession. Poverty; Three Essays for 
the Season. Tholuck's Commentary on the Gospel of 
John; transl. Introduction to Seeker's The Nonsuch 
Professor. Christian Liberty in Relation to the Usages 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Maintained and 
Defended. Fleming's Vocabulaiy of Philosophy. The 



Evangeli* al Mass and the Romish Mass- Became 
Editor of Lutheran and Missionary Oct. 31. The Evan- 
gelical Lutheran < hurch; hc-r glory, i^erils, defense, vic- 
tory, duty and perpetuity. Address at Installation in 
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. The Two Pa- 
geants; on the death of Abraham Lincoln. Baptism: 
The Doctrine set forth in the Holy Scriptures and taught 
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Fundamental 
Principles of Faith and Church Polity of General Coun- 
cil. Shedd's History of Christian Doctrine, with special 
refernnce to its statement in regard to the Confessions 
and Doctrines of the Lutheran Church. The Person of 
our Lord and his Sacramental Presence. The Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran and Reformed Doctrine com uarod. Jubilee 
Service: An Order of Divine Service for the Seventh 
Jubilee of Reformation The Augsburg Confession 
trans Luther's Translation of the Holy Scriptures: *he 
New Testament. Theses on the Ministerial Office. The 
Reformation: Its Occasions and Causes. The Liturgical 
Movement in the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. 
Reply to the Pope's Letter. A Historic Sketch of the 
Thirty Years' War. In the Iron Age. The New Testa- 
ment Doctrine of the Lord's Supper, as confessed by the 
Lutheran Church. Theses on Justification for the Gen- 
eral Council. The Conservative Reformation and its 
Theology. Franz Delitzsch, his Life and Works. Notes 
in Class— System of Descartes. An Introduction to 
Luther's 95 Theses. In the Great Reformation. Infant 
Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System. 
Caesar and God . Introduction to Ulrici's Review of 
Strauss' Lif 3 of Christ. The Strength and Weakness of 
Idealism. Berkeley's Principles. Theses on Pulpit and 
.\.ltar Fellowship. Religion and Religionisiis; sermon 
before the Gen. Council. The Relations of the Lutheran 
Church to the Denominations around us. A Chronicle 
of the Augsburg Confession. Vocabulary of the Philo- 
sophical Sciences. The Authorized Version and English 
Versions' on which it is based. Introduction to "Doom 
Eternal." Address of Welcome at '"he Inauguration of 
Provost W. Pepper. Cosmos, in the Rhymes of a Sum- 
mer Holiday Journey. The Pulpit and the Age. The 
Sermon: Its Material and its Text. 

CONTBIBUTIONS TO ENCYCLOPEDIAS.— Of JohnsOU's he 

was Associate Editor, a"d the following articles have 
his signature: Buddaeus; Cause; Communicatio Idiom- 
atum; Concomitance, Sacramental; Concord, Book of; 
Concord, Formula of; Conditional, Philosophy of the; 
Faith; Faith, Confessions of; Faith, Rule of; Fall of 
Man; Fathers of the Church; Figure, Grammatical and 
Rhetorical; Final Causes; Flarius; Foreknowledge; 
Foreordination; A. H. Francke; Free-will; Fundament- 
als; Heresy; Hierarchy; Inquisition; M. Jacobs; Karnak; 
John Knox; Lord's Day; Lutheran Church; Latheian 
(~!hurch in the United States; Manetho; Mennonites; 
Metaphysics; Monophysites; Monothelitep; Mysticism; 
Nestorians; Pantheism. 

The article in McClintock & Strong's Encyclopedia, 
though his initials are attached, was not written by 
him, but by one of the Collaborateurs on the basis of 
material furnished by Dr. Krauth, and he was annoyed 
that it was accredited to him. 

He also furnished Articles on Luther or the Lutheran 
Church to Appleton's Cyclopedia and Potter's Bible 
Encyclopedia. 

Introductions.— He furnished the Introduction to 
Dr. Seiss' Psalms and Canticles, Prof. Jacobs' Sketch of 
the Battle of Gettysburg, Brown's Self-Interpreting 
Bible, lllustrirte Heilige Schrift, The Father's Story of 
Charlie Ross. 

Translations of Hymns and Poems.— Dies Iree 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



431 



Paer Natas, Ein Festo Burg. Det Kimer nu til Julefest, 
To the Hands of the Lord Jesus. 

A number of original poems appeared at different 
times from 1842 to 188^, among them A Tribute (to the 
memory of his first wife). The Spring Evening, The 



Birth of Eve, Apostles' Oeed, The Palm, The Poor 
Saint. 1st Sunday after Trinity, The VAoud of Witnesses, 
2 Kings 6:16. The Dread Answer, Psalm 106:15, The 
Lamb's Bride— The (''hurch Triumphant, The City of God, 
The Land of Light, Fervent Prayer, The Orange Tree. 




REY. JENS I. KROHN. 



Rev. Jens Iversen Krohn was born of 
humble parents in the village of Melhus, 
Norway, July 30, 1834. Having pious 
parents, the son was early taught to fear 
God. While at home he received a 
good common school education. From 
1855-7 he was engaged in teaching 
school in Tromso Landssogn under 
Dean Holmbo. In the beginning of the 
year 1858 he entered Tromso Seminary, 
from which he was graduated with 
honor in the summer of 1859. After 
having taught school for some time in 
Malangen, he determined to perfect his 
education at some higher institution of 
learning. In the meantime Prof. Laur 
Larsen, now at Luther College, Decorah, 
Iowa, came to Norway for the purpose 
of securing candidates, students and 
teachers for Christian work in America. 
This appeal came to Mr. Krohn's know- 
ledge, and he concluded to emigrate to 
America. Having received a very good 
recommendation from his pastor, Rev. 
Stop, dated Dec. 7, 1860, he set out upon 
his journey, and arrived at Chicago, 111., 



in August, 1861. At Chicago he met 
Rev. A. C. Preuss, then president of the 
Norwegian Synod and pastor of a church 
at Chicago. Mr. Preuss became at- 
tached to him, examined him, gave him 
some private instruction, and sent him 
with his recommendation to the Theo- 
logical Seminary at St. Louis with a 
view to prepare for the office of the 
holy ministry. In the spring of 1863 he 
was graduated from the seminary, and 
accepted a call from the Church of the 
Redeemer at Chicago, 111. He was 
ordained on Rock Prairie in 1863. By 
the faithful eflPorts of Rev. Krohn at 
Chicago, the congregation, which was 
very small when he came there, grew 
steadily until it numbered 1,300 souls 
when he resigned in 1876. It was also 
chiefly by his efforts that the congrega- 
tion got its new church valued at about 
$40,000.00. 

Rev. Krohn moved from Chicago to 
Fillmore Co., Minn, when he took 
charge of the North and Root Prairie 
congregations which he served to the 



432 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



day of his death. He died Saturday, 
January 19, 1889. JMr. Krohn was 
married twice, first to Miss Anna Marie 
01 sen, from Chicago, in 1864, who died 



in 1868. He next married Miss Anna 
Larsen, a sister of Prof. Laur Larsen, 
of Luther College, Decorah, who sur- 
vives him. 




REV. GOTTLOB F. KROTEL, D.D., LL.D. 



Among the men who have been in the 
faculty of the Theological Seminary at 
Philadelphia, no one is better known or 
has been more prominently before the 
Church than the subject of this article. 
Gottlob Frederick Krotel was born Feb. 
4th, 1826, at Ilsfeld, Wuertemberg, 
Germany, and came to this country 
when his parents emigrated to Phila- 
delphia, in 1830. He attended the 
Frankean Academy, the Parochial 
School of St. Michael's and Zion's 
Churches, for about six years, and then 
became an apprentice of L. A. Wollen- 
weber, printer and publisher, until he 
entered, in 1839, the academical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania. 
He was confirmed in Old Zion's Church 
in 1842, during the pastorates of Rev. 
C. R. Demme, D.D., aud Rev. G. A. 
Reichert, and the same year entered the 
Freshman Class in the University, from 
which he graduated in 1846. Having 
determined to become a minister of the 
Gospel, he pursued his theological 
studies under the care and instruction 
of his distinguished pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Demme, and was examined and licensed 
by the Evangelical Lutheran Minis te- 
rium of Pennsylvania, at Easton, in 1848, 
and ordained by the same at Pottsville, 
in 1850. 

His first pastoral charge was at Trinity 
Church, Passayunk, Philadelphia, which 
he served during 1848 and 1849. His 
reputation as a pulpit orator of extra- 
ordinary gifts, and able to speak equally 



well in both the German and English 
languages, attracted the attention of 
vacant churches, and upon the death of 
Rev. Dr. Ernst, he was called to Salem 
Church, at Lebanon, Pa., in 184V^, which 
he served for four years, in connection 
with Meyerstown and Annville. 

In 1853 Dr. Krotel was chosen suc- 
cessor to Rev. J. C. Baker, D. D., as 
pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church of the Holy Trinity, at Lancas- 
ter, Pa., and entered upon his duties 
enrly in that year, and from that time has 
ofiiciated in his own congregations only 
in the English language. His ministry 
in Lancaster, as elsewhere, was eminent- 
ly succtssful, and it was during his 
pastorate that the venerable edifice of 
Trinity Church was remodeled and 
greatly beautified. In 1857 he received, 
but declined, a call to Trinity Church, 
Reading, Pa., and remained in Lancaster 
until the close of 1861, when he accept- 
ed a call to St. Marks Church, of Phila- 
delphia, made vacant by the resignation 
of Rev. C. Porterfield Krauth, D. D. 
This church had hitherto been in con- 
nection with the East Pa. Synod, but 
connected itself at this time with the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Dr. 
Krotel remained six years pastor of St. 
Mark's, and during this time the edifice 
was largely rebuilt, and greatly improved 
in its appearance and accommodations. 
It was during his pastorate in St. Mark's 
that he served as one of the first profes- 
sors of the Theological Seminary. His 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



433 



ministry in Philadelphia closed at 
Easter, 186H, and the following Sunday 
he preached his introductory sermon as 
pastor of the newly organized Evangelic- 
al Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, 
in New York, where his ministry still 
continues. He was honored with the 
title of D. D. by his Alma Mater, the 
University of Pennsylvania, in 1865, and 
Muhlenberg College conferred on him 
the additional title of LL. D. in 1888. 

In the Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
Dr. Krotel has always exerted great in- 
fluence, and has received every mark of 
honor and confidence at the hands of its 
members. He was chosen secretary for 
three successive conventions, and in 1866 
was elected its President, being the 
youngest man that body ever elevated to 
that office. He remained in office two 
years, when he removed to New York, 
and connected himself with the N. Y. 
Ministerium. After one year he was 
chosen President of that body, and held 
the office for seven years. The N. Y. 
Ministerium being, at that time, almost 
exclusively a German speaking body, 
and the members of Trinity Church 
being English, they determined to with- 
draw from said Ministerium, and con- 
nect themselves with the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania, and to this body Dr. 
Krotel therefore returned in 1879. In 
1884 he was chosen President of the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania the second 
time, and still remains in that office. 
He also was President of the General 
Council at its Convention in Chicago 
in 1869. 

Dr. Krotel early manifested those 
elements of character which have made 
him a leader of men; sound judgment, 
firmness of will, and great tenacity of 
purpose, joined with excellence of 
speech. There have been very few im- 
portant movements and enterprises in 
the Church for the last forty years with 
5d 



which he has not been connected. When 
a young man he favored the return of 
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania to the 
General Synod, and was among the 
delegates of this Synod to that body in 
1857, at which Convention he was ap- 
pointed one of the delegates to the 
Church Diet, which met at Stuttgart 
the same year. He was again a delegate 
to the General Synod in 1862, and was 
placed on the committee to prepare a 
new liturgy. He was the recognized 
leader in the opposition to the admis- 
sion of the Frankean Synod at the Gen- 
eral Synod at York, in 1864, and when 
the final separation took place at Fort 
Wayne, in 1866, he prepared and read 
the reply of the Pennsylvania delegation 
to the action of the General Synod. He 
also prepared and read the report of 
that delegation to the Ministerium, at 
Lancaster, and was made Chairman of 
the Committee to issue a call to Luth- 
eran Synods, which led to the Reading 
Convention in December of the same 
year, and the organization of the Gen- 
eral Council, and was made Chairman 
of the Committee to draft its Constitu- 
tion. He first proposed and secured the 
adoption of the title, "General Council," 
and "was a member of the Committee 
which prepared the Church Book. 

As editor, author and translator, Dr. 
Krotel has wielded the pen of a ready 
writer. After Dr. Krauth resigned the 
editorship of the Lutheran and Missionary, 
Dr. Krotel served on the Editorial Com- 
mittee for some years, and for two years 
was the sole editor. His letters from 
New York, over the signature of Insula- 
nus, were a prominent feature of that 
paper for a number of years. He also 
edited the German Lutherisehe Harold for 
three years whilst President of the New 
York Ministerium, of which body it was 
then the organ. His first venture as 
an author was a German explanation of 



434 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



the Constitution of the United States, 
published by Wollenweber in 1846. 
His translation of the "Life of Melauch- 
thon" appeared in 1854, and his book, 
"Who are the Blessed? or Meditations 
on the Beatitudes," was published dur- 
ing his ministry at Lancaster. In con- 
junction with Rev. Dr. Mann, he pre- 
pared, in 1863, the "Explanation of 
Luther's Catechism," both in English 
and German, and his translation ot 
"Luther and Swiss," from the German 
of Uhlhorn, was given to the Church 
in 1876. 

It is, however, with Dr. Krotel's con- 
nection with the Theological Seminary, 
at Philadelphia, in which our readers 
are now mof^t interested. When, at the 
Special Meeting of the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania, at Allentown, in July, 
1864, the establishment of the Seminary 
was finally determined, Dr. Krotel was 
made Chairman of the Committee to 
draft the plan of the Institution, and 
present the names of its first professors, 
C. F. Schaeffer, D. D., W. J. Mann, D. 
D., and C. Porterfield Krauth, D. D. 
It was at this meeting that he and C. 
W. Schaeffer, D. D., were elected Pro- 
fessors Extraordinary, and the de- 
partment of Church History, and of 
Sacred Oratory, was tilled by him from 
the beginning of the Seminary until his 



removal to New York. It was during 
his ministry in St. Mark's that Mr. 
Chas. F. Norton, a member of that con- 
gregation, was led to endow a professor- 
ship in the Seminary, and during his 
ministry in New York, Mr. Chas. Burk- 
halter, of the Church of the Holy 
Trinity, did the same generous act. It 
was Dr. Krotel, also, who suggested to 
the New York Ministerium the endow- 
ment of the professorship now filled by 
Rev. A. Spaeth, D. D. Dr. Krotel had 
the honor of nominating in Synod every 
member of the faculty of the Seminary, 
excepting himself. At the late Conven- 
tion of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 
at Lebanon, he was by a unanimous and 
hearty vote, elected to the St. John's 
professorship in the Seminary, to leach 
some of the branches he formerly 
taught. After a month's deliberation, 
he declined the call, in deference to the 
expressed wishes of his congregation 
in New York, but much to the regret of 
his ministerial brethren, who believed 
him eminently qualified for the position, 
and desired to see him spend the closing 
years of his life as a member of the 
faculty of an institution in the founda- 
tion, development and support of which 
he had been so prominently identified. 
— Indicator. 



:fh: 



REV. JOHN ANDREW KRUG. 



John Andrew Krug was born in 
Saxony on the 19th of March, 1732. He 
enjoyed the advantages of a highly lib- 
eral education, and was for a time con- 
nected as Preceptor with the Orphan 
House at Halle. He then labored as a 
Catechist at Wasserleben, in the Earl- 
dom of Wernigerode. He was not, 



however, ordained as a regular minister 
of the gospel until just before his de- 
parture for this country. He left Ger- 
many in company with his friend, John 
Lewis Voight, and, passing through 
Holland, reached London on the 14th 
of November, 1763, having stopped by 
the way to visit some of his relatives. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



435 



During the journey several incidents 
occurred wLich served greatly to confirm 
his conviction that the mission he had 
undertaken was in accordance with the 
will of Providence. He speaks of the 
comfort and encouragement which he 
received from the reading of God's 
Word, and from some devotional German 
hymns, sung at family worship, during 
his sojourn among his friends, which 
were so appropriate to his circumstances 
that they seemed like a message to him 
sent directly from God. The voyage 
was pleasant and safe, and he arrived at 
Philadelphia on the 1st of April, 1764 
He found his way immediately to the 
house of Dr. Muhlenberg, who received 
him with great cordiality, and immedi- 
ately sent for his colleagues to come 
and share in his joy. The deacons of 
the church also, and the Swedish 
Provost, in behalf of his brethren, as 
soon as they heard of his arrival, came 
to tender their friendly greetings. On 
the Thursday following, Mr. Krug lec- 
tured for Dr. Muhlenberg, on the text: 
"For all these things hath mine hand 
made, and all these things have been, 
saith the Lord; but to this man will I 
look, even to him that is poor, and of a 
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my 
word." 

Mr. Krug's first labors after his arri- 
val in this country were by way of 
assisting Dr. Muhlenberg and Dr. 
Handschuch ; but his first regular charge 
was at Reading, Pa. When this posi- 
tion was first offered to him, he had 
serious misgivings about accepting it, 
on the ground that he was inadequate 
to so responsible a charge. The result, 
however, proved that his apprehensions 
were groundless, and he remained there 
seven years, earnestly and successfully 
devoted to the interests of his flock, and 
the object of their grateful and affec- 
tionate regard. "He came to us," says 



the record of the church, "as a faithful 
teacher, and served the congregation 
seven years, in love and sincerity to- 
wards God and man. At every oppor- 
tunity he exhibited his generosity in 
every good cause, to the church, the 
school, and to the poor, who alone knew 
the benefits conferred." When he re- 
signed, it is added that it was "to the 
grief of the many earnest lovers of his 
teachings, both in and out of Reading." 
It was, however, thought proper by his 
brethren in the ministry that he should 
take charge of the Lutheran Church in 
Frederick, Md., and he cheerfully ac- 
quiesced in their judgment. He, ac- 
cordingly, assumed the pastoral care of 
this church on the 28th of April, 1771, 
being, at that time, in his fortieth year, 
and having a high reputation for vigor 
of mind, scholarship and devotedness to 
his work. He quickly succeeded in 
gaining, in a high degree, the confidence 
of the people. The state of the church 
very soon assumed a more promising 
aspect, and large additions were made 
to the number of communicants, es- 
pecially from among the young. This 
increased prosperity continued until the 
commencement of the Revolutionary 
war, when the general agitations that 
pervaded the country led to a paralysis 
of the spiritual energies of the whole 
American church. The church at Fred- 
erick shared the common calamity; but, 
when peace was restored, its interests 
were revived, and everything seemed 
favorable to its increase in both num- 
bers and spirituality. He continued to 
labor here till the close of life, his con- 
nection with the congregation embrac- 
ing a period of twenty-five years. Though 
he was uncommonly popular and suc- 
cessful in the earlier part of his ministry, 
his later years were embittered by an 
opposing party in his congregation, who 
spoke disparagingly of his efforts, and 



436 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



labored, though unsuccessfully, to re- 
move him from his place. A large 
number, however, remained his stead- 
fast friends to the end of his days. He 
went gently to his rest on the 30fch of 
March, 1796, in the sixtieth year of his 
age. His remains were deposited be- 
neath the aisle of the old Lutheran 
church in which he had so long preached, 
and among the people in whose service 
he had spent a large part of his life. 

Mr. Krug was married to Henrietta, 
daughter of the Rev. John F. Hand- 
schuch. She survived her husband 
many years, and died at Frederick, in 
1822, in the seventy-first year of her age. 
By this marriage there were four 
children. 

Mr. Krug was distinguished for sim- 
plicity, integrity and purity of character. 
He was humble and unostentatious in 
all his intercourse, and made it mani- 
fest to all that his religion was a living, 
practical reality. He felt deeply the re- 



sponsibility of his office as a minister of 
Christ, and labored most assiduously for 
the prosperity of Zion. The tone of his 
preaching was at opce highly evangeli- 
cal and instructive, and his pure and 
earnest life gave great additional im- 
pressiveness to his teachings. He was 
a diligent and faithful pastor, and 
adapted himself with great felicity to 
all the varieties of condition and char- 
acter in his flock. Though his congre- 
gation was numerous and scattered over 
a large district, he was never remiss in 
visiting the sick or the sorrowful, in 
counselling the perplexed, in admonish- 
ing the wayward, or in catechising the 
young. He possessed a gentle spirit 
and warm affections, and was remark- 
ably genial and kindly in all his inter- 
course. He was rather small in stature, 
slender in form, with a voice somewhat 
feeble, and not very fluent in his utter- 
ance. — Sprague. 




REY. MICHAEL KUCHLER. 



Rev. Kuchler was born Nov. 10, 1800, 
in York county. Pa. He was the son of 
John Michael Kuchler and Elizabeth, 
nee Beringer. He was baptized in early 
infancy by the Rev. F. W. Waltz. In 
1806 his parents moved to Frederick 
county, Md., and in 1811 to Columbiana 
county, Ohio. In the 16th year of his 
age he confirmed his baptismal vow, re- 
ceiving his catechization from Pastor 
Huet. Between his 15th and 18th years 
he availed himself of such advantages 
for schooling as were then to be found, 
and in the spring of 1818 was sent by 
Pastor Huet to Wolf Creek, Mercer Co., 
Pa., for the purpose of giving religious 
instruction to the children of that com- 



munity. In the fall of the same year 
he taught school near Zion's church, 
continuing the work during the winter 
of 1819, meanwhile studying with the 
view of entering the ministry. Many 
difficulties were in the way — difficulties 
which to the majority of men would 
have been insurmountable — ^^but he kept 
his purpose steadily before him, and 
the desire to become a laborer in the 
Master's vineyard grew stronger and be- 
came the controlling element in his life. 
Oil the 2d of October, 1821, he was 
united in marriage to Catharine, daugh- 
ter of Jacob Synder and Mary Eva, nee 
George. He then moved to Ohio where 
he taught a term of German school, re- 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



437 



turning to Mercer county the following 
spring and coutinuing in his profession 
of teaching; at the same time also keep- 
ing up his studies for the ministry and 
giving stated instruction in matters of 
religion under the direction of Pastor 
Huet. He then became regularly a can- 
didate for the ministry, and conducted 
his first service Nov. 26, 1826 — upward 
of 60 years ago — at Herbst's, in Mercer 
county. In this capacity he served suc- 
cessively Herbst's, Meadville and 
Pfeiffer's, Everhart's and Good Hope, 
and Zion's. On June 4th, 1828, while 
attending the meeting of the German 
Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of 
Ohio, at Canfield, he was received into 
membership by that body as a catechist. 
In 1829 he was licensed at the meeting 
of Synod at Lancaster, Ohio, soon after, 
taking charge of the Troutman church, 
in Mercer county, Pa., and the Board- 
man church, in Trumbull county, Ohio, 
and was finally ordained June 16, 1833, 
at Zelienople, Pa. 

As a regularly ordained minister he 
served, successively, Saegertown, Adams- 
ville and Drakes Mills (1839); Erie, 
Walnut Creek, Kuhl's (1844), Walnut 
Creek and Kuhl's (1847). He then 
received a call to his old charge in Mer- 
cer Co., serving in connection with it 
Franklin, Dempseytown, Sugar Creek 



and now and then other points, making 
missionary journeys up into Canada and 
officiating for a short time in Clarance, 
N. Y. The latter years of his ministry 
were spent in missionary labors at 
Corry, Union City and Liverpool. He 
built his church at Corry in 1877 — 51 
years after entering upon the work of 
the ministry. He continued serving 
these various points till the synodical 
year of 1879-80 — his active service in 
the church extending through a period 
of nearly 54 years — when failing 
strength demanded a rest from labor. 
But his interests in the work to which 
his long life had been devoted never 
ceased. His last years were spent in 
Greenville, where he enjoyed the loving 
attendance and unceasing devotion of 
his children, who smoothed the cares of 
life's closing scene with a gentleness 
and consideration rarely to be found, 
and he died at Greenville, Pa., April 4, 
1887, in the 87th year of his age. 

He was the father of eight children, 
six of whom survive him. These are 
John Kuchler, of St. Louis Mo., Dr. J. 
S. Kuchler, of Sharon, Pa., Mrs. L. M. 
Baker, of Buffalo, N. Y., and Dr. G. D. 
Kuchler, Miss L. H. Kuchler, and J. C. 
Kuchler, of Greenville. His wife died 
in the fall of 1877, in the 76th year of 
her age. — Greenville Advance Argus. 



REV. GEORGE KUECHLE. 



Rev. George Kuechle, pastor of the 
Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church 
of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, 
was born February 21st, 1829, near Ulm, 
in Bavaria. He studied with his father, 
a pastor in Bavaria, until the age of 
eighteen, when he came to the United 
States and for two years attended the 
Seminary of the Missouri Synod, located 



at Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was or- 
dained in April, 1850. His first charge 
was at Niles, 111. In 1852 he located at 
Richton, Cook County, Illinois, where 
he preached till 1864; was then three 
years at Columbus, ladiana, and after- 
wards seven years at Laporte, Indiana. 
In the spring of 1873 he was called to 
the pastorate of his present (1881) 



438 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



charge. Mr. Kuechle was married in 
1854 to Miss Elizabeth Meyer, formerly 
of Bavaria. They have had twelve 
children, ten of whom are living. For 
several years Mr. Kuechle was Secretary 
of the General Synod of Missouri, and 
is now one of the visitors of the North- 
western District of said Synod. For 



fully thirty years he has preached at 
least one sermon every Sabbath, and for 
the first fifteen years he taught a paro- 
chial school four days of each week. 
He is still in full vigor and gives hope 
of many years of usefulness. — History of 
Milwaukee. 




REV. CONRAD KUHL. 



Rev. Conrad Kuhl, the subject of this 
sketch, came with his parents to the 
United States of America when a lad of 
about thirteen years. He was born Oct. 
21, 1821, in the village of Bindsachen, 
Grand Dutchy of Hesse Darnistadt. 
The family reached the American shore 
in 1834. Their first encampment was 
near Zanesville,0., where they continued 
about eighteen months. In that time 
the boy Conrad attended catechetic in- 
struction (as is customary in the Luth- 
eran church), under Rev. S. Kammer of 
that denomination, and by confirmation 
was admitted to full membership in 
the church. 

From Zanesville, Ohio, the family 
migrated to Beardstown, 111. Here the 
youth found employment in a drug store, 
where he learned to compound chemicals 
and put up doctor's prescriptions. Im- 
migrants from the German Fatherland 
to America seldom wait in self important 
complacency till work is offered them, 
they go in search until they get it; so 
did that boy. 

In Beardstown the religious fervor of 
our young adventurer was somewhat 
stirred by the zealous endeavors of 
another religious denomination to make 
proselytes of the Lutherans, xnstead 
of yielding to the pseudo-conversion, 
whose chief effect seemed to be to rob 



' other churches for the sake of glorifying 
one, this youthful disciple determined 
to abide by and work for the venerated 
church of the Reformation. He wrote 
to Rev. Francis Springer, in Springfield, 
111., on the subject and received from 
that brother encouragement to perse- 
vere in his attachment to the faith of 
his ancestors. Some time later on the 
youth heeded the suggestion of Pastor 
Springer, to prepare for the gospel min- 
istry. He entered the school then under 
the instruction of Mr. Springer, and 
proved to be an earnest and industrious 
student. In the spring of 1845 the 
young man, now about 23 years of age, 
became a student in Pennsylvania Col- 
lege at Gettysburg, Pa. 

To carry a young man, with the min- 
istry in view, through a six or seven 
years' course in college and seminary 
requires finance as well as faith. Where 
the finance is not in sight prodigious 
faith must suffice even for a shorter 
course. So it was with many in those 
days, and such was the lot of Mr. Kuhl. 
In a letter of that gentleman to the 
writer of this sketch, he says: "The 
effort on my part to obtain a fair train- 
ing for the holy ministry was attended 
by severe hardships and self-denial ; but 
in every severity of trial God was near 
with the needed relief." 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



439 



While a student in the seminary at 
Gettysburg the good brother received 
an invitation from a German congrega- 
tion in Quincy, 111., to become pastor 
thereof. This event drew to him minis- 
terial licensure from the Lutheran Synod 
of West Pennsylvania, and Rev. C. Kuhl 
soon after entered his first pastoral 
charge at Quincy, 111., in 1848. Al- 
though his labors there were commend- 
ably successful, his continuance as pastor 
was brief. It is worthy of mention that 
at the time of his pastorate in Quincy 
the city was a sufferer under the scourge 
of cholera, and that dreaded visitation 
imposed on him much hardship and ex- 
posure in attentions to the sick and 
burial of the dead. In a single day, 
July 4, 1849, his service was in requi- 
sition at four funerals. 

Rev. Kuhl was united in marriage 
with Miss Eveline M. Sell, Sept. 12, 
1849, while that lady was on a visit to 
her brothers in St. Louis, Mo. 

In September, 1850, at the fifth an- 
nual convention of the Lutheran Synod 
of Illinois, held at Oregon, Ogle Co., 
111., licentiates C. Kuhl, Wm. Bauer- 
meister and J. N. Burket were ordained. 

Rev. Kuhl, encouraged thereto by 
members of Synod, undertook the ex- 
ploration of a part of the territory then 
(1850) embraced within the bounds of 
the Synod of Illinois. This was an 
arduous work, wisely conceived but 
only partially productive of good results, 
by reason of the Synod's inability to 
give to the missionary adequate support. 
In this service the visits of Rev. Kuhl 
extended over Northwestern Illinois, 
Southeastern Iowa and part of Central 
Illinois. 

We next meet the subject of this 
brief notice on record in the minutes of 
the Synod of Illinois (1851) as pastor 
of the Lutheran church in Springfield, 
the capital of the Prairie State. In 



September, 1852, he enters the pastorate 
of the Lutheran church at Mt. Carmel, 
and resigns in 1855 with a view to mis- 
sionary service in the city of Nashville, 
Tenn., but yields to the urgent solicita- 
tion of the friends of Illinois State 
University (now Concordia College) to 
act as financial agent for that institu- 
tion, with headquarters at Gettysburg, 
Pa. At the close of his contract in the 
agency, in 1857, the worthy brother re- 
ceived the hearty commendation of Rev. 
B. Kurtz, D.D., and others, because of 
the fidelity and success which charac- 
terized the work of the agent. 

Returning again to pastoral duties 
Rev. Kuhl re-entered his former pas- 
torate in Quincy, 111., and serving also 
for a term of several years each at Lib- 
erty and Perry, and in 1868 he settled 
in Carthage as pastor of the German 
Lutheran church of that city, where he 
has continued to the present day. 

A noteworthy period in the life work 
of Rev. Conrad Kuhl is that which em- 
braces his activity in the interest of 
Carthage College. The initial step to- 
ward the founding of this seat of learn- 
ing is due to the enterprising spirit of 
the Synod of Northern Illinois, in 1868. 
In June, 1869, the Synod of Central 
Illinois, in annual convention at Hills- 
boro, responded to the voice from the 
North by resolving to unite with the 
adjacent Synods in the holding of a 
general convention, with a view to or- 
ganized effort for the establishment of 
an institution of learning. Mr. Kuhl, 
being at that time President of the 
Central Synod, came prominently to the 
front in the work. He called an extra 
convention of his Synod, which was 
held in Springfield Nov. 10, 1869, and 
the Synod appointed him as one of the 
commissioners to co-operate with others 
of like appointment, in securing the 
most favorable terms and a suitable lo- 



440 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



cation for the desired seat of collegiate 
and theological learning. The first 
meeting of the representatives of the 
several Synods was held in Carthage 
Dec. 29 of the same year. As a member 
of the Board of Commissioners, and 
subsequently of the Board of Trustees, 
no man was more useful than Mr. Kuhl. 
Being always on the ground, and for a 
time a teacher in the institution, he be- 
came thoroughly acquainted with the 
internal management and the constantly 
increasing needs of the institution. His 
statements to the Board, and his sug- 



gestions for betterment in general con- 
trol and methods of finance, were al- 
ways received with respectful and 
considerate attention. 

For more than a dozen years, up to 
the present hour, the health of this 
Christian gentleman has been precarious. 
He is an earnest laborer in the Divine 
Master's vineyard, full of faith and joy- 
ous in hope; true in his friendships, 
and equally worthy to remain or go 
hence, as the infinite and loving Parent 
of us all may appoint. — S. 




REY. HENRY W. KUHNS, D.D. 



The first Lutheran missionary west 
of the Missouri river was Rev. Henry 
W. Kuhns, D. D. Dr. Kuhns is the 
pioneer minister of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in all that vast ter- 
ritory west of the Missouri river. To 
the work of building up his denomination 
in the west and particulary the church 
in Omaha, he devoted the best energies 
and efforts of his life. 

Henry Welty Kuhns was born August 
23rd, 1829, in Greensburg, Pa. His 
parents were John and Susan Kuhns. 
His ancestry have been traced back to 
the time of the "Thirty Years war," in 
which, under the leadership of Gustavus 
Adolphus, .they fought for the main- 
tenance of the Protestant faith. His 
grandfather, Philip Kuhns, was an officer 
with Washington in all his campaigns, 
having left his farm near Philadelphia 
after the Lexington massacre to enlist 
in the cause of American Independence. 

In 1851 he entered the Preparatory 
Department of Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, from which, institution he 
was graduated in 1856 with distinguished 
honor, being Latin Salutatorian of his 



class. During his college course he 
represented the Philomathaean Society 
three times at its public contests. 

At the early age of nine he had 
resolved upon becoming a Christian 
minister, and having completed his 
collegiate career, he entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Gettysburg, gradua- 
ting in 1858. He received his licensure 
to preach the Gospel from the Pittsburg 
Synod in 1858 at Leechburg. At Bed- 
ford, in 1858, the Allegheny Synod 
commissioned him as their missionary 
to Nebraska, then a wild territory. This 
missionary commission read, "To Omaha 
and adjacent parts." Although a young 
man, and contrary to their prevailing 
custom, he was ordained one year later, 
in 1859, at Hollidaysburg by the Alle- 
gheny Synod of Pennsylvania. 

In 1858 Dr. Kuhns came to Omaha, 
at that time a little Indian trading- 
village. On the 5th of December he 
organized the church with nine mem- 
bers, all the Lutherans in the town, one 
of whom was Mr, Augustus Kountze, 
now of New York. He soon became 
popular among the early settlers, and of 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



441 



liim some one has fittingly said: '"Dr. 
Kuhns was a great worker inside his 
study as well as outside of it, and his 
sermons were distinguished for their 
elegance, scholarship and finish. He 
was thoroughly conversant with theo- 
logical matters and never failed to in- 
terest his audience when he handled 
topics of that nature. Above all, he 
was practical and his preaching appealed 
not only to the heart but the reason of 
his auditors. He was a ready extempo- 
raneous speaker and in time became the 
leading pastor of the city," Among the 
results of his missionary efforts was the 
deeding to him of eighty-seven town 
lots, in widely separated localities in 
trust for the Lutheran church, all of 
which, with the exception of five, are in 
use. This property is estimated to be 
worth to-day several hundred thousand 
dollars. In this field he was instru- 
mental in establishing twenty-five 
churches. All this was before the 
different Boards of the General Synod 
were organized. Where he was then 
alone, there are now about three hundred 
Lutheran ministers. 

Dr. Kuhns served as Chaplain of the 
Nebraska Legislature in 1858-9-60. He 
was largely instrumental in securing the 
location of the Nebraska Deaf and 
Dumb Institute in Omaha, and for five 
years was Secretary of the Directory. 
For a number of years he was a member 
of the Board of Education of Omaha. 
Upon the establishment of the Nebraska 
State University at Lincoln, he was 
elected to the Chair of Natural Sciences, 
but declined the honor. Broken in 
health, after fifteen years of incessant 
hard work, his physicians informed 
him that he must seek a milder climate 
than that of Nebraska. He resigned 
his congregation in Omaha, now in- 
creased from a membership of nine to 
that of two hundred and fifty. In 1872 
56 



he went to Newberry, S. C. He found 
the church there with only a member- 
ship of forty-two, which, when he left 
the South six years later, had increased 
ander his pastoral care to two hundred. 
During his pastorate he caused the 
church to be remodeled and a parsonage 
to be built. 

Through his untiring efforts Newberry 
College, then located at Walhalla, S. C, 
was transferred to Newberry, from 
which place it had been removed, 1868. 
At the close of the war the sheriff had 
sold the college property at Newberry 
for debt. The property did not pay 
one-fourth of the debt; and Dr. Kuhns 
succeeded in having claims resting 
against the college to the amount of 
120,000 released and assigned to the S. 
C. Synod. Newberry College was re- 
turned to Newberry and a building 
worth $20,000 was erected. He was for 
a number of years President of the 
Board of Trustees. 

In 1878 Dr. Kuhns went to Westmin- 
ster, Md., where he met with his usual 
success. The church and parsonage 
having been destroyed by fire in 1888, 
he caused them to be rebuilt grander 
than the former structures. On enter- 
ing this charge, he found it composed 
of three congregations, two in the 
country and one in the town. In 1886 
he caused the charge to be divided, the 
churches in the country constituting 
the present "Salem Charge," and the 
town congregation becoming a separate 
charge. The Westminster pastorate 
he resigned in 1887 to return to Omaha 
where he now resides, and is deeply 
interested in the future growth and 
development of his beloved Lutheran 
Zion. 

The honorary degree of Doctor of 
Divinity was conferred on him in 1883 
by Newberry College. 

On the 8th of October, 1860, he mar- 



442 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ried Miss Charlotte J. Hay, daughter Five children were born to them, of 
of Dr. Michael Hay, of Johnstown, Pa. whom three are living. 




EEY. L. M. KUHNS, D.D. 



L. M. Kuhns, D. D., was born March 
30th, 1826, in Armstrong Co., Pa. His 
parents were both born in Greensburg, 
Pa., his mother Esther Steck, being a 
daughter of Eev. John M. Steck, a cele- 
brated pioneer clergyman of the Luth- 
eran Church of Western Pennsylvania. 
After receiving the rudiments of a com- 
mon school education at the old-fashion- 
ed log school house of his native place. 
Dr. Kuhns, at nineteen years of age, 
began an academic course at Zelienople, 
Pa., he having already formed the inten- 
tion of preparing himself for the 
ministry. After two years of study at 
this place, he entered Wittenberg 
College at Springfield, Ohio, where for 
five years he prosecuted his classical 
and theological studies. In March, 
1852, he received an ad interim license, 
and in the following June he was 
regularly licensed to preach the Gospel 
by the Pittsburg Synod. Having re- 
ceived and accepted a call from the 
congregation at Ereeport, Pa., he was 
ordained at that place in 1854, and 
remained there performing pastoral 
duties four years. 

His next charge was at Leech burg, 
Pa., where he labored for ten years with 
great success. Thus fourteen years of 
successful pastoral work were passed 
within four miles of his native place — 
the two villages of Freeport and Leech- 
burg being only seven miles apart, and 
his birth place being about midway 



between them. He was next called to 
Bellefontaiue, Ohio, where he labored 
for more than three years with satisfac- 
tion to the community and to his people. 

In July,1867, he becanae pastor of Trin- 
ity Lutheran Church of Canton, Ohio, 
which position he held for sixteen years. 
During this time he not only endeared 
himself to his own people, but to the 
community at large. After this he 
accepted a call to Emanuels Lutheran 
Church of New Philadelphia, O., but only 
remained with them for two years, 
when, on account of throat trouble he 
was compelled to give up the active 
work of the ministry. Six years he 
served as Secretary and three years as 
President of the Pittsburg Synod; as 
President of the East Ohio Synod two 
years, and as a member of the Board of 
Directors of Wittenberg College for ten 
years. The latter institution, having 
without any solicitation on his part 
directly or indirectly, conferred on him 
the degrees of A.M. and D. D. Dr. 
Kuhns is now making his home in 
Washington, D. C. 

Although not able to serve a pastoral 
charge with regular preaching, he is 
always ready and glad to assist his 
brethren whenever his physical con- 
dition will permit. 

He still holds his connection with the 
East Ohio Synod as one of its honored 
members. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



443 



REY. J. A. KUNKELMAN, D.D. 



Rev. John Alleman Knnkelman, D.D., 
was born in Dauphin Co., Pa., Nov. 4, 
1832. His j)^rents were Mr. Peter 
Kunkelman and Miss Christina, nee 
Alleman. He was baptized by the Rev. 
A. H. Lochman, D. D. 

When about two years old his parents 
removed to Franklin Co., Pa., and located 
in Bridgeport, near Mercersburg. He 
was instructed in the catechism by Rev. 
S. McHenry, and confirmed in 1849. 
He enjoyed the advantages of a com- 
mon school education until he entered 
the Preparatory Department of Pennsyl- 
vania College, in September 1849. He 
was graduated in 1855. 

Having read theology privately while 
teaching in the Laysides Academy, he 
was granted nd interim license by the 
Allegheny Synod, and entered upon the 
I)astorate of the Schellsburg, Bedford 
Co., Pa., charge June 1, 1856. 

He was examined and regularly licens- 
ed at the meeting of the Synod in 
McConnellsburg, Pa., Oct. 20, 1856. In 
1858 he was ordained in Bedford, Pa. 
He was married to Miss Mary R. Rea, 
Oct. 23, 1856, by the Rev. C. A. Way, 
at Harrisburg, Pa. 

Having been called to Indianapolis, 
Ind., he entered upon his duties there 
Oct. 31, 1858. He remained pastor of 
the church at Indianapolis until called 
to Chambersburg, Pa., in 1866. He 
resigned and accepted a call to Ft. 
Wayne, Ind., in 1867. In 1868 he was 
elected pastor of St. Mark's church, 
Philadelphia, Pa., to succeed Rev. G. F. 
Krotel, who had been called to New 
York City. He preached his introduc- 
tory sermon in St. Mark's May 10, 1868. 
He continued pastor of St. Mark's until 
June. 1879, when, on account of failing 
health, he resigned and removed to 
Nebraska City, Neb. 



In 1881 he was called to the Presi- 
dency of Carthage College, Carthage, 
111., and in the same year was given the 
degree of D.D. by his Alma Mater, 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa- 
He was delegate to the General Synod 
at the meetings in Lancaster, Pa., in 
1862; York, Pa., 1864, and Ft. Wayne, 
Ind., 1866. 

He was pastor of the church in Ft. 
Wayne, Ind., when the General Council 
was organized in 1867, and has been a 
delegate to that body at most of its con- 
ventions since. 

He introduced the plan of systematic 
beneficence in St. Mark's church, Phil- 
adelphia, which was afterward approved 
and adopted by the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania, and has became general 
in the congregations and Synods of the 
Lutheran Church. He was Chairman 
of the Committee, and drafted the plea 
which secured the closing of the Cen- 
tennial on the Lord's day in 1876. 

He resigned the Presidency of Carth- 
age College and became pastor of the 
Church of the Holy Trinity in Green- 
ville, Pa., in 1883, and is there still at 
this writing. 

He has been connected with the 
Boards of Trustees of several of the 
colleges of the church and the theologi- 
cal seminary at Philadelphia. While 
living there he was President of the 
Church Extension Society, the Board 
of City Missions, and was a member of 
the Board of Trustees of the Orphan's 
Home and of the Executive Committee 
of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. 
He was also Treasurer of the Minis- 
terium, and since his location in Green- 
ville has been a member and President 
of the Board of Trustees of Thiel Col- 
lege, and is now President of the 



444 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Pittsburg Synod and Assistant Treasurer 
of the college. 

He has written many articles for the 
church periodicals, besides a tract on 
"The Lord's Day," published by the 



Sabbath Association of Philadelphia; 
and a monograph on " The Quakers on 
the Delaware," published by the Friends' 
Publication Society, Philadelphia. 




EEY. JOHN C. KUNZE, D.D. 



John Christopher Kunze was born in 
,Arter, Mansfield, Saxony, August 5, 
1744. Having spent some time at the 
Gymnasium in Eossleben, and then in 
Merseburg, successively, he was trans- 
ferred to the University of Leipsic, 
where he remained about three years. 
Subsequently to this, he spent three 
years as Preceptor at Closter Bergen, 
and then was appointed Inspector of 
the Orphan House at Graitz. He had 
been blessed with a pious mother, under 
whose watchful and faithful training 
his mind early took a religious direction ; 
and, consequent upon this was the pur- 
pose to devote himself to the min- 
istry. Having pursued his theological 
studies, for some time, in connection 
with his engagements as a teacher, 
he was pronounced "a candidate of 
Theology, well grounded in knowledge 



and experience." The Faculty of The- 
ology at Halle having received an 
application for a minister from the 
vacant corporation of St. Michael's 
and Zion's churches, Philadelphia, their 
attention was immediately turned to 
young Kunze, as well fitted to occupy 
that important field. Having expressed a 
willingness to accept the appointment, 
he was ordained by the Consistorium, at 
Wernigerode, and shortly after took his 
departure from the land of his nativity, 
to find a home in the New World. He 
was accompanied by two sons of the 
elder Muhlenberg, both of whom became 
distinguished preachers in this country. 
They came by way of England, and hav- 
ing remained there a short time, em- 
barked for New York, where they arriv- 
ed, after a perilous voyage, on the 22d of 
September, 1770. Mr. Kunze's first ser- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



445 



mon in America was preached the day 
after his arrival, at New York, in the 
Lutheran Church of which Mr. Gerock 
was pastor. He proceeded immediately 
to Philadelphia, where he was at once 
elected Associate Pastor of the German 
Churches in that city. He commenced 
his public labors here on the 8th of 
October, 1770. In 1780 he accepted a 
Professorship of the German Language 
in the University of Pennsylvania ; and 
in 1783 received from the same institu- 
tion the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
He remained in the city during its 
occupancy by the British army, while 
Zion's Church was converted into a 
hospital, and St. Michael's was used 
half the day by the enemy as a Garrison 
Church. 

Dr. Kunze's ministry in Philadelphia 
continued fourteen years, during which 
he commanded great respect, and exerted 
a wide and powerful influence. His 
removal from that field of labor was 
occasioned by some difiiculties that had 
sprung up, personal to himself and Dr. 
Helmuth. In 1784 he accepted a call 
to the city of New York, where he 
labored during the residue of his life. 
He had scarcely entered on his pastoral 
labors when he was appointed Professor 
of Oriental Languages in Columbia 
College. He resigned the office after 



three years; but was re-appointed in 
1792, and held it three years longer. 

Dr. Kunze died in New York, of a 
pulmonary disease, on the 24th of July, 
1807, aged sixty-three, after having 
labored there for tlie space of twenty- 
three years. His funeral discourse 
was preached to a large congregation, 
by the Rev. William Runkel, pastor of 
the Reformed German congregation in 
New York, from Daniel xii, 3. 

Dr. Kunze was the author of a Concise 
History of the Lutheran Church, a small 
volume of Poetry, entitled "Something 
for the Understanding and the Heart"; 
an English Lutheran Hymn Book, with 
Catechism, Prayers, and Liturgy ap- 
pended; and a new Method for Calcula- 
ting the Great Eclipse of June 16, 
1806. 

He was married to Margarette, a 
daughter of the elder Muhlenberg, who 
survived him many years. He left four 
daughters, his only son having died 
before him. 

Dr. Kunze was an earnest and steady 
friend of the Church with which he 
was connected. He was chiefly instru- 
mental in establishing the New York 
Ministerium, the Second Synod of the 
American Lutheran Church, of which 
he was the first presiding officer. — 
Sprague. 




EEY. BENJAMIN KURTZ, D.D., LL.D. 



Dr. Benjamin Kurtz came to Baltimore 
in August, 1833, to assume the editorial 
charge of the Lutheran Observer. He was 
at this time a widower and not in vigor- 
ous health. He had little experience in 
writing, and he had some difficulty in 
pruning his superfluous verbiage; but 
he acquired a vigorous, if not ornate 



style, and rendered invaluable service 
to the church in this position. He had 
no other employment and was ambitious 
of success. He was not under the con- 
trol of any Synod or Board, and pursued 
his own independent way. He main- 
tained this position by himself for about 
fifteen years, until the establishment of 



446 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



the book and publisliing office, princi- 
pally through his own agency. He 
snperiD tended that institution with great 
ability and success, for he had eminent 
business capacity. 

In 1826 Dr. Kurtz went to Germany 
to solicit donations of money and books 
for the theological seminary about to be 
established at Gettysburg. He remained 
absent nearly two years, and brought 
home about $10,000 in money and a 
large number of books. Whilst in Ger- 
many he received many courtesies from 
all classes of men, and secured extensive 
popularity as a plain and impressive 
preacher. Immense crowds everywhere 
attended the churches in v^hich he offi- 
ciated. He went a second time to Europe 
in 1846 to attend the Evangelical Alli- 
ance in London, in August of that year, 
and for recreation. During the time 
when mepmerism was rampant in this 
country he became a believer in the sys- 
tem; not in its lower, but in its higher 
manifestations, and was president of a 
society of intelligent gentlemen who 



prosecuted the subject as a matter of 
metaphysical research. 

In 1834 he was elected Professor of 
History and German Literature in 
Pennsylvania College, and Professor in 
the Theological Seminary, both of which 
he declined. He loved his work on the 
Observer too well to give it up for any 
other. 

Dr. Kurtz stoutly maintained what 
was called the Evangelical stand-point, 
and was an ardent advocate of what, in 
his day, were called new measures. He 
was not what we call a learned man or a 
profound theologian. He had no college 
training in early life, but he was uncom- 
monly intelligent in all the ordinary 
affairs of life and achieved more good in 
the ministry than many of far greater 
attainments. 

The degree of D. D. was conferred 
upon him by the Washington College, 
and that of LL. D. by the Wittenberg 
College. He died in Baltimore, Dec. 
•29, ISm.— Morris. 




EEY. JOHN NICHOLAS KUKTZ. 



Rev. John Nicholas Kurtz was the 
first Lutheran minister ordained in this 
country. From authentic church docu- 
ments it appears that he was descended 
from a Protestant family, whose lineage 
is found recorded as far back as 1599; 
a large proportion of the male part of 
which were employed in the kindred 
occupations of teacher, minister and 
professor. He was born in Lutzenl in den , 
in the principality of Nassau- Weilburg, 
October, 1722, and received his early 
education under the direction of his 
father, who was at the head of a Gym- 



nasium in his native place. When he 
was in his fifteenth year he was trans- 
ferred to the High School at Giessen, 
an institution furnishing the best ad- 
vantages to young men destined to the 
ministry. Having studied here for 
seven years, with great diligence and 
success, he joined the University of 
Halle, where he remained six months; 
and here he profited greatly by his 
intercourse with the celebrated Francke, 
who was then just in the meridian of 
his usefulness. His prof essors, observing 
that he had a vigorous constitution, as 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



447 



well as other more important qualifica- 
tions for the missionary work, began 
soon to think of him as a suitable person 
to undertake a mission to this Western 
world. Accordingly, having completed 
his preparatory course, and expressed 
a willingness to engage in this field of 
labor, he received the appointment in 
1744, and reached this country, with 
several other missionaries, on the 15th 
of January, 1745. He landed at Phila- 
delphia, where he met a cordial welcome 
from Dr. H. M. Muhlenberg, then pastor 
of the German Lutheran church of that 
city. He was soon invited to New 
Hanover, where, for two years, he 
preached on the Sabbath and taught a 
school during the week. Thence he 
removed to Tulpehocken, where be 
remained but a year, his services being 
more loudly called for by the people of 
Germantown and the neighboring con- 
gregations, where there was well nigh a 
famine of the Word. 

In the year 1748, at the first meeting 
of the Lutheran Synod, Mr. Kurtz, who 
before had been only a licentiate, was 
fully set apart to the Gospel ministry. 
There were only six clergymen present, 
two of whom were Swedish Lutherans. 
The following were among the questions 
proposed to the applicant, and they are 
thought to have had a special bearing 
upon the rising controversies of that 
day: — "AVhat are the evidences of Con- 
version? What is meant by the in- 
fluence and blessings of the Holy Spirit? 
How do you prove that Christ was not 
only a teacher, but that He made an 
atonement for the sins of men? Were 
the Apostles infallible in their in- 
structions? How do you establish the 
claims of Pedobaptism? How do you 
prove the eternity of future punish- 
ment?" The ordination sermon was 
preached by Pastor Hartwig from the 



words, — "His blood will I require at 
thy hand." 

Mr. Kurtz, the same year that he was 
ordained, returned to Tulpehocken, in 
accordance with the earnest and re- 
peatedly expressed wishes of the congre- 
gaticms to which he had previously 
ministered. Here he remained twenty- 
two years, laboring with great fidelity 
and success, and often amidst exposures 
and deprivations that were almost un- 
paralleled. In traveling to his different 
preaching stations and visiting his 
people, he was repeatedly exposed to 
attacks from savages; and sometimes 
the services of the sanctuary were con- 
ducted at the imminent hazard of life, 
and the ofiicers of the church stood at 
the church-doors, armed with defensive 
weapons, to prevent a surprise, and, if 
need be, to repel an attack. In a letter 
to Dr. Muhlenberg, in 1656, he states 
that, one day, not less than seven mem- 
bers of the congregation were brought 
to the church for burial, having been 
murdered by the Indians the evening 
before. Being anxious to improve the 
solemn occasion to the spiritual welfare 
of his hearers, he postponed the inter- 
ment until the next day, and suffered 
the mangled bodies to remain in the 
church that the congregation might 
convene. 

In the year 1773 Mr. Kurtz, who, by 
this time, had gained a high standing in 
the Church, and had received various 
testimonies of the good will and confi- 
dence of his brethren, was induced to 
remove West of the Susquehanna, and 
to take charge of the Lutheran Church 
in York, and the associated churches. 
Here his good influence was widely and 
powerfully felt for twenty years. 

Mr. Kurtz warmly espoused the Ameri- 
can cause during our Revolutionary 
struggle. In 1777, when money was 



448 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



scarce, and tlie means of prosecuting the 
war extremely limited, after preaching 
an appropriate sermon, he invited his 
hearers to collect all the articles of 
apparel they could spare, such as coats, 
hats, shoes, stockings, shirts, bed-clothes, 
etc., and send them to his residence for 
the purpose of distributing them among 
the destitute, suffering soldiers. The 
proposal met a cordial response, and, at 
his instance, a committee was appointed 
to make the distribution. Though his 
sympathies, from the commencement of 
the war had been strongly with the 
Colonies, he had felt no small degree 
of embarrassment in respect to the 
question of naturalization — having sworn 
allegiance to the King, he was doubtful 
as to the lawfulness of dissolving the 
obligations created by that act. But he 
was subsequently relieved from his 
scruples, and, in 1776, became satisfied 
that it was his duty to become a natur- 
alized citizen. 

In 1792, being past three score and 
ten, Mr. Kurtz was admonished by the 



advancing infirmities of age to retire 
from active service. He, accordingly, 
resigned his charge, and removed to 
Baltimore, taking up his residence in 
the family of his son„ the Bev. J. D. 
Kurtz, where he received the most 
examplary filial attentions. Here he 
remained, occasionally supplying his 
son's pulpit during the rest of his life. 
He left this world calmly and joyfully, 
in the seventy -fourth year of his age, on 
the 12th of May, 1794. He was buried 
in Baltimore, acd a discourse, suited 
to the occasion, was delivered by the 
Eev. J. G. Droldeneir, of the German 
Beformed Church, from the words, — 
"There remaineth therefore a rest to 
the people of God." 

In 1747 Mr. Kurtz was married to 
Elizabeth Seidel, of New Hanover, Pa., 
who also belonged to a family which 
had emigrated from Germany. They 
had twelve children, nine sons and three 
daughters, of whom the last survivor 
was the late Bev. J. Daniel Kurtz, D. D., 
of Baltimore. — Sprague. 




BEY. J. DANIEL KUBTZ, D.D. 



Bev. J. Daniel Kurtz, D. D., was born 
in Germantown, Pa., in the year 1763. 
His early advantages for education were 
only such as were supplied by the very 
indifferent schools in the neighborhood 
in which he lived. When he was a mere 
child, less than six years old, he began 
to feel an indefinite desire to become a 
minister of the Gospel; and he found, 
at no distant period, that this early 
proclivity was quite in accordance with 
the wishes of his father. While the 
B evolutionary War was in progress, his 
father resided at York, and Bishop White, 
who was then Chaplain to Congress, had 



his apartments for some time in his 
dwelling. The son had ceased going to 
school some time before the war closed, 
but he still pursued his studies, more or 
less, under his father, always keeping 
the ministry in his eye as the profession 
to which he was destined. His father 
now sent him to Lancaster to prosecute 
his studies under the instruction of Dr. 
Henry Ernst Muhlenberg. Here he 
commenced the study of Latin, and 
became more and more interested as he 
proceeded. Though his teacher, in 
consequence of his numerous engage- 
ments, devoted less attention to him 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



449 



than was desirable, yet he had a large 
and well selected library, to the use of 
which his pupil was made welcome; and 
this was a tolerable compensation for any 
deficiency in the matter of instruction. 

After prosecuting his studies at Lan- 
caster, with great diligence, for several 
years, he was examined at a meeting of 
the Synod in Philadelphia, and received 
a license to perform all ministerial duties. 
Shortly after this he returned to his 
father's house in York, and, after preach- 
ing several times for his father, and 
performing various pastoral duties among 
his people, took charge of two congre- 
gations in the neighborhood, preaching 
in each on the alternate Sabbath. He 
was ordained during a meeting of the 
Synod in Philadelphia, in 1784 or 1785. 

Before he had been preaching long 
he received a request, through his 
father, from Dr. Helmuth, of Philadel- 
phia, that he would come and be his 
assistant. But he felt constrained to 
decline the offer, on the ground of his 
unfitness for so prominent a station. 
The Doctor received his answer with 
decided disapprobation, and did not 
hesitate to make it manifest on various 
occasions afterwards. He, however, 
finally forgave the offense, and an inti- 
mate friendship grew up between them, 
which was terminated only by Dr. 
Helmuth' s death. 

In the same year (1786) it was re_ 
solved by the Synod that the Rev. Jacob 
Goering, Mr. Kurtz' brother-in-law, who 
had become assistant to his father at 
York, should, with Mr. Kurtz himself, 
make a missionary tour to the vacant 
congregations in Maryland and Virginia. 
They fulfilled this appointment very 
satisfactorily, and the next year Mr. 
Kurtz made another tour, going over 
nearly the same ground. 

About this time Mr. Kurtz made a 
visit to Baltimore, where he spent the 
57 



Sabbath and preached for his father's 
friend, the Rev. Mr. Goerock. His ser- 
vices proved highly acceptable, and the 
result was that he was called to be his as- 
sistant, and finally became his successor. 

In the year 1792 he was married to 
Maria Messersmith, in whom he found 
a devoted wife, and with whom he lived 
most happily for more than half a 
century. They had nine children. Mrs. 
Kurtz died in 1841, aged seventy-six 
years. 

In 1816 the degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity was conferred upon him by the 
University of Pennsylvania. 

In 1823 the Rev. Mr. Uhlhorn was 
chosen his assistant. In 1832 or 1833 
Mr. Kurtz resigned his charge, and a 
pension was settled upon him. In his 
eighty-eighth year he preached on two 
occasions, one of which was the dedica- 
tion of the Rev. M. Schwartz' church. 
In 1853, being then in his ninetieth 
year, he attended, by particular request, 
the laying of the corner stone of the two 
German Lutheran churches, and, on 
each occasion, delivered an address. 

Dr. Kurtz died in Baltimore on the 
30th of June, ]856, in the ninety-third 
year of his age, leaving one son and 
three daughters. His death was occa- 
sioned by no particular malady, but was 
rather the result of the gradual exhaus- 
tion of the sources of animal life. 

Dr. Kurtz was distinguished for 
simplicity, frankness and uncompromis- 
ing integrity. He was a man of much 
more than ordinary powers, and was a 
diligent student and great reader during 
his whole life. In his earlier years 
he bestowed considerable attention on 
Botany and Entomology; but, as he 
advanced in life, his studies took almost 
entirely a theological direction. He 
was an evangelical, impressive and 
earnest preacher, and an eminently 
faithful and affectionate pastor. He 



450 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



was admired and reverenced by the whole 
coramnnity amidst whom he lived. He 
never published any thing beyond a 
few articles in the Evangelical Magazine 
(a Quarterly published'by the Pennsyl- 



vania Synod), and the Evangelic Hymn 
Book, prepared by him and Dr. Baker, 
of the German Eeformed Church in 
Baltimore.— 5pra^we. 




EEV. SAMUEL LAIED, D.D. 



. The Eev. Samuel Laird, D. D., was 
born on the 7th of February, 1835, in 
New Castle Co., Del. When about six 
years of age his parents removed to 
Philadelphia, where he continued to live 
until after entering: the ministry. He 
was baptized and subsequently con- 
firmed by the Eev. Philip F. Mayer, 
D. D., pastor of St. John's Evangelical 
Lutheran church, of Philadelphia. He 
was educated in the public schools of 
the city, graduating from the high school 
in 1852, having completed the full class- 
ical course of study. In the fall of the 
same year he entered the Sophomore 
class of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and graduated from the department of 
Arts in 1855. He engaged in teaching 
and was employed in an academy in 
Philadelphia, giving instruction in Latin , 



mathematics and English literature. It 
was his intention to prepare himself for 
the bar, and for this purpose after a 
year's time commenced the study of law 
in the office of Benjamin Gerhard, Esq., 
but abandoned it for the ministry. His 
theological training was under the di- 
rection of Eev. Dr. J. A. Seiss, at that 
time his pastor, and the Eev. Dr. W. J. 
Mann, with the advice of the Eev. Dr. 
C. P. Krauth. He was received into 
the ministry Oct. 14, 1861, and accepted 
a call from St. Luke's English Evangel- 
ical Lutheran church of Philadelphia, 
and entered on the duties of his office 
there Dec. 1, 1861. On Sept. 1, 1864, he 
removed to Lancaster, Pa., where he 
took charge of Holy Trinity church. In 
1867 he became pastor of the First Eng- 
lish Evangelical Lutheran church of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



451 



Pittsburg, Pa., where he remained for 
over twelve years, when he accepted a 
call from St. Mark's church, Phila- 
delphia, in 1879, of which church he 
still has charge (1890). In addition to 
the duties of the pastorate he has filled 
various positions in the church, having 
been President of the Pittsburg Synod 
three years, Secretary of the General 
Council nine years. Treasurer of the 
Minister ium of Pennsylvania four years, 
and has also served on a number of im- 
portant committees. His ministerial life 
has been in the line of practical rather 
than literary activity ; he has been en- 
gaged in editorial labor and furnished a 



number of sermons for the public press. 
He entered the ministry when the 
English portion of the Church especially, 
was engaged in a series of doctrinal dis- 
cussions which led to a reaction from 
indifference and latitudinarianism to a 
better appreciation of the trath as held 
and taught by the Evangelical Lutheran 
church. From the very first he occupied 
a conservative position, and his influence 
has been exerted in favor of a strict ad- 
herence to the Confessions, and of a 
church life in conformity therewith. He 
took part in the formation of the Gen- 
eral Council and has always upheld and 
promoted its interests. 



EEY. HENEY LANG. 



Eev. Henry Lang, around whom grew 
up the Evangelical Lutheran church, at 
Fremont, O., and vicinity, a beloved 
pastor and highly esteemed in public 
educational circles, brother of the Hon. 
Judge Lang, of Tiffin, O , was born in 
Sippersfeld, in the Ehine Palatinate, 
Germany, on Nov. 28, 1818, the younger 
son of George L. H. and Catherine 
(Schuetz) Lang. With his father and 
others of the family he arrived in Tiffin, 
O., on Aug. 18, 1833, where, after a few 
years labor at his trade in a hat factory, 
he turned aside to study theology in the 
Evangelical Lutheran Theological Sem- 
inary at Columbus, O., and entered the 
ministry in June, 1843. His pastor at 
Tiffin had been Eev. Adolph A. Konrad, 
who, coming from Pennsylvania, located 
there in 1836 and missionated in nine 
places in Seneca and Wyandot counties, 
also visiting Fremont (then Lower San- 
dusky), in Sandusky Co., — penetrating 
even transiently to Woodville, fifteen 
miles farther west. He had Henry 



Lang in view for Fremont, and an- 
nounced this to the people there. But 
Pastor Konrad died in 1841. However 
his successor at Tiffin, the Eev. J. J. 
Beilharz, who came there from New 
York, actively furthered the work and 
plans of the former and supplied the field 
till help came — also touching at Wood- 
ville. In June or July, 1843, Eev. H. 
Lang accepted the charge at Fremont, 
and in true missionary activity emu- 
lated the zeal of his predecessors, labor- 
ing for a time in eight localities in San- 
dusky and Seneca counties. His labors 
then in those new regions were arduous, 
and, though in stature and physique of 
gentle mould, he endured hardships. 
Of gentle traits, too, and fine touch, he 
endeared himself to his people as pastor, 
and rose in honors and welcome socially 
among the cultured of his city, of whom 
notably were ex-President Hayes and 
his estimable lady. His Lutheran ele- 
ment was in part Pennsylvania German, 
and it was difficult to sever the attach- 



452 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ment of his outposts here and there from 
his affectionate spirit for the formation 
of other parishes. His congregation at 
Fremont, which at last he solely served, 
and fluently alike in both the German 
and English languages, rose during his 
ministry of forty-six years from an orig- 
inal membership of forty communicants 
to numerically one of the most flourish- 
ing in all that section, Eev. Lang was 
a representative man of the North in 
the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod 
of Ohio; present at its conventions, de- 
voted to its interests, zealous for its 
cause, and served on its standing com- 
mittees and various boards — notably also 
of its institutions at Columbus, O., as a 
matter of course. He was also promi- 
nently identified with the public educa- 
tional interests of his own city, was one 
of the leading citizens to whom Fremont 
owes its successful system of graded 
schools, remaining for twenty years a 
standing Director, and on its Board of 
Examiners at his death; and was an ac- 
tive member of the Sandusky County 
Pioneer and Historical Society. He 
kept a diary and gathered autobio- 
graphical sketches from all the Lutheran 
clergy, East and West, with whom he 
came in contact. A proximate concep- 



tion of his pastoral activity may be 
gained from the number of his ofiicial 
acts. During his ministry at Fremont 
and vicinity he baptized 3,639 persons, 
confirmed 1,849, ofiiciated at 1,253 fu- 
nerals, married 1,152 couples, and ad- 
ministered the Holy Supper to a sum 
total of 27,340 communicants. 

Eev. H. Lang was married on Nov. 
28, 1843, to Miss Mary Louise Beilharz, 
daughter of Eev. J. J. Beilharz, of 
Tiffin. She and three children preceded 
him in death, two sons and four daugh- 
ters survive. He preached his last 
sermon on Sunday, Jan. 26, 1890; per- 
formed his last official act, a marriage, 
on Jan. 29, and after a brief illness from 
a contracted cold gently fell asleep in 
the faith that he witnessed in word and 
life, on Feb. 22, 1890, at the age of 71 
years, 2 months and 24 days. Not only 
the Church and clergy at large, but the 
public paid marked tribute to his mem- 
ory on the occasion of his funeral 
service; the business houses of Fremont 
closed, the schools were suspended for 
the time being, and the school buildings 
were draped in mourning. His body 
rests in Oak Wood Cemetery at Fre- 
mont, Ohio. 




JOHN DIEDEEICH LANKENAU. 



John Diederich Lankenau was born 
March 18th, 1817, in the free imperial 
city of Bremen, Germany, where his 
father lived as a highly respected business 
man. He enjoyed the advantages of the 
excellent educational institutions of his 
native city, the town school and high 
school, and was confirmed on Easter, 
1832. His pastor was the well-known 
Dr. John H. B. Draeseke, one of the 



most eloquent and patriotic men that 
ever adorned a German pulpit, who 
served St. Ansgarius Church in Bremen 
from 1814 to 1832. It was the aim of 
his pastoral work, as he himself styles 
it, to stir up his hearers to "love, to 
work, to fight, to sacrifice themselves 
for the fatherland, to trust in their Lord 
God, being assured that they were 
laboring for a good cause." With such 



AMERICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



453 




.'^••r/''V.''V.'''V."-. 



JOHN D. LANKENAU. 



a spirit Draeseke sought to fill also his 
catechumens, as is seen from the me- 
morial words which he wrote with his 
own hand in the hymn-book of yonng 
Lankenau and which have been faith- 
fully and lovingly preserved to the 
present day. 

Immediately after his confirmation 
John D. Lankenau entered as clerk into 
the colonial produce busines of "Tiersch 
& Gerischer," the successors of his 
father's firm, "Lankenau & Tiersch." 
Having spent three years in this business 
he was engaged by Mr. Wicht for his 
Philadelphia house, "Wicht, Werner & 
Co." On the 4th of August, 1836, he 
left his home to embark for Baltimore 
on the ship "Elise." He never saw his 
father again in this life; but he visited 
his mother repeatedly in later years 
when traveling on business. After a 
pleasant voyage of about six weeks he 
arrived in Baltimore, September 15th, 
1836. There he stayed for a few days 
with an old schoolmate, and then con- 



tinued his journey to Philadelphia. On 
his arrival there he soon found the house 
for which he had been engaged. The 
building is still standing at the corner 
of Front street and Norris Alley. In 
the year 1840 Mr. Werner withdrew 
from business and the name of the firm 
was changed to "Wicht & Say en," and 
five years afterward, in the year 1845, 
to "Wicht & Lankenau." Mr. Wicht's 
nephew was the partner in the new firm, 
the old gentleman having withdrawn on 
account of an incurable disease. He 
died in the same year, and Mr. Sayen 
died in April, 1846. About this time 
there was the first approach between 
Mr. F. M. Drexel and Mr. John D. 
Lankenau. The latter was getting ready 
to start for Europe on a business tour 
and stopped at Drexel' s bank in Third 
street to buy some English silver, as he 
intended to embark for Liverpool on the 
ship "Saranak." Mr. Drexel took a 
kindly interest in the young man, asked 
him about his plans, and gave him some 



454 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



good advice from his own business ex- 
perience. In the month of November 
of the same year he met Mr. Drexel 
again in his own house. Being himself 
very fond of music, Mr. Lankenau on 
one of his "musical evenings" had met 
young Mr. Francis A. Drexel. A warm 
friendship was formed between them. 
Through him Mr. Lankenau became a 
friend in the Drexel family, and on the 
9th of October, 1848, he was married to 
Mary Johanna, daughter of F. M. Drexel. 
She was a lady well known for her quiet, 
unpretentious charities, an indefatigable 
friend and benefactress of the poor and 
suffering. Once she accompanied her 
husband on a journey to Europe 
and stayed with his mother while he 
attended to his business. Their happy 
union lasted for nearly twenty-five years, 
when it was broken by the death of the 
beloved wife in May, 1873. 

The vicissitudes of the great war 
against the rebellion induced the firm 
"Wicht & Lankenau" to sell oat and 
close their business. Before Richmond 
fell this was concluded in a satisfactory 
manner, and Mr. Lankenau's partners 
returned to Germany. He himself was 
unwilling to start a new business. On 
the 5th of June, 1863, his father-in-law, 
Mr. F. M. Drexel, had lost his life 
through an accident on the Reading 
Railroad, and Mr. Lankenau had been 
appointed one of the executors. The 
administration of this estate filled his 
whole time. 

His connection with the German 
hospital also dates from that time. Old 
Mr. Drexel having been a chief patron 
of the Institution and its treasurer, it 
was natural that the eyes of the friends 
of the hospital turned to Mr. Lankenau 
as the successor of his father-in-law and 
the representative of the Drexel family. 
The hospital, which had already been 
projected in 1850, was chartered by the 



legislature in 1860. But hardly had it 
secured its property at Twentieth and 
Norris streets when the war broke out. 
The Government took possession of it 
and used it as a military hospital until 
July 1st, 1866. The operations of the 
German Hospital as such, accordingly, 
were only begun in the month of 
November of that year. In January, 
1869, Mr. Lankenau was elected Presi- 
dent, and. he has held this ofiice without 
interruption through these twenty years, 
honestly endeavoring, as he in his 
characteristic modesty expresses it, "to 
do his duty toward the Institution and 
his fellow-citizens." The removal from 
Twentieth and Norris streets to the 
present location could never have been 
carried ont without his co-operation and 
assistance. The remarkable progress 
which the Institution has made since 
then, the extension of its buildings, the 
alterations and additions, the complete 
reconstruction of the internal adminis- 
tration, especially by the introduction 
of the Deaconesses, have all been essen- 
tially his work. He purchased, in ad- 
dition to the original projierty on Girard 
and Corinthian avenues, the whole piece 
of ground, as far as Twenty-second street, 
between Girard avenue and Poplar street. 
He built the new southern wing, which 
was dedicated on November 18th, 1884; 
the new kitchen, boiler house, laundry, 
stable and deadhouse, all at his own 
expense; also the beautiful and substan- 
tial stone wall and iron fence which 
surround the whole property. And yet 
all these improvements, those extensive 
and admirably furnished buildings, 
represent only a fraction of what he has 
been doing for the Institution from year 
to year. For with him, as it has been 
very properly said, every day, all the 
year round, is donation day for the 
German hospital. He gives to it his 
time, his means, his abundant business 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



455 



experience, and, what is mnch more, the 
personal interest and devotion of his 
warm, benevolent heart. The unceasing 
work for the hospital has become one 
of the necessities of his life, and all the 
more so since, in God's mysterious 
providence, those loved ones, to whom 
he was united by the most sacred bonds, 
have been taken away, leaving him alone 
in this world in the evening of his life. 
It is their memory which he seeks to 
preserve and to honor by his gifts and 
institutions. 

In addition to the death of his wife, 
in May, 1873, there came the loss of his 
son Frank, who was taken off in the 
prime of life, on the 23d of February, 
1877. This was a terrible blow, not 
only to the father, but also to his sister 
Elise, the only remaining child. Those 
two had been most devoted to each other 
in purest and tenderest affection. Both 
in their lessons and their recreation, in 
society and in church, everywhere and 
always, the two were inseparable. And 
there is no doubt that the grief over the 
loss of the beloved brother was eating 
away the very life of that hitherto 
blooming and healthy girl. Friends ad- 
vised a journey to Europe, and on the 
4th of August, 1877, the same day of the 
month when forty-one years before he 
had left his home on the ship Elise, he 
now started for Bremen with his daugh- 
ter Elise. They first paid a visit to 
Holland, France and Italy. At Brindisi 
they met the late Mr. Joseph W. Drexel 
and his wife on Dec. 31, 1877, and con- 
cluded the year on board the British 
steamer Deccan which, after a three 
days' voyage, landed them in the harbor 
of Alexandria. Having reached Cairo 
by train they stopped at the excellent 
Hotel du Nil, which is kept by a German. 
Arrangements were made for an extend- 
ed tour on the Nile on a Dahabieh. 
About the same time Gen. Grant, on his 



trip around the world, happened to be 
in Cairo, and the Khedive placed a 
magnificent steamer at his disposal. 
There the Drexels and Miss Lankenau 
paid a visit to the General, but Mr. 
Lankenau was unable to accompany 
them, as he suffered from an attack of 
"Nile-sickness." Their excursion in the 
Dahabieh extended as far as Assuan, 
the ancient Syene. There the travelers 
stayed for a week and visited the island 
of Philae. They passed the first cataract 
in the boat and on the return trip paid 
a visit to many celebrated temple-ruins, 
particularly those of Edfu, which are 
among the best preserved in Egypt. 
After another week's sojourn in Cairo 
they embarked on a French steamer 
from Alexandria for Naples. From 
there they proceeded to Kome, where 
the indisposit'on of Miss Lankenau 
forced them to stop for several weeks. 
After their return to Germany they took 
the Lloyd steamer to Southampton, 
visited the Isle of Wight and then made 
a longer stay in London, in the small 
but most comfortable hotel, Flemming's, 
in Half Moon Street, near Green Park. 
There they met some dear Philadelphia 
friends, and spent three pleasant weeks 
in undisturbed seclusion. In those quiet 
evening hours at the fireside, when the 
various reminiscences of their travels 
were collected and revived in their 
memory and plans were made for the 
future, the project of the Mary J. Drexel 
Home was first mentioned, and gradually 
developed in the conversations between 
father and daughter. He had repeatedly 
told her liow hard it had often been for 
him that respectable old people, on their 
dismissal from the hospital, had to be 
turned out into the world without a 
place to lay their head. Thus it became 
a favorite idea of his daughter that on 
the grounds of the German Hospital 
an Old People's Home should be erected 



456 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



called the Mary J. Drexel Home, after 
her lamented mother. Almost daily 
this theme was the subject of their 
conversation, and father and daughter 
were as one heart and one soul on this 
topic. 

From London they visited some other 
places of interest, like Oxford, Leming- 
ton, Stratford-on-Avon, Kenilworth, etc., 
and finally the beautiful Scotch capital, 
Edinburgh. On the 10th of November, 
1878, they reached Philadelphia again 
by steamer Illinois from Liverpool. 
Exactly eight years afterward, Nov. 11, 
1886, the corner-stone of the Mary J. 
Dextrel Home was laid. But she who 
had helped to plan it with such devotion 
and enthusiasm was no longer among 
the living. In 1882 already the daughter 
Elise had followed her brother Frank 
in death, and since then the aged father 
has stood entirely alone, constantly en- 
gaged in providing shelter and nursing 
for the homeless and forsaken. 

Wherever an opportunity offered it- 
self to show an active interest in German 
movements and enterprises in Phila- 
delphia, Mr. J. D. Lankenau, as a matter 
of course, took a most prominent posi- 
tion. In the year 1875, when the prep- 
arations for the great Centennial were 
made, he was, on the motion of Consul 



Chas. H. Meyer, appointed Chairman of 
the German Exhibition Committee, 
consisting of Messrs. Lankenau, Gus- 
tavus Kemak and Chas. H. Meyer. In 
recognition of his valuable services on 
this committee he was decorated with 
the Crown Order of the third class. 
When, later on, his comprehensive plans 
with the Mary J. Drexel Home were 
developed and carried out, Consul Chas. 
H. Meyer in a special report brought 
Mr. Lankenau's benefactions for the 
Germans in Philadelphia to the knowl- 
edge of the German government and of 
the late Emperor William I, who, to- 
gether with the Empress Augusta, 
showed such a kind interest in our 
German Hospital and the cause of the 
Deaconnesses. The result was that 
Emperor William honored Philadel- 
phia's noble German benefactor by be- 
stowing upon him the very high 
distinction of the Order of the Crown of 
the second class. In January, 1885, this 
order was transmitted to the Consul 
through the German Ambassador von 
Alvensleben, and was handed to Mr. 
Lankenau, with the hearty congratula- 
tions of the Board of the German Hos- 
pital, through Consul Chas. H. Meyer 
and Dr. A. Spaeth. 




EEV. THOMAS LAPE. 



Rev. Thomas Lape was born in West 
Sandlake, Rensselaer Co., N. Y., in 1801 , 
of Lutheran parentage. He early gave 
his heart to the Saviour, and felt called 
of God to the work of the gospel ministry. 
He graduated at Union College, Schen- 
ectady, and studied theology at Hart- 
wick Seminary. His first pastoral 



charge was at Johnstown, Fulton Co., 
where he succeeded Rev. John P. Goert- 
ner, who had died after a few years 
labor in the ministry. There he toiled 
successfully for six years, from Sept. 
15, 1829, and then accepted a call to 
West Camp and Woodstock. In 1837 
he removed to Athens and assumed the 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



457 



pastoral charge of Zion's Lutheran 
church, which he served for ten years, 
after which he ministered successively 
to the Lutheran churches at Waterloo, 
at Lockport, and then again at West 
Camp and Woodstock. 

He was an instructive preacher; a 
gentle, amiable, cheerful and faithful 
pastor; a good husband and father; a 
humble Christian, and a sincere friend. 
He stood well among the Lutheran 
clergy of the state. 

He was one of the founders of the 
Hart wick Synod, had been its president, 
and filled other offices of trust and re- 
sponsibility in this body, having re- 
mained connected with it for forty-seven 
years, and until his death. 

He used his pen effectively, as well 
as his voice, for the cause of Christ. He 
compiled the Theological Sketch Book, 
in two large octavo volumes, which had 
a large sale. He was the author of a 
w^ork on Infant Baptism, which has for 
many years been circulated in the 
church. About twenty-five years ago 
he prepared a w^ork on the Atonement, 
which was published in New York. He 
was the author of a prize tract on the 
Statistics of Litemperance, which was 
published by the National Temperance 
Society. He also published books en- 
titled, "The Mourner Comforted," and 
"The Early Saved." Some of his ser- 
mons were pubished in the Lutheran 
Preacher, and some in the National 
Preacher. He also wa'ote for our church 
papers and Quarterly Review. 



He spent the passing years indus- 
triously and effectively in winning souls 
for Christ, in earnestly advocating the 
cause of temperance and of Sunday 
schools, and in leading an honorable 
and useful Christian life, which was 
protracted much beyond the average of 
ministerial labor. 

He closed his life peacefully and 
hopefully. Among his papers is one 
dated August 1, 1876, in which he takes 
a retrospect of life and says: "In looking 
over my past life I bless God for allow- 
ing me to preach the gospel of Christ 
for upwards of forty years. I never felt 
better than when I was thus engaged. 
My only regret is that I have not ac- 
complished more for His glory, I have 
often felt at seasons of the communion 
that it was actually a foretaste of heaven 
upon the earth. My prayer to God is — 

" ' Not in my innocence I trust — 
I bow before thee in the dust; 
And in my Saviour's blood alone, 
I look for mercy at Thy throne.' 

"My epitaph upon the tombstone shall 
be, 'The Children's Friend.' I desire 
these two hymns sung at my funeral, 
'Just as I arn, without one plea,' and 
'Rock of Ages.' " 

The fear of death had been removed, 
He contemplated his departure with 
satisfaction; and he died in the faith, 
full of years and full of Christian hope. 
He now reaps the reward of a well- 
spent life, and his works do follow him, 
— Memorial Hariw. Synod. 




58 



458 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REV. PROF. P. L. LARSEN. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Christiansand, Norway, on the 10th 
of August, 1833. Having taken the 
regular classical and theological course 
at the Christiania University he was 
graduated with honors in 1855. About 
two years later he emigrated to America, 
and accepted a call as pastor of a con- 
gregation near Rush River, Pierce Co., 
Wis. In 1859, on the 14th of October, 
he was called by the Norwegian Synod 
as its Theological Professor at the Con- 
cordia Seminary in St. Louis. When, 
in 1861, that Synod established Luther 
College inDecorah,Ia.,Prof. Larsen was 
called as President of this institution, 



which position he has now occupied 
over thirty years. Besides the faithful 
discharge of his many and often diffi- 
cult duties as President of Luther Col- 
lege, he has also, since 1868, been chief 
editor of Euangelisk Luthersk Kirketidende, 
the organ of the Norwegian Synod, and 
since 1876 he has been successively 
elected Vice-President of the Synod, 
Prof. Larsen has taken active part in 
the discussions of all the general ques- 
tions that have from time to time agi- 
tated the Norwegian Lutheran Church 
in this country, and has been a member 
of the most important boards and com- 
mittees in the Svnod. 




AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



459 



j^-=^ 




EEY. PROF. W. F. LEHMANN, Ph.D. 



Rev. Prof. W. F. Lelimann, Pli. D., 
was born Oct. 16, 1820, in Markgroen- 
ingen, in the kingdom of Wuertemberg, 
Germany. He was the third son of the 
coppersmith Christian Andrew Lehmann 
and of Wilhelmina Justina Greulich. 
When he was nine days old he was dedi- 
cated to God in baptism. At the age 
of four years he came with his parents 
to the United States, who made Phila- 
delphia, Pa., their home. His parents 
earnestly sought to train William and 
all their children, twelve in number, in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
They sent him to the parochial school 
of the St. Michael's church of which 
they were members. The well-known 
composer and publisher of church 
music, Mr. J. G. Schmauck, was his 
school teacher, who loved and treated 
his pujiil in a fatherly manner and pro- 
moted in him the spirit of faith and 
piety. With great care he was instructed 
in the Christian doctrine by his faithful 
teacher, as also by the Pastors Peixoto 



and Dr. Demme. His preceptors soon 
discovered his pious disposition, excel- 
lent talents and love for study, and 
treated him with greater kindness, giv- 
ing him additional instructon prepara- 
•tory to his future course of study, for 
which they had intended him. After 
being confirmed in his fourteenth year 
by the Rev. E. Peixoto, he was induced 
to prepare himself for the gospel 
ministry. Not approving the un-Luth- 
eran spirit of the neighboring Gettys- 
burg Seminary, these men sent their 
beloved pupil to the theological semi- 
nary at Columbus, O., established five 
years previously. The German Zion's 
and St. Michael's churches had received 
a legacy, from the interest of which 
they were held to assist indigent young 
men in preparing for the service of the 
Lord. The subject of our sketch, as 
likewise after him his friend Krotel, 
now Doctor of Divinity in New York, 
was tendered such aid. He set out on 
his long journey to Columbus in a stage 



460 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



coach, arriving safely after a ten days' 
journey under God's protection, in the 
fall of the year 1834, at the seminary. 
At that time the highly gifted but long 
since departed Prof. W. Schmidt taught 
in our seminary, which was then situated 
in the southern part of the city of 
Columbus. Under the Professor's di- 
rection the young William studied for 
four and a half years ancient languages 
and theology. He as likewise his fellow 
students were obliged to learn to be 
contented in their distressing circum- 
stances, for the support he received 
from the above named legacy was in- 
sufficient to supply his wants. 

Rev. Spielmann, who at that time was 
a student of the seminary, relates in his 
history^of the Joint Synod of Ohio: 
"Sevei'al new students now again had 
entered our seminary, among whom was 
the present Prof. W. F. Lehmann. As 
most of them were in great poverty and 
had no source of income, six of us pre- 
pared their own meals in the cellar of 
the seminary building, which in the be- 
ginning cost each one forty-nine cents a 
week. On the open upper floor we all 
slept, and Prof. Lehmann and I not 
possessing a bedstead slept on a straw 
pallet on the floor." Rev. Spielmann 
here adds: "Our board consisted mostly 
of cornmeal bread and potatoes, which 
with a piece of bread also served for a 
cold dinner when the time to cook was 
wanting; and this quite frequently 
happened. As Lehmann and myself 
were also destitute of the necessary bed 
covers in winter, we laid the cast-off 
clothing of other students upon us, to 
protect ourselves as best we might in 
cold nights against the cold. God how- 
ever gave us good health, a joyful and 
contented heart, and diligence to study." 
Faithfully using the fine talents with 
which God had blessed him, he made 
such progress in his studies, that at the 



age of nineteen years he was received 
as a candidate of theology at the meet- 
ing of Joint Synod in the year 1839 at 
Columbus, O. He however did not im- 
mediately enter into the service of the 
church, but returned to Philadelphia, 
where he, under the direction of Dr. 
Demme and Rev. Reichert, continued to 
pursue his studies for some time, with 
special reference to the Hebrew lan- 
guage. At this time he also visited the 
seminary at Gettysburg; but as the un- 
Lutheran atmosphere which prevailed 
there did not agree with him, he after 
two or three weeks again returned to 
Philadelphia. 

In September, 1840, he received a call 
from congregations in Fairfield Co., O., 
which were vacacted by the appointment 
of Rev. C. Spielmann as agent for the 
seminary. Accepting this call he, through 
the guidance of God, again returned to 
Ohio and resided in Lancaster, the 
centre of the eight congregations form- 
ing this charge. In this extended 
parish he labored with faithfulness un- 
til May, 1842. 

About this time, a report of the Semi- 
nary Board relates: "The Board of Di- 
rectors appointed the Rev. W. F. 
Lehmann to travel as an agent for one 
year, to collect contributions towards 
our seminary in the East. But because 
the times then were too unfavorable and 
because many friends of our seminary 
in those parts were prepared too little 
for such an effort, Mr. Lehmann could 
only collect in Philadelphia. In this 
agency he spent nearly three months, 
whereupon he resigned. In November 
of the same year he was again appointed 
to collect the money subscribed for our 
seminary in Western Pennsylvania and 
Eastern Ohio, and also to solicit new 
subscriptions." 

In the month of May, 1843, he was 
called to the large charge in Somerset 



AMEBIC AN LI3THEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



461 



as the successor of Rev. C. Spielmann, 
who on account of prolonged illness was 
obliged to resign. The Western Dis- 
trict convened in Somerset, Perry Co., 
O., in June of that year, at which meet- 
ing, after passing a successful examina- 
tion, he was ordained as pastor. Here 
he labored in his six congregations 
faithfully and with God's blessing, living 
in true friendship and harmony in the 
family of his former schoolmate, Rev. 
C. Spielmann, until the latter was called 
to the seminary in October, 1844. In 
close communion of heart and soul they 
here labored many days and half -nights, 
as likewise afterwards at Columbus, in 
the service of the church, during which 
time they spent together many sad and 
dark, but also, through God's grace, 
many joyful and blessed hours. 

After the removal of the Lutheran 
Standard^ in 1845, from Zanesville to 
Somerset, O , and subsequently to Co- 
lumbus, he actively assisted the Rev. C. 
Spielmann in its publication. In those 
days he not only furnished many excel- 
lent translations from Lutheran works 
and other communications for the 
columns of the Standard, but also con- 
tinually belonged to the publication 
committee appointed by Synod. 

The theological chair in the seminary 
at Columbus having become vacant in 
the year 184(3, the Board of Directors, 
by a unanimous vote, called him to fill 
the vacancy. He entered upon the 
duties of his new office in the month of 
June, 1847, and when Capital University 
was organized and established under the 
presidency of Dr. Wm. M. Reynolds, he 
was called to assume the duties of the 
German Professorship. During a period 
of thirty-four years he discharged the 
office of a teacher in rearing and edu- 
cating several hundreds of young men 
for the gospel ministry and for other 
learned callings. He did this in a 



manner of which the Board of Directors 
has on different occasions borne testi- 
mony by affirming: ''That the new Pro- 
fessor had fulfilled his manifold duties 
with faithfulness and diligence, and 
that as respects doctrine it is always his 
endeavor to remain faithful to the Con- 
fessions of our Church." And that he 
shared not only the days of prosperity 
of the institution to which he had been 
called, and whose interests he loved to 
promote, but that he willingly also par- 
took of the sad days that befell her in 
the course of years, the following state- 
ment from a report of the Seminary 
Board to Synod may prove: "Our Theo- 
logical Professor, W. F. Lehmann, still 
labors on, notwithstanding the lament- 
able state of affairs of late years, with 
his usual diligence and to the full satis- 
faction of the Board, to his difficult 
position." 

Having made Columbus his home, 
and the old St. Paul's church having 
withdrawn from the Synod of Ohio, the 
Professor at once went to work to build 
up a new congregation called the Ger- 
man Ev. Lutheran Trinity Church, 
which he served almost thirty years. 

In the year 1859 he was also made 
chief editor of the Kirchenzeitung, which 
the Ohio Synod began publishing that 
year. His labors also in this depart- 
ment were not only well received, but 
the list of subscribers and the scope of 
usefulness of the new paper increased 
from year to year. 

Having resigned his pastorate in Co- 
lumbus when the institution was removed 
to its present site, he was instrumental 
in organizing a new congregation which 
is known as Christ Church near Capital 
University, of which he was pastor dur- 
ing the last two years of his sojourn 
here. And as he was proficient in the 
use of the English language as well as 
the German, and zealously desiring that 



462 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



the Lutheran doctrine should be spreadi 
among the American people, he also 
preached in English, and, as some mem- 
bers of the present English Lutheran 
Grace church can bear witness, he was 
very willing to supply their spiritual 
wants. 

The Ohio Synod employed his ser- 
vices in various ways, Now he was 
made a member of the Seminary Board, 
then Secretary of the Synod, again 
President of the Western District and 
of the Joint Synod, again he was created 
President of Capital University, which 
position he occupied for many years. 
He was always willing to do whatever 
he could and knew to be right. He 
spent many a day and week at Synodical 
conventions, at Ministerial conferences, 
in counseling and settling difficulties in 
the congregations, and writing letters of 
recommendation and advice. The Luth- 
eran Church at large also utilized his 
abilities as moderator by creating him 
President of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Synodical Conference to which office he 
was repeatedly re-elected. 

Dr. Lehmann exhibited that energy 
of character and that strength of intel- 
lect which, combined with a most up- 
right and amiable disposition of mind, 
commanded the respect and secured the 
affection of the community in which he 
lived. An ardent devotion to the cause 
of Christ's kingdom, to the Lutheran 
Church and Synod especially, w^hich he 
served, which had grown with him and 
he with her, an uncompromising opposi- 
tion to what he perceived to be un- 
Lutheran, and a most tender solicitude 
for the institution and for the spiritual 
welfare of the flock, were with a very 
conservative cast of mind the main fea- 
tures of his Christian character. Thus 
we may truly say that his whole life was 



spent in promoting the welfare of Zion 
and that he may truly be called a father 
in the Ohio Synod, a father in Israel. 

The sainted Professor w^as twice 
married. On the 23d day of April, 1846, 
he united in marriage with Miss Lucy 
Anna Conley, of Miamisburg, O., with 
wdrom he had three daughters and one 
son, one daughter and son having pre- 
ceded their father to the shores of eter- 
nal bliss. One of the surviving daugh- 
ters, Fanny, is married to Rev. Gerhard 
Rasmussen at present of Madison, Wis. 
His first wdfe having died ISTov. 18, 1868, 
he was married on the 7th of November, 
1867, to Miss Kate Oberlin, of Canton, 
Stark Co., O. This union was blessed 
with two sons and two daughters, all of 
whom survive their dear father. 

The disease of malignant cancer, hav- 
ing located in his system, and broken 
out in his lower right jaw, in conse- 
quence of a tooth drawn, he suffered 
intense pain, the distress being increased 
by paralysis of his left side. He com- 
forted himself, however, with the prom- 
ises of the gospel given to all that know 
and feel their sinfulness, and with the 
holy sacraments, and wdth that happy 
home of eternal rest and • peace, which 
he was sure to enter for Christ's sake. 
He suffered five months and a half to 
the glory of God, in whom he bore his 
disease patiently, receiving all the kind- 
ness and tender-heartedness of a Chris- 
tian wife, of obedient and loving children, 
of a sympathizing relationship, of de- 
voted brethren in the ministry, and of 
pupils in the seminary, receiving affec- 
tionate care from all till he breathed 
his last. 

He departed this life Dec. 1, 1880, at 
the age of sixty years, one month and 
fourteen days. — Spielmann. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



463 



COL. JOHN J. LEHMANOWSKY. 



The following sketch is taken from 
I)r. Morris' "Fifty years in the Lnth- 
eran Ministry." 

According to the best information 
derived from personal intercourse and 
other sources Col. John Jacob Lehman- 
owsky was born ' of Jewish parents in 
the city of Warsaw, in the year 1773. 
I am not sure that his mother was an 
Israelite ; but his strongly marked Orient- 
al features and familiarity with the 
Hebrew language, together with other 
circumstances, were satisfactory evidence 
to my mind that he was of the stock of 
Abraham. His father was a professional 
chemist, and this circumstance afforded 
the son ample opportunity for pursuing 
studies in natural science. Having 
received an education at the university, 
he directed special attention to the 
subject of Christianity at a time when 
he felt deep concern about future retri- 
bution. His religious convictions result- 
ed in his conversion to a firm faith in 
Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. On 
announcing this fact to his father, on the 
following morning, after a night spent 
in great mental anxiety, he met with a 
decided rebuke. Subsequently, however, 
the old gentleman, who was an intelligent 
and learned man, bade him Godspeed, 
and became reconciled to his religious 
change. Soon afterwards he went to 
Paris which city was then greatly agitated 
by the revolution, and the young and 
ardent Pole was induced by the repeated 
cry of ''Liberte Egolite," to join the 
Republican army. He accompanied the 
rising Napoleon, and was present at the 
siege and capture of Toulon, in Novem- 
ber, 1793. Lehmanowsky remained 
faithful to his great Captain, and followed 
his fortunes from Toulon to Waterloo, 
a period of twenty -two years. 



I have often heard him say that he 
had been engaged in 204 battles. He 
was with Napoleon in genial Italy, amid 
the scorching sands of Egypt, and the 
drifting snows of Russia. In the cam- 
paign of 1812 he commanded a regiment 
of Polish Lancers; and during the 
disastrous retreat of the French army 
from Moscow, subsisted for 37 days on 
rotten horseflesh. 

He was frequently wounded, the marks 
of which his person plainly showed. 
A very severe sabre wound near his 
mouth was received at the battle of 
Austerlitz in 1805 ; this occurred during 
the storming of a redoubt, when he 
killed two of three cavalry men, and 
escaped the third by bounding over a 
ravine after his pursuing enemy had 
slashed him with his sabre which struck 
the chain of his cap, and was somewhat 
parried thereby. 

Whilst Napoleon was at Elba, after 
the battle of Leipzig, Lehmanowsky 
occupied himself at Paris with the 
various clubs that were plotting for the 
Emperor's return. The picture of a 
violet with the sentence: "Reviendra 
aux Prin temps," was well understood 
among the Imperial abettors. According 
to the Colonel's statement, Marshall 
Ney, with whom he was intimate, was 
deeply concerned in the plot. It is well 
known that this "bravest of the brave," 
who had been sent out by Louis XVIII 
to intercept the exiled Emperor of Elba, 
after he had landed at Cannes, joined 
with his command the invading army 
of Napoleon. The Polish Colonel was 
accustomed to maintain that Marshall 
Ney's promise to bring the exile to Paris 
like a caged lion was redeemed; for he 
did bring the lion and let him out of 
the cage at Paris. At the battle of 



464 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Waterloo, in 1815, Col. Lehmanowsky 
was one of Marshall Ney's four aid-de- 
camp. Soon after that decisive conflict 
he was arrested and imprisoned in Paris 
about the same time with Marshall Ney. 
The latter was shot, whilst the Colonel 
affected his escape from prison in a 
remarkable manner. Cutting his bed 
blankets into strings and tying them 
together, he fastened one end to the 
iron grating of the window of his cell, 
which was in an upper story of the 
BasUle. He let himself down one night, 
but to his dismay he found the rope too 
short, and there he hung a considerable 
distance above the ditch surrounding the 
walls of his prison, which was filled with 
water. Feeling the desperateness of 
his situation, he let himself drop, and 
one of his feet was soon penetrated by a 
sharp spike, of which there were many 
projecting from the ditch. With much 
difiiculty he managed to get loose, and 
after clearing the ditch, encountered 
an armed sentinel, to whom he said: 
*'Do your duty." But the sentinel 
happening to be a soldier of his own 
regiment recognized the well known 
voice of his commanding officer, said 
quietly: "Pass on Col. Lehmanowpky." 
He soon found himself at the house of 
a friend in the city of Paris, who returned 
with him and covered up the bloody 
tracks to a sufficient distance lest his 
retreat might be discovered. Here he 
was concealed for a number of weeks, 
until his wound was sufficiently healed 
to enable him to escape entirely from 
his enemies. 

In the meantime the police were active 
in his pursuit, and handbills containing 
a full description of his person were ex- 
tensively circulated; but all to no avail, 
for he succeeded in avoiding all their 
efforts to arrest him, and in due time 
found himself safely landed in the city 
of New York. When he reached the 



shores of this free country, he was so 
much overcome by his feelings that he 
prostrated himself upon the ground and 
heartily thanked God for the wonderful 
and benign providence which had 
brought him to the "land of the free and 
the home of the brave." 

After some time, about the year 181P, 
he married a Swiss lady in the city of 
Philadelphia. By his first wife he be- 
came the father of four children, two 
daughters and two sons, viz: Simonetta, 
Louis, John, Henry and Paulina. He 
resided subsequently several years in 
Eastern Pennsylvania at different places, 
and supported himself and family by 
teaching the art of fencing, at which he 
was an adept. He owned a sword which 
was of extraordinary elasticity. He also 
taught some of the modern languages, 
of which he understood quite a number, 
among them French, Spanish, and 
Italian. 

For reasons satisfactory to himself, 
he suppressed his real name, and for 
many years was known as Major Leh- 
man. But in 1812, when General 
Lafayette was here on a visit as the 
guest of our nation, Lehmanowsky was 
appointed to lead a company of Poles 
and other foreigners as the escort of 
Lafayette into Washington city. On 
reviewing the military who had marched 
out to greet him, the illustrious guest 
recognized his old friend, and embracing 
him before the crowd of spectators, 
addressed him as Col. Lehmanowsky. 
By General Lafayette he was persuaded 
to lay aside the name of Lehman, because, 
said he, "Should any of the Napoleon 
dynasty ever again ascend the French 
throne, it would forfeit your claims 
against the government." Accordingly 
from that time he resumed his legitimate 
name. 

I have often heard him speak of 
George Washington Lafayette, son of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



465 



the Marquis, as a fellow soldier in the 
French army, and as an intimate per- 
sonal friend. General Lafayette made 
a present of $1000 to Col. Lehmanowsky 
throught an attorney at Baltimore, for 
the purpose of enabling him to purchase 
a farm. A lady of Nashville, Tenn., 
also presented him with a considerable 
sum for a similar purpose. Accordingly 
he purchased a small farm near Knights- 
town, Henry Co., Ind., where he practiced 
medicine, being known as the Polish 
Doctor, and cultivated the land until 
the year 1837. 

He was for some time employed as an 
agent by the Immigrants Friend's 
Society, and then had his headquarters 
at Cincinnati. During this time he 
married Miss Lydia Sieg, daughter of 
John Sieg, a respectable farmer living 
near Corydon, Ind. The Colonel had 
been previously, in October, 1836, in 
Boone Co., Ky., ordained as a minister 
of the gospel by the Evangelical Luth- 
eran Synod of the West. 

At the time of his second marriage 
he was sixty-four years of age, and his 
wife, Lydia, was twenty-two. By this 
marriage he came into possession of 
eighty acres of land, and soon after set- 
tled upon it. 

About this time there came to Corydon 
a wandering Pole, who made gome 
disturbance in the community by re- 
porting that Colonel Lehmanowsky was 
an imposter. Consequently the Colonel 
called on some of his friends, who ap- 
pointed a committee of three respectable 
citizens to investigate the charge and 
publish their report. The accuser 
appeared before the committee, but was 
not able to prove anything. The only 
point he made was that Col. Lehman- 
owsky could not speak the Polish, his 
mother tongue. On the other hand, 
Lehmanowsky produced an array of 
documents, well authenticated, which 
59 



satisfied all reasonable people that he 
was justly entitled to respect. I shall 
never forget the castigation which the 
Colonel gave that loafer, in the French 
language, before a crowd of eager 
spectators. Dr. Mitchell, a prominent 
citizen and formerly a State Senator, 
was chairman of the meeting. 

Col. Lehmanowsky's mother resided 
in Sweden at the city of Stockholm. I 
once saw one of her letters to him, 
written in beautiful style and full of 
maternal affection. It was in the German 
language. Bernadotte, the King of 
Sweden, once invited him to join the 
Swedish army, and offered him the 
command of all his cavalry. But Col. 
Lehmanowsky declined because he had 
no desire whatever for a renewal of 
military life. He likewise declined a 
similar invitation of General Sam. 
Houston, before the battleof San Jacinto, 
Texas. 

As an agent of the ''Immigrants 
Friends' Society" he solicited funds in 
some of the principal cities of the West. 
At first he would advocate the claims of 
the Foreign Immigrants, and then wind 
up with narratives of his personal 
adventures as a soldier of the great 
Napoleon. This plan he subsequently 
changed, and prepared a number of 
lectures, which he delivered for a certain 
fee of admittance. This proved more 
successful than asking for a voluntary 
collection, even from crowded houses. 
His lecture on "Josephine" was ex- 
ceedingly interesting, and that on the 
"Destruction of the Inquisition at 
Madrid" has been made use of as a tract 
and published by the American Tract 
Society. For a confirmation of the 
truth of that narrative he referred to 
Col. Lelis, his former companion in 
arms, then an Evangelical preacher in 
the city of Paris (1837).— Rev. P. Rizer. 



466 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



REV. A. W. LILLY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
on the 3d of December, 1822, at Tur- 
botville, Northumberland Co., Pa. The 
years of his youth were spent on a farm 
and devoted to active out-door life and 
industrious toil. During the winter 
season he attended the country free 
schools throughout the terms of school. 
Here was laid the primary foundation 
of future acquirements in knowledge 
and a longing desire awakened for the 
advantages of a liberal education. 

His father and mother were active 
members of the Lutheran church and 
were devoted disciples of Christ, and the 
children were brought up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord. At the 
age of sixteen years young Lilly was 
received into the Evangelical Lutheran 
church by the rite of confirmation by 
Rev. C. F. Stoever, then pastor of the 
church where the family worshipped. 
Impressions made on his mind at this 
solemn consecration to the service of the 
Lord continued to grow, and the ques- 
tion of the gospel ministry come to be 
uppermost in his mind. In consultation 
with intimate friends, and encourage- 
ment from members of the Synod of 
East Pennsylvania, he decided to give 
his life, labors and influence to the ser- 
vice of the Master in the ministry of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

He entered the grammar school of 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa., 
at the spring term of 1843; entered 
Freshman at the fall term of 1844, and 
was graduated from that institution in 
September of 1848. On account of im- 
paired health at the end of his college 
course, he spent one year in teaching a 
classical school at New Kingston, Cum- 
berland Co., Pa. At the close of his 



engagement at this school he entered 
upon a course of theological studies at 
the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg 
in October, 1849, and graduated from 
this institution in September, 1851. 

During the summer vacation of 1851 
he was engaged to supply the pulpit of 
the Third Lutheran church of Baltimore. 
That pulpit being vacant the congrega- 
tion elected him as their pastor, and ex- 
tended a call to take charge soon after 
the completion of his studies at the 
seminary. Accordingly he accepted the 
call and entered upon his pastoral work 
in the month of September, 1851. In 
the following month of October he was 
licensed to preach the gospel by the 
Synod of Maryland, at Williamsport, Md. 
In December, 1852, he was ordained by 
the laying on of hands in his own church 
in Baltimore, at the request of the 
Church Council. His incumbency in 
this charge continued until May, 
1855. Four years of earnest and honest 
toil, a city congregation, without pas- 
toral experience, few books and no 
preparation laid up, made the work 
difiicult. But in this time the member- 
ship multiplied, the church prospered 
and a new and attractive church edifice 
was erected in 1853. Many happy ex- 
periences were enjoyed during these 
four years. On the first of June, 1855, 
he removed to York, Pa., and took 
charge of Zion Evangelical Lutheran 
church, which he still continues to serve. 
This congregation has grown up into 
usefulness and prominence in the city, 
and is an active and influential congre»- 
gational member of the West Pennsyl- 
vania Synod. 

He has been identified with most of 
the educational and benevolent move- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



467 



ments in the church. He served his 
term of President of his Synod, and its 
Secretary, member and President of the 
Board of Directors of the Theological 
Seminary, and frequently represented 
his Synod in the Greneral Synod. 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
conferred upon him by his Alma Mater. 

Dr. Lilly has been connected with the 
Board of Home Missions of the Greneral 
Synod from its beginning, 1869, to 1888. 
He has also been a member of the Board 
of Church Extension continuously from 
1869 to the present time, and has occu- 
pied the responsible position of its 
President since 1874. In this position 



he has been active and deeply interested 
in the growth and efficiency of the 
church extension work. He has con- 
tributed very largely in bringing the 
church extension branch of our church 
work up to the front of commanding 
importance, and in drawing the atten- 
tion and enlist the sympathies of the 
churches and Synods in behalf of this 
great and important subject. 

Dr. Lilly retains his physical health 
and intellectual energies to an encour- 
aging degree, and his industry as a 
preacher and pastor as constant as in 
younger life. 




REY. S. P. A. LINDAHL. 



Swen Peter August Lindahl was born 
the 8th of November, 1843, in the Parish 
of Christdala in the Kingdom of Sweden, 
His parents were poor but very sturdy 
and honest. At the age of 11 his father 
died, and in his 14th year he was in 
consequence of this sore loss obliged to 
leave his much beloved home and seek 
employment with others for his own 
support. x4.1ready from childhood he 



cherished a strong yearning for books, 
and was especially attached to his family 
Bible, which he perused time and again. 
With marked punctuality he attended 
the Sunday School and also the parochial 
school of his parish, and \^Jas thus 
brought under the wholesome influence 
of Christianity that faithful teachers 
instilled in the youthful hearts of their 
scholars. During this time he ex- 



468 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



perienced a spiritual awaking and was 
convinced of his sinfulness, but did not 
come in conscious communion with his 
God until he had reached his 16th year, 
at which time he obtained the full 
assurance of his heirship with God and 
his Son Jesus Christ. 

In his 17th year he entered the 
Teachers' Seminary under the super- 
vision of the eminent and famous scholar, 
the Rev. P. A. Ahlberg. His aim was 
then to prepare himself for the vocation 
of parochial school teacher. When he 
entered this seminary his whole pecuniary 
possession consisted of five Kroner, or 
$1.40. As a token of sympathy and 
encouragement he was granted the free 
use of a room in the seminary building, 
and his board was partly allowed him 
for custodian duties that he willingly 
performed. During the following two 
years he was able to support himself by 
devoting his school vacations to arduous 
labor as teacher and colporteur. 

While yet attending the seminary his 
future plans were entirely changed. He 
felt himself constrained to choose another 
course. In consultation with his spiritual 
adviser he determined to prepare himself 
as missionary for the foreign mission in 
Africa. But God had decreed otherwise. 
His health soon failed and this plan had 
to be abandoned. At this particular 
instance his attention was called to the 
great wants of pastoral labors among the 
numerous Swedes in the United States 
of North America. In 1865 he decided 
to emigrate to this country, and in August 
of the same year he arrived at Paxton, 
111., where he entered the Augustana 
College and Theological Seminary, with 
the firm resolution to pursue his studies 
at this institution, having then the 



ministry in view. He completed his 
course of study in four years, and was 
ordained as Evangelical Lutheran minis- 
ter at the annual convention of the 
Augustana Synod, which that year 
convened at Moline, 111., Sunday, June 
20, 1869. 

His first charge was at Woodhull, 
Henry Co., 111. The Board of Home 
Missions of the Augustana Synod soon 
extended a call to him as traveling 
missionary in the following states, viz: 
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Dakota. 
This position he held for two years. 
In 1872 he was elected assistant pastor 
in the Immanuel church of Chicago. 
Here he remained until fall of 1873, 
when he accepted a call to the Lutheran 
church at Galesburg, Knox Co., 111. At 
this place he labored for twelve consecu- 
tive years. The four last years he has 
had charge of the Lutheran church at 
Altona, Knox Co., 111. 

In the year 1888 he was chosen 
president of the Augustana Synod, which 
position he yet holds. Last summer at 
the annual convention of the Augustana 
Synod at Jamestown, N. Y., he was 
elected editor in chief of Augustana, the 
official organ of that body. Since 1886 
he has been editor of Barnens Tidning, 
a Sunday School monthly. He has 
also edited several books and pamphlets, 
published by the Augustana Book Con- 
cern, of which he is an active and 
energetic member. In 1879 he was 
elected member of the Board of Directors 
of the Augustana College and Theolog- 
ical Seminary, which position he yet 
holds. From 1880 to 1887 he acted as 
recording secretary of the Augustana 
Synod. His present abode is at Rock 
Island, 111. 




AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



469 




REY. PROF. C. E. LINDBERG. 



Rev. Conrad Emil Lindberg, Pro- 
fessor of Theology at Augustana Theo- 
logical Seminary, Rock Island, 111., was 
born in Joenkoeping, Sweden, June 
9, 1852, and received his collegiate edu- 
cation in Sweden. Arriving in this 
country in 1871 he attended the seminary 
of the Augustana Synod, then located 
at Paxton, 111., and continued his theo- 
logical studies privately for a year 
afterwards, and part of this time mis- 
sionated among his scattered countrymen 
in Illinois. In the autumn of 1873 he 
entered as a student in the Theological 
Seminary at Philadelphia, Pa., from 
which institution he graduated in 1876, 
when he took charge of the Swedish 
mission in that city. His ordination 
by the Augustana Synod, however, 
took place in 1874, but his theological 
studies were continued not only until 
his graduation but privately for some 
time afterwards. In the year 1879 he 
was called to the Swedish Lutheran 
Gustavus Adolphus Church in New 



York, then greatly scattered, and since 
that time has made full proof of his 
ministry, not only in reducing the heavy 
debt on the old church, but in greatly 
strengthening the congregation both in 
numbers and efficiency, as well as in 
doctrinal establishment. Under his 
faithful ministry and by reason largely 
of his influence, the old church was 
taken down and a new and beautiful 
church edifice has been erected, which 
is worthy of the faith and city which 
first welcomes the incoming Swedish 
immigration to the new world. During 
the eleven years of his residence in 
New York, Pastor Lindberg has^made 
full proof of his ministry, having 
received no less than 1,127 communicants 
into the congregation, confirmed 274 
young persons, baptized 1,392 children 
married 1,130 couple and buried 390 
persons, besides performing any amount 
of pastoral work among the immigrants 
and transient Swedish population and 
especially the poor, which cannot be 



470 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



enumerated or described. The church, 
notwithstanding it has dismissed hun- 
dreds of its members to the Swedish 
churches of New York, New England, 
Pennsylvania and the West, yet 
numbers upwards of 700 communicants 
and is in an eminently prosperous 
condition. 

In the year 1879 he was elected 
president of the Eastern or New York 
conference of the Augustana Synod. 
To this conference belong all the 
Swedish Lutheran Churches and Mis- 
sions east of Indiana. 

As President of the New York con- 
ference of the Augustana Synod for ten 
years, Pastor Lindberg has been instant 
in season and out of season, as well as 
in journeys oft over the wide extent of 
its territory. He is therefore both as 
pastor and missionary, organizer and 
director, an eminently proper person to 
infuse the true evangelistic spirit among 



young men. To most other laborers in 
such a metropolis of toil and with great 
fields of spiritual destitution in different 
states, study outside of what is necessary 
for the pulpit would scarcely have been 
thought of. So great, however, has been 
Pastor Lindberg's devotion to study that 
he has been an active contributor to our 
Swedish Church pai)ers and other peri- 
odicals. For some time he was one of 
the editors of the religious paper pub- 
lished in Chicago : Noed und Sanning, and 
when the Augustana Observer was issued, 
he was one of the co-editors. 

In the year 1883 he published a com- 
mentary on the first three chapters of 
Revelations. He has also written a little 
volume on Baptism, published in the 
year 1890. Professor Lindberg was in- 
stalled as Professor Nov. 6, 1890, and is 
Professor of Dogmatics, Pastoral Theol- 
ogy and Swedish Exegesis. 




REV. JOHANN C. W. LINDEMANN. 



Johann Christoph Wilhelm Linde- 
mann, was born at Sottingen, Hanover, 
Jan. 6, 1827. His father was a lieutenant 
under Napoleon I. On April 25, 1841, 
he was confirmed by the general super- 
intendent Hildebrand, whereupon he 
was sent to his uncle to learn the joiner's 
trade, where he remained four years. 
In 1846 he went to Leipzig where he 
joined a German Catholic church, with 
some thought of becoming a Catholic 
heathen missionary. This idea, how- 
ever, he very soon abandoned and left 
the Catholic church to become a 
heathen missionary in the Ev. Luth. 
Church. On the advice of Dr. K. Graul 
and others Mr. Lindemann concluded 
to prepare himself for missionary work 



among the Germans in North America 
and accordingly entered the teachers' 
seminary in Hanover, 1847. The 
following year Mr. Lindemann received 
a call as parochial school teacher from 
the German Ev. Lutheran St. Paul's 
Church at. Baltimore, N. A., where Rev. 
Fr. Wyneken was pastor at the time. 
Mr. Lindemann accepted the call and 
arrived at Baltimore July 6, 1848, where 
he discharged his duties as parochial 
school teacher to the perfect satisfaction 
of pastor and people. In 1852 he 
entered the practical seminary at Fort 
Wayne, Ind., where Prof. A. Craemer 
and Dr. W. Sihler were laboring at 
that time. Here he remained until the 
month of July, 1853, when he received a 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



471 




REV. J. C. W. LINDEMANN. 



call from the Ev. Luth. Zion's Church 
at Cleveland, O., as vicar for the Rev. 
President H. C. Schwan, where he 
arrived August 12, and was ordained by 
Rev. Schwan on the 28th. This position 
he filled until 1864, when he was called 
to the directorship of the Teachers' 
Seminary at Addison, 111., where he 
remained to the time of his death, which 
occurred January 15, 1879. From 
September, 1865, he was chief editor of 
the "Ev. Luth. Schulblatt" in which he 
published a large number of interesting 
articles. Among his writings are the 
following: 

Erzaehlungen aus dem amerikanischen 
Volksleben, von J. C. Wilhelm; Die 
rechte Zeit; Bonifacius; Wo hi dem, 



der Freude an seinen Kindern erlebt; 
Olympia; Dr. Martin Luther als Er- 
zieher der Jugend; Rechenbuch fuer 
deutsche Volksschulen in Amerika; 
Deutsche Grammatik ; Theoriedes Rech- 
nens; Schulpraxis; Fibel; Luther als 
Reformator des deutschen Schulwesens; 
Ernst der Fromme, Herzogvon Sachsen- 
Gotha, als Foerderer der Yolksschule 
und Yolksschullehrer ; August Herman 
Francke; Johann Ignatz von Felbiger; 
Geschichte der Schule in Amerika; 
Die Schul-Erziehung; Die Lehrthaetig- 
keit der Frauen innerhalb der Christen- 
heit; Die Salzburger in Georgia; Mueh- 
lenberg und Schatter; Jean Jacques 
Rousseau; Deatsche Schulen in Phila- 
delphia; Deutsche Schulzeitungen in 



472 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Nord-Amerika; Bonifacius und Luther; 
M. Cyriakus Lindemann, Lebensbild 
eines Schulmannes aus der Eeforma- 
tionszeit; Die Bibel in den Vereinigten 
Staaten von Nord America; Zur Ge- 
schichte der Cryptocalvinisten nnd der 
Ooncordienformel; Copernikus und die 
lutherischen Theologen; Accommodirt 
sich die Bibel an dem Irrthum des un- 
wissenden Volkes, wenn sie von natuer- 
lichen Dingen redet? Zur biblischen 
Zeitrechnung; Historischer Canon; In 



welchem Jahre und an welchem Tage 
ist unser Herr Jesus Christus gestorben 
und auf erstanden ? Das letzte Passah 
un seres Herrn und Heilandes Jesu 
Christi; Die Reisen unseres Herrn Jesu 
Christi ; Herodes und Jesus. The greater 
part of the above has appeared in the 
form of articles in the "Ev. Luth. Schul- 
blatt," published in St. Louis, Mo. For 
a more complete biography of Prof. 
Lindemann see "Schulblatt," vol. 14, 
1879. 




REY. GEORGE A. LINTNER, D.D. 



George Ames Lintner was born in 
Minden, Montgomery Co., N. Y., Feb- 
ruary 15, 1796. His parents were Albert 
and Elizabeth (Westerman) Lintner, 
both of whom were of German descent, 
and among the earliest settlers near the 
Mohawk River. At ten years of age, 
George was sent to a school near the 
village of Cooperstown, and after his re- 
turn home, in about a year, he remained 
in his father's family, working on the 
farm until the fall of 1818. He was then 
placed in grammar school at Schenectady, 
under the tuition of the Rev. John S. 



Mahon, where he remained until the fall 
of 1815, when he entered the sophomore 
class in Union College, and graduated in 
July, 1817. While there he took high 
rank, and at the Commencement one of 
the highest honors was assigned to him. 
During his college course he also de- 
voted some time to the study of theology 
under the instruction of the Rev. Peter 
W. Domeier, a man of profound learn- 
ing and of great eloquence, but whose 
later life was sullied by irregular habits, 
and the sun of whose mortal day went 
down under a dark cloud, thus differing 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



473 



— oh, how widely! — from his honored 
pupil. He continued his studies in 
theology with this divine until Septem- 
ber, 1818, when he was licensed to preach 
by the Evangelical Lutheran Minis- 
terium of the State of New York. After 
he was licensed, he preached occasion- 
ally in the village of Little Falls and 
other places, until he was called, in 
January, 1819, to the pastoral charge of 
the Evangelical Lutheran churches of 
Schoharie and Cobleskill. 

On the 3d of March, 1849, he was 
married to Maria Waggoner, removed to 
Schoharie two months later, and was 
then ordained and installed as pastor of 
the Lutheran church, to which he had 
been called, at a special meeting of the 
New York Ministerium, his ordination 
and installation taking place on the 16th 
of June, 1819. Here, in the midst of 
families whose names had been long and 
honorably known throughout that region 
of country, he commenced a long and 
prosperous pastorate, during which he 
enjoyed the unbounded respect of all 
who knew him, and exerted an influence 
over a widely-spread community, in his 
own and the adjacent counties, such as 
has been accorded to few ministers of 
the gospel in modern times. 

His wife died Oct. 27, 1830, leaving 
him two children, a son distinguished 
as a naturalist, and a daughter, the ac- 
complished wife of the Hon. P. S. 
Danforth, of Middleburg. He was mar- 
ried again May 30, 1832, to Mary Eliza 
Campbell; of this second union there 
has been no issue. 

In September, 1835, the degree of 
D.D. was conferred upon Mr. Lintner 
by Pennsylvania College. He soon oc- 
cupied, in various ways, a very promi- 
nent position in the Church. During 
four years he edited, with decided abil- 
ity, the Lutheran Magazine, a religious 
monthly. In the palmy days of the 
60 



General Synod, the high estimation in 
which he was held, and the confidence 
which his brethren reposed in him, were 
made manifest by their electing him 
thrice, in 1841-2-3, to the presidency of 
that body, the duties of which office he 
discharged with great dignity, efficiency 
and acceptance. 

On the first of May, 1849, he resigned 
the pastorate of the church at Schoharie, 
and now devoted himself to the work of 
preparing a liturgy for the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in this country, which 
was published by order of the General 
Synod. Besides several other minor 
productions, he published, in 1853, the 
memoirs of the Eev. Walter Gunn, who 
had been a member of Dr. Lintner's 
church, and one of the fruits of his min- 
istry, and was the first foreign mission- 
ary sent out by the Foreign Missionary 
Society of the Lutheran Church in the 
United States. 

He was possessed of sound, solid learn- 
ing, and when the active duties of his 
sacred calling permitted, he spent much 
time in his study, not among, but with his 
books, of which he knew how to make 
good use, as sundry published produc- 
tions of his pen serve to show. In the 
discharge of his pastoral duties he was 
indefatigable, and the affectionate fidel- 
ity with which these duties were per- 
formed is vouched for by the warm 
personal attachment entertained for him 
by his parishioners. His preaching was 
decidedly textual, clear, convincing, per- 
suasive ; while never disfigured with the 
tawdry tissues of a gorgeous and vapid 
rhetoric, but never, in his faithful and 
earnest deliverances from the pulpit, 
despised the more modest graces of 
sacred eloquence. But, as a general 
thing, his pulpit performances created 
at once the impression that the preacher 
was most solemnly in earnest in his 
efforts to win souls to Christ, and it 



474 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



cannot be doubted that many such were 
given him for his hire. 

Dr. Lintner was a Lutheean who 
loved the great Confession of his Church, 
and in various ways contended "for the 
faith which was once delivered to the 
saints." Some of his published writings 
prove that he had none of that mixtum 
Gompositum in which it is difficult to dis- 
cover where diluted Lutheranism ends 
and undiluted Methodism or Puritanism 
begins ; in his confessional status he en- 
tertained none of that insipid mixture 
of milk and water which defies the 
acutest palate to discover whether it is 
dealing with milk, or with water, or 
with neither. He was not a feeble, un- 
decided, negative character; he was a 
strong and a positive man; a man who 
readily and clearly discerned the truth, 
and then adhered to it and stood up for 
it; not a halting rationalist; not a man 
of religious opinions which are as liable 
to change as an April sky; but a man 
fully "persuaded in his own mind;" a 
man of firm, decided, and solid religious 
convictions, which he boldly avowed on 
all suitable occasions, and which afford- 
ed him a safe vantage-ground amid the 
bickerings that often disturbed the 
repose of the Church, and clothed him 
in impenetrable mail amidst the religious 
conflicts that harass and trouble the 
present age. 

He was ever active in the work of the 
ministry, preaching regularly at divers 
places not connected with his parish, 
and by thus doing the work of an evan- 
gelist, laboring in season and out of 
season, he organized, while he was pas- 
tor at Schoharie, three new churches, 
one at Summit, one at Middleburg, and 
one at Central Bridge. Besides preach- 
ing the gospel, he labored constantly 
and earnestly in promoting temperance 
and sound morals wherever he could 
make his influence felt. After he had 



resigned his pastorate, in 1849, his active 
habits of mind and body and his zeal 
for the good of mxankind forbade his re- 
signing himself to a life of rest and 
ease; he accepted, at once, the appoint- 
ment of agent for the Foreign Mission- 
ary Society of the Lutheran Church, 
and spent three years in visiting 
Lutheran churches in New York and 
New Jersey, presenting the claims of 
the Society, and collecting funds to aid 
in carrying on its operations. He was 
thus greatly instrumental in giving a 
new impulse to the cause of missions 
among us, awakening everywhere a 
deeper, livelier, and more liberal inter- 
est in that great cause. While carrying 
on this work he also 'preached to the 
Germans, who had formed settlements 
in that part of the state where he dwelt. 
And when he had been relieved of the 
laborious duties of his agency for the 
Foreign Missionary Society, he devoted 
himself at once, with his accustomed 
energy and zeal, to the greatest cause of 
all, the circulation of the sacred scrip- 
tures, and was unceasingly active in 
supplying Schoharie county with the 
Bible — establishing societies auxiliary 
to the American Bible Society, continu- 
ing untiring in this work, in the prose- 
cution of which he visited the towns 
and villages to address large audiences 
on this important subject, nearly to the 
close of his life. In acknowledgment of 
his valuable services in the Bible cause, 
the parent society presented to him a 
copy of their most expensive and 
beautiful Bible. 

This ceaseless activity, this noble life, 
terminated on the 21st day of December, 
1871. At his funeral the Rev. Mr. Heck 
preached an eloquent, feeling, and pe- 
culiarly appropriate discourse. Eight 
clergymen, assisted by a venerable 
neighbor and life-long friend, officiated 
as pall-bearers; and at twilight on Crhist- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



475 



mas eve, the body of the good man was 
borne from the church in which he had 
for more than fifty years preached Christ 
and him crucified, to the beautiful ceme- 
tery on the hillside, during singing of a 



hymn by the throng of clergymen, sur- 
rounded by the graves of those who had 
gone before him, and to whom he had 
been a faithful pastor and beloved friend. 
—H. F. Schmidt, D. D. 




KEY. A. H. LOCHMANN, D.D. 



Dr. A. H. Lochmann was born October 
5, 1802 in the parsonage of Salem Church, 
LebanoD, Pa., of which his father, Dr. 
George Lochmann, was then pastor. 
He studied at the University of Pennsyl- 
vania from which he graduated as 
Valedictorian in July, 1823. Having 
studied theology under the direction 
of his father, he was licensed to preach, 
June 16, 1824 In 1825 he became 
pastor of a charge in Cumberland County, 
and was married in July of that year to 
Anne Maria Pastenheimer of Phila- 
delphia, locating in Mechanicsburg, then 
a village of a dozen houses. In 1826 
he became successor to his father in 
Harrisburg where he remained until 
1836, when he was called to York, Pa., 
where he continued pastor until 1880, 
greatly beloved by his people and 



eminently successful. He has taken an 
active part in all the general movements 
in the Lutheran Church in America 
and has from time to time occupied high 
positions of trust and honor. He was a 
member of the first Board of Trustees 
of Pennsylvania College, and was a 
trustee of Franklin and Marshall Col- 
leges. For a long time he was one of 
the Board of Directors of the Gettysburg 
Lutheran Seminary, and for many years 
its president. He has also been presi- 
dent of the Synod of Pennsylvania 
and of thtj General Synod. The honorary 
degree of D. D. was conferred upon him 
by Pennsylvania College in 1856. Dr. 
Lochmann has made a number of 
valuable translations from the German. 
He retired from the active pastoral 
office full of years and labors after having 



47 6 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



serv'ed Christ's Church at York, Pa., 

n3arly half a century. 

Ill the preface to a volume of sermons 
published in 1885, by the earnest request 
of a number of his old friends and 
parishoners, he says: "The sermons 
were prepared in a plain style with a 



practical tendency, not to captivate and 
please, but to benefit the hearer. Four 
regular discourses were prepared during 
each week, two for the Sunday services, 
and two for lectures during the week, 
and all this with the pressure of the 
care of a large congregation." 




REV. GEORGE LOCHMAN, D.D. 



Rev. George Lochman, D. D., was born | 
in the city of Philadelphia, Dec. 2, 1773. | 
His parents migrated to this country | 
from Germany at an early period; and,! 
though in humble circumstances, were | 
distinguished for their probity and ! 
piety. Their son George, at an early j 
age, exhibited an uncommonly iDre- 1 
cocious intellect, and especially a fond- 1 
ness for reading which distinguished i 
him among all his youthful associates. | 
And he comprehended and retained \ 
what he read. His perception was quick, j 
his memory retentive, and his progress | 
at school such as to attract, in an un- i 
usual degree, the attention of his teachers. \ 
His mind was also very early directed to j 
the subject of religion, and, after a | 
course of pungent conviction of sin and | 



severe inward struggles, he was brought 
to exercise an affectionate confidence in 
the Redeemer. During his attendance 
on the catechetical instruction of the 
Church, his answers to the questions 
which were put to him by his pastor 
showed a degree of promptness and in- 
telligence that excited the hope that he 
might be inclined to the work of the 
ministry. Dr. Helmuth, under whose 
ministrations his early years were passed, 
did not fail to exert all proper influence 
for the accomplishment of this end. 
His mother also strongly favored it; but 
his father at first objected, partly on the 
ground that he needed the services of 
his son in carrying forward his business, 
and partly because his income was so 
limited as to forbid the hope of his ren- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



477 



dering him the requisite assistance in 
procuring an education. He, however, 
subsequently, on perceiving that his 
son's mind was strongly set in that di- 
rection, and being influenced also 
somewhat by the judgment of his pastor, 
withdrew his objections. 

After going through his preparatory 
course, he entered the University of 
Pennsylvania, where he graduated with 
high honor in the year 1789. On leav- 
ing college he engaged for a while in 
the business of teaching, at the same 
time prosecuting his theological studies 
under the direction of the Rev. Dr. 
Helmuth, with whom he continued till 
the year 1794, when he was licensed to 
preach by the Lutheran Synod of Penn- 
sylvania. Shortly after his licensure, 
he accepted a call to Lebanon, Pa., 
where he remained, laboring with great 
diligence and success, twenty-one years. 
The charge was one that required a 
great amount of work, as it embraced 
not only Lebanon, but a considerable 
tract of surrounding country. During 
his residence here he was repeatedly 
solicited to other fields of labor, which 
were thought more eligible; but he de- 
clined the invitations, from a conviction 
that his duty to his own people, to whom 
he was most strongly attached, forbade 
a removal. In 1815 he was elected 
pastor of the Lutheran church at Har- 
risburg, Pa., and, owing to the peculiar 
circumstances of that congregation, he 
felt constrained, even at the expense of 
breaking a very tender tie, to listen to 
the invitation. He was, accordingly, 
installed over the Harrisburg congrega- 
tion, and his introductory sermon, which 
exhibited the objects and duties of the 
Christian ministry, together with the 
corresponding obligations of the people, 
was received with so much favor that 
the vestry of the church caused it to be 
printed for gratuitous distribution. His 



accession gave a fresh impulse to the 
church ; and his entire ministry there, 
which continued till the close of his life, 
was marked by frequent and signal 
tokens of the Divine favor. 

In 1819 he wasJionored with the de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from Alle- 
ghany College, Meadville, Pa. 

He is said to have received the same 
degree from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, but, as his name does not appear 
on the catalogue, the statement must be 
considered as at least doubtful. 

After laboring with untiring assiduity 
during a series of years, and many pub- 
lic engagements superadded to appro- 
priate duties of the pastoral relation, it 
was found that his constitution began to 
give way. The infirmities of age became 
prematurely apparent, and at length dis- 
ease fastened itself upon him in a form 
that set all human skill at defiance. 
But his decline was marked with the 
most exemplary patience, the most 
serene Christian hope, and he walked 
with an unfaltering step through the 
dark valley. He died on the 10th of 
July, 1826, in the fifty-third year of his 
age; and his funeral was attended the 
next day, and a sermon preached on the 
occasion by Rev. Dr. Endress, of Lan- 
caster, Pa., from the text, — "Lord, now 
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, 
according to thy word; for my eyes 
have seen thy salvation." 

Dr. Lochman's publications are the 
following: A valedictory sermon, 
preached at Lebanon; an inaugural ser- 
mon, preached at Harrisburg; History, 
Doctrine and Discipline of the Luther- 
an Church; Evangelical Catechism; 
Hinterlassene Predigten; Paulus Hen- 
kel; Sammlung Greistreicher Lieder; 
auch etliche Buecher fuer Kinder. 

He was married on the 7th of Sep- 
tember, 1795, to Mary Magdalene Grotz, 
of Philadelphia, who became the mother 



478 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of two children, and died on the birth 
of the second. On the 3d of June, 1799, 
he was married to Susan Hoffman, also 
of Philadelphia, by whom he had thir- 
teen children. She survived him about 
fifteen years. 



One of his sons is the Rev. A. H. 
Lochman, D.D., of York, Pa., and an- 
other studied medicine, but on account 
of bodily infirmity was unable to enter 
into the practice of it. — A. H. Lochman. 




REV. CHRISTOPHER H. LOEBER. 



Rev. Christopher H. Loeber, Vice- 
President of the Northwestern District 
of the Missouri Synod, Visitor of the 
Milwaukee division of said District, and 
pastor of the St. Stephen's church ( 1881 ) 
of Milwaukee, Wis., was born in Ger- 
many in October, 1828. His father. 
Rev. Gotthold H. Loeber, was a mem- 
ber of the first Faculty of Concordia 
Seminary, from which the son graduated 
in 1849, the year of his father's death. 
He came to America in 1839, was edu- 
cated at Concordia Seminary, now 
located in St. Louis, Mo. He was or- 
dained to the gospel ministry in 1850. 
Immediately after ordination he settled 
at Frohna, Perry Co., Mo., where he re- 



mained twelve years. In 1872 he was 
called to the pastorate of St. John's 
Evangelical Lutheran church, in Rich 
township, Cook Co., 111., where he re- 
mained until October, 1879, when he 
was called to the pastorate of St. 
Stephen's church, Milwaukee. 

He was married in 1852 to Miss Mary 
Lochner, formerly of Germany. They 
have ten children. His oldest son, 
Gotthold, is (1881) assistant pastor at 
St. Stephen's church, and his oldest 
daughter, Julia, is the wife of Rev. H. 
Sprengeler, pastor of Trinity Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran church at Milwaukee. — 
History of Milwaukee. 




REV. PROF. K. O. LOMEN. 



Professor Lomen was born in the year \ 
1860, of Norwegian parents. He attend- 
ed Marshall Academy for three years, 
and subsequently Thiel College four 
years, and the Theological Seminary at 
Philadelphia three years. He graduated 
with honor from the college in 1885, and 
from the seminary in 1888. Part of the 
summer of 1880 he spent in Norway in 
the hope that by travel he might gather \ 



strength for the labors which awaited 
him as English Theological Professor 
in the Norwegian Augustana Seminary 
at Beloit, la., to which he had been 
called by the Norwegian Augustana 
Synod. For one year he occupied the 
position of Theological Professor at 
Beloit, but his health failing he was ad- 
vised by physicians and friends to take 
a rest from his duties, and spend some 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



479 



months in the far West. Leaving his 
wife at Beloit, la., he went to La Jara, 
Conejos Co., Col., where he spent several 
months in the family of the venerable 
father in Christ, Eev. Paul Andersen, 
who, it is understood, had interested 
himself in Brother Lomen's thorough 
education. But the disease from which 
Prof. Lomen suffered soon proved to be 
pulmonary consumption, and he re- 
turned to Beloit in the early part of the 
winter, — not to resume his labors as 
Professor of Theology, but — to die. His 



death, which was a peaceful falling 
asleep in the arms of his Eedeemer, oc- 
curred Wednesday evening, Jan. 1, 1890. 
Both as a student and as a Professor 
Mr. Lomen was a scrupulously faithful 
and painstaking worker. Every task he 
undertook was conscientiously per- 
formed. He loved the work to which 
the Synod had called him, and there was 
before him a wide field of influence for 
the future of the Church's growth among 
the Norwegian Lutheran Americans. 




EEY. PEOR M LOY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
of German parents in Cumberland Co., 
Pa., in 1828. He was educated at Har- 
risburg, Pa., and Columbus, O. In 1849 
he received and accepted a call as pastor 
of the German-English Lutheran con- 
gregation at Columbus, O. In 1860 he 
was elected President of the Joint Synod 
of Ohio, etc., which position he occupied 
consecutively until 1878, when he de- 
clined re-election on account of failing 



health, but in 1880 he was again elected 
President, and has occupied the position 
since. In 1864 he was chosen as editor 
of the Lutheran Standard, and has con- 
tinued as such until the present. In 
1865 he was called as Professor of 
Theology in Columbus Seminary, Co- 
lumbus O., which position he still holds. 
Besides the editing of the Lutheran 
Standard he also edits Columbus Theological 
Magazine, a bi-monthly established by 



480 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



him in 1881. In 1881 he was elected to 
the Presidency of Capital University, 
Columbus, O. Dr. Loy has contributed 
largely to Lutheran reviews and periodi- 
cals, both German and English. He 



has edited a number of books and trans- 
lated several into English. He is the 
author of Doctrine of Justification; 
Ministerial Office; Sermons on Gospels. 




KEY. E. G. LUND, A. M. 



Rev. E. G. Lund was born at Arendal, 
Norway, on the 10th of August, 1852. 
In February of the following year his 
parents emigrated to America, and 
settled at Springfield, 111., where they 
remained till 1856, and then moved to 
St. Paul, Minn., whence they returned 
in 1862 to Springfield. Rev. Lund 
received all his earlier school training 
at home under the faithful and constant 
care of his father who, for many years, 
had been a teacher in the old country. 
In 1871 he began to prepare for college 
at the Academy in Springfield, 111., then 
under the direction of Rev. Prof. Henry 
Reck. Having remained there two 
years he entered the Freshman class at 
Thiel College, Greenville, Pa., from 
which institution he graduated in the 
year 1877. But the intention was not 
only to graduate from college. Through 



ihe early and faithful encouragement of 
his parents, and through a sense of duty, 
he had determined, long before, to 
prepare himself for the Lutheran minis- 
try. With this object in view he im- 
mediately entered upon a three years' 
course at the General Council Theolog- 
ical Seminary of Philadelphia, Pa. With 
an intermission of one year, devoted to 
teaching, he was regularly graduated 
from this Seminary in the spring of 1881. 
Having received a call to the large 
Irwin, Adamsb'irg and Brush Creek 
charge of Westmoreland Co., Pa., Rev. 
Lund was at once ordained to the minis- 
try by the Pittsburg Synod of the 
General Council, and began his work in 
this field on June 10, 1881. In this 
charge he had to preach to English, 
Swedish and German congregations. 
In 1883 he received and accepted a call 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



481 



to the Norwegian-Englisli Lutheran 
Church at Milwaukee, Wis., in connection 
with the Norwegian Augustana Synod, 
where he remained till 1885, w^hen he 
accepted a call to Zion's English Luth- 
eran Church at Greensburg, Pa. He 
served this congregation nearly six 
years, when in the early part of 1891 he 
resigned, having received appointment 
by the Home Mission Committee of the 
General Council as Home Missionary 
to Tacoma, Washington. Success has 
attended his work, and manifests itself 
in a greatly enlarged membership, in 
increased churchly activity, and in all 
that pertains to a Christian congrega- 
tional life. In the spring of 1888 Rev. 
Lund was unanimously called to the 
Presidency of Thiel College, his Alma 
Mater, by its Board of Trustees. But, 
upon the urgent solicitations of his 
members at Greensburg, he concluded 
to remain where he was, and declined 
the call. He is now a member of the 
Thiel College Board of Trustees; and 
has frequently represented the Pittsburg 
Synod as a delegate to the General 
Council. He has lately been nominated 
English professor of Theology at Augs- 
burg Seminary, Minneapolis, Minn. 



Rev. Lund has the merited reputation 
of being a pulpit orator. His stately 
figure, bodily vigor, powerful and sonor- 
ous voice, together with his wide range 
of information, enabling him to gather 
from every quarter arguments and illus- 
trations, his vivid fancy, his exceptionally 
ready command of the best language, his 
highly cultivated reasoning powers and 
absorbing earnestness, renders him a 
commanding and attractive public 
speaker. He is equally at home in the 
pulpit and on the platform, and seldom 
declines a call either to the one or the 
other, when he can respond to it. His 
manner is as commanding as his person; 
and although there is nothing stern or 
forbidding in his demeanor, there is a 
dignity that always secures respect. He 
has fine powers of conversation, and his 
presence is always recognized as a 
leading element of interest in Christian 
company. His mind is decidedly of a 
superior order, clear, logical, discrimin- 
ating, comprehensive. On the whole 
Rev. Lund is among the foremost young 
men in our American Lutheran Church. 
He has in contemplation the publication 
of a w^ork on pastoral theoloe:y. — J. 




REV. MARIUS T. C. LYNGBY. 



Marius Theodor Christiansen Lyngby 
was born June 2, 1856, in Denmark, of 
the parents N. Chr. Lyngby and his wife. 
He became a student at Roeskilde in 
1875. He graduated from the University 
at Copenhagen, Denmark, Jan. 22, 188]. 
Having received a call from St. Peter's 
Danish Evangelical Lutheran church in 
Dwight, Livingston Co., 111., he was or- 
dained in Denmark by Bishop Dr. Mar- 
tensen on the 23d of February. He was 
61 



married on the 12th of March, 1881, to 
Miss Catherine Hoyer, and on the 8th 
of April they started for their field of 
labor in America. Rev. Lyngby labored 
in Dwight with considerable success 
until October, 1882, when he received 
and accepted a call from the Emaus 
church at Racine, Wis. This is a large 
and well established congregation, and 
the Danish population of Racine is com- 
paratively large. Rev. Lyngby proved 



482 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



to be the right man for this large city 
congregation, and his work among 
his countrymen was attended with 
marked success. For some time he was 
Chairman of the Examination Com- 
mittee and Vice-President of the Danish 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Amer- 
ica. He was also member of the Wais- 
enhaus Committee and the Committee 
on Publication of Christian Literature. 
He was editor of Kirkelig Samler from 



1883 to 1885, and contributed a number 
of articles to various church papers. He 
has published a small work called "The 
Objections of the Baptists and Others 
against Infant Baptism." He took active 
part in the discussion of doctrinal ques- 
tions, and opposed the Grundtvigian 
tendency. In 1885 he made a visit to 
Denmark. In June, 1888, he resigned 
his charge at Eacine and returned to 
Denmark. 




EEY. PEOF. DAYID LYSNES. 



Prof. D. Lysnes was born a short dis- 
tance north of Laurvik, Norway, on a 
"Gaard" called Lysnes, on the 31st of 
July, 1832. His parents were the pious 
and industrious Ole Larsson and his 
wife, Lin a Davidsen. Prof. Lysnes was 
the next youngest of seven children, five 
sons and two daughters. He was con- 
firmed by Pastor Kjerulff on the 4th of 
October, 1846, when fourteen years old. 
His parents being j)oor he was obliged, 
immediately after his confirmation, to 
leave home and make his own living at 
hard labor among the peasants. Thus 
he spent three and a half years of his 



youth, until 1851, when he received a 
call to teach school in his home district. 
As religious teaching and the preaching 
of the gospel had always been his chief 
ambition, although his lack of pecuniary 
means seemed to make it very improba- 
ble that he would ever realize his wish, 
he most gladly and gratefully accepted 
the call which had been extended to 
him. After having taught school for 
about eight years he took a full course 
at Asker's Seminary in Christiania, 
Norway, from which he graduated July 
11, 1861, with the highest honors. After 
his graduation from the seminary he ac- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



483 



cepted a call as teacher at the orphans' 
home, known as "Hans Kappelens 
Minde," in Skien, and also as assistant 
of the pastor at a neighboring hospital. 
At this post he remained for three years. 
In 1864 he was appointed teacher at a 
school called "Nordre Skole" in Chris- 
tiania, where he labored a little over 
three years. The following year he 
taught at "Greenland's New School" of 
the same city, until June, 1868. During 
his four years stay in the capital he at- 
tended the popular lectures of Eev. 
Prof. Caspari, D. D., of the Christiania 
University. In 1866 Prof. Lysnes was 
elected member of a committee, together 
with Prof. Gisle Johnsen, of the Chris- 
tiania University, and ten other promi- 
nent men, to consider and make arrange- 
ments for the establishment of a Home 
Mission Society for Norway. 

On the 5th of February, 1867, he was 
married to Miss Maren Andrea He j ret, 
of Eidsvold, by Pastor H. E. Sommerfelt. 

Having accepted a call to the Nor- 
wegian Lutheran church near Pontiac, 
111., he emigrated from Norway the 5th 
of June, 1868, arriving at Chicago, III, 
on the 4th of July, the same year. He 
was ordained at Leland, 111., on the 27th 
of September, 1868, together with M. 
F. Gjertsen, by Rev. T. N. Hasselquist, 
D. D, President of the Scandinavian 
Augustana Synod. But a very short 
time had Prof. Lysnes been at Pontiac 
when it pleased the Lord, in His un- 
searchable wisdom, to make His faithful 
servant drink deep into the bitter cup 
of affliction. His beloved wife had 
scarcely congratulated him as a minister 
of the gospel when she was taken sick, 
and brought him on the morning of 
Sept. 30th a still-born child. Six days 
later, on the 6th of October, Prof. 
Lysnes was left a widower, having lived 
with his wife only a little over a year, 
and only nine days after his ordination. 



In the spring of 1870 he accepted a call 
from a congregation in Decorah, la., 
where he labored with his peculiar 
earnestness for eight years. 

On the 24th of July, 1871, he was 
married again to Miss Maren Jonetta 
Nos, of Asker, with whom he had four 
children. 

In 1874 he was called by the Nor- 
wegian Augustana Synod as Theological 
Professor at its seminary, which for two 
years was located six miles south of 
Decorah, la., the following four years at 
Marshall, Wis., and finally at Beloit, la. 
At this post Prof. Lysnes labored with 
exemplary faithfulness until the spring 
of 1890, when the large Norwegian 
union occurred, and the Augustana 
Seminary was consolidated with Augs- 
burg Seminary at Minneapolis, Minn. 
After the union had been effected he 
was called as Theological Professor at 
Augsburg Seminary, but before he had 
accepted this call the news was received 
that the Lord had called his faithful 
servant to his heavenly reward. He 
died at his home in Beloit, la., on the 
11th of August, 1890. The following is 
an extract from an address at his funeral, 
Aug. 14th, by Prof. L. A. Yigness: 

"His heart and mind were fervent with 
the desire of a faithful performance of 
his mission, the salvation of sinners. 
While not seeking the honor of men 
nor their applause, he achieved a work, 
the greatness of which the Lord will 
reveal in His c wn good time. Before 
we remove the precious casket out of 
our sight foreverj I wish to invite your 
attention to a brief statement of a few 
of the leading traits of his character 
and some of the elements of his power. 

He was naturally endowed with a 
great intellect. He had a native power 
of investigation in the realm of truth 
such as few men possess. His constant 
and eminent dissatisfaction with his own 



484 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



mental status, a characteristic of all 
great minds, and the resulting impu Ise — 
yea compulsion — to seek greater attain- 
ments, moved him to efforts greater and 
more protracted than nature would in 
the end justify. The predominance of 
his intellect compelled into its service 
all his other powers. Had he been in 
position to exercise the necessary pru- 
dence in husbanding his energies, he 
would have built a monument which 
would have placed his name among the 
great ones of history. But the great 
activity of his intellect required so large 
a share of service from his physical 
powers as in a considerable measure to 
interfere with the proper performance 
of their own functions. But there is 
always work for such workers, and the 
Church, by necessity as it seems, imposes 
upon them greater burdens than they 
ought to bear. 

His intellect was thoroughly conse- 
crated to a sauctified service. The 
ministry of the gospel to sinners, con- 
ducted in conscientious efforts to lead 
them to the fountain of grace, was the 
great centre around which clustered his 
thoughts, desires and labors. His busi- 
ness relations with the world were few 
and only of the most necessary kind. 
They occupied but the smallest portion 
of his attention, and when necessarily 
engaged in secular business affairs, he 
felt almost as a "stranger in a strange 
land," and desired often some stronger 
arm on which to lean. His mind was 
practically withdrawn from the world 
and absorbed almost exclusively in the 
great problems of human life, sin and 
grace. When God, in His fatherly 
providence considered it well to relieve 
him of the pressure incident to narrow 
financial circumstances and put into his 
hands a fair amount of this world's goods, 
he expressed a deep fear lest his heart 
should be gradually drawn into the tem- 



poral affairs of gold and silver. But this 
fear drove him even nearer into Christ. 
Thus, as the years glided silently by and 
the locks whitened about his temples, his 
consecration deepened in earnestness 
and purity. 

He had an unusually deep acquaintance 
with his own heart, and, through it, with 
the fearful extent of human depravity. 
His nature was of the -kind Carlysle de- 
scribed as of heroic mettle. The great 
majority of men are contented with a 
view of the surface of things. The same 
habit obtains among the majority of 
Christians. They never rea^h a really 
deep recognition of the misery of their 
own hearts. But here was a man, who, 
in a pre-eminent degree, had sounded 
the depths of his own sinfulness, and 
who had learned to know the inter- 
minable treachery of the human heart. 
By the eminently logical and analogical 
power of his mind and the fierce earnest- 
ness of his moral nature, he had unmer- 
cifully torn to pieces and dissected to 
the minutest fibres, the tissues of his 
soul, and, by the keen sense of his 
watchful conscience, had discovered the 
unmeasured amount of impurity and of 
sin that permeated the human being. 
His clear view of the moral and spiritual 
delinquencies of man, in his actual 
condition, as compared with the perfec- 
tion and beauty of the ideal and God- 
like man, inspired him with an earnest- 
ness as awful as that of an apostle. 

He had a thorough knowledge of the 
Holy Scriptures. In consequence of his 
general organization and of his recog- 
nition of sin, he cherished an unut- 
terable appreciation of the word of 
God. This he loved, this he studied, 
this he prized above rubies. It was the 
only balm he could find for his own 
sin-burdened soul. Though not equipped 
with the advantages of a full classical 
training, yet, by private study of the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



485 



ancient languages, and diligent search 
among critical commentators, be gained 
a deep and comprehensive knowledge of 
the Scriptures. His skill in the diagnosis 
of the spiritual conditions of men, and 
in the proper and most effective appli- 
cations of selected passages, in special 
cases, was seldom equalled; for few, 
indeed, are the pastors who have probed 
so deeply into the spiritual anatomy of 
man in health and disease, and who have 
so exhaustively studied the remedies for 
sia-sick souls as given in the Word of 
God. 

He was a man of prayer. His was a 
strong nature, and necessitated great, 
earnest and persistent struggle for the 
grace of God to accomplish its work in 
his heart. He devoted a large portion 
of his time, day and night, to wrestling 
with God in prayer. Even in the silent 
hours of his slumbers, he would, con- 
sciously or unconsciously — God alone 
knows — call audibly in earnest prayer 
upon the Lord. Those of his friends 
who had the blessed privilege of hearing 
his most private appeals to God for 
himself, his family, his congregation 
and the individual members of these, 
will never forget the depth, the fervor, 
the energy that characterized his com- 
munion with his Heavenly Father. The 
speaker before you has himself had the 
precious opportunity once to be alone 
with him at his evening bed-side prayer. 
But the equal of those praises and 
thanksgivings, as well as the penetrating 
appeals, I have never heard nor ever 
expect to hear again on this side of 
the grave. He was one of the very few 
"men of prayer." 

His power in the pulpit was wonderful 
Though not endowed by nature with the 
gift of eloquence in the ordinary mean- 
ing of the term, he yet, during his later 
years, became intensely eloquent in his 
denunciations of sin and in his pre- 



sentation of the love of Christ. Being a 
man iii a great measure, not of feelings, 
his addresses were yet earnest in a de- 
gree bordering almost upon fierceness. 
They were permeated with the heat of 
an intense intellectual fervor. In all of 
his teaching, he constantly aimed at in- 
ducing independent thinking and 
searching on the part of his hearers. 
One of his most effective means to ac- 
complish this end was his marvelous 
ingenuity in making even the simplest 
and most generally, though often 
thoughtlessly accepted Christian truths, 
appear paradoxical. Many of the 
thoughtful persons here to-day, will 
recollect into what difficulties he of times 
led them, even on the most familiar 
grounds, and how their minds were kept 
in suspense to learn how he would get 
them out. He was eminently Socratic 
in his methods. What power he thus 
displayed, both in appealing to thought 
and in expounding scripture, likewise, 
may be mentioned his power of charac- 
terization. Many of you recollect with 
what unsurpassed skill he was able to 
paint, in words, the thoughts and dis- 
positions of men in their variety of 
conditions. In this respect, he was of 
an almost Shakespearean cast. Another 
of his methods of warfare against sin 
was the inimitable sarcasm which he 
administered, especially upon easy-going, 
indolent Christians and hypocritical 
professors of Christ. 

But I will not dwell further upon the 
characteristics of this remarkable man. 
He has lived a life of faith and devotion 
to Christ. He has finished his course 
with honor, and "his works do follow 
him." Let his memory linger among us, 
that it may inspire to follow him in 
noble deeds, that he may from the grave, 
teach us even more powerfully than he 
did from the desk and the pulpit. 



486 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




EEV. LUTHEE A. MANN, A.M. 



Eev. Luther Ambrose Maun, A. M., was 
born Aug. 14, 1834, near Lovettsville, 
Loudoun Co., Ya. His parents were 
John and Sarah (Compher) Mann. He 
was baptized in infancy by Eev. D. J. 
Hauer, and at the age of eighteen years 
was confirmed by Eev. C. Startzman. 
His early years were spent on his father's 
farm. At the age of sixteen he entered 
the store of J. 0. Stoneburner & Bro., at 
Lovettsville, Ya., where he remained 
four years. His preparatory training 
was at Angerona Classical School, Win- 
chester, Ya. Entered the Freshman 
class of Eoanoke College, Salem, Ya., in 
January, 1856. Taught school in 1857-8 
to secure means to prosecute his col- 
legiate studies. Entered the Junior 
class at Eoanoke College, Yirginia, ses- 
sion of 1858-9. Graduated in June, 
1860, with the honor of the valedictory. 
Entered the theological seminary at 
Gettysburg, Pa., in the autumn of 1860. 



Was licensed in St. John's church, near 
Wytheville, Ya., by the Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Southwestern Yir- 
ginia, in 1861, and ordained by the same 
Synod at Newport, Giles Co., Ya., in 1862. 
Has served the following pastorates: 
Marion, Smythe Co., Ya., 1861-8; Mt. 
Airy and Kimberling, Wythe Co., Ya., 
1868-9; Burkittsville, Md., 1869 -'76; 
Middletown, Md., 1876-86; Mt. Jackson, 
Ya., 1888-90; Mercersburg, Pa., since 
1890. Established classical schools in 
Chillhowee and at Mt. Airy, Ya., and 
taught in connection with pastoral work 
from 1862-9. From these schools a 
goodly number of young men entered 
Eoanoke and other colleges, six of whom 
subsequently became ministers of the 
gospel, and several professors in colleges. 
From the several pastorates served thir- 
teen young men have entered the sacred 
office of the ministry. The number of 
infants baptized in the above charges. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



487 



aggregate over five hundred, and the 
confirmations are nearly seven hundred. 
During Eev. Mann's ministry at Bur- 
kittsville, Md., a new congregation was 
organized at Petersville, Md., and a 
brick church built at a cost of $2,000; 
the church, unfavorably located at Wea- 
verton, Md., was removed and rebuilt at 
Knoxville, Md., at a cost of $1,800; and 
the substantial brick parsonage at Bur- 
kittsville, Md., was erected at a cost of 
13,000. While pastor at Middletown, 
Md., the church there was renovated at 
a cost of $2,000, and a new church built 
at Harmony, Md., at a cost of $2,000. 
His ministry has been attended with 
several marked manifestations of the 
Holy Spirit — notably the one occurring 
during the pastorate at Mt. Airy and 
Kimberling, when one hundred and six- 
teen persons professed faith in Christ, 



eighty-six of whom united with the 
Lutheran church. 

Eev. Mann was elected to the Presi- 
dency of the Marion High School, Vir- 
ginia, in 1877, and of North Carolina 
College in 1884, but declined both these 
positions. He has served as Director 
of the Theological Seminary, Gettys- 
burg, Pa., for eight years; was delegate 
to the General Synod several times, and 
President of the Maryland Synod in 
1880. 

He was married to Mary Ellen, 
daughter of Jacob and Catherine House- 
holder, July 16, 1863, on the banks of 
the Potomac river, in full view of Gen. 
Meade's army, which was crossing the 
river on pontoons at Berlin, Md., while 
the ceremony was being performed by 
Eev. X. J. Eichardson. 




EEV. WM. J. MANN, D.D., LL.D. 



Born at Stuttgart, Germany, on May 
29, 1819, Dr. Mann graduated at the 
University of Tubingen, 1841, at the age 
of twenty-two years. From the next 
year, 1842, he served as assistant pastor 
in Wuertemberg until three years later, 
in 1845, he came to this country, and 
after a short stay with his friend and 
former class-mate, Eev. Dr. Ph. Schaff, 
at Mercersburg, Pa., he removed to 
Philadelphia, which has ever since been 
his home. 

About 1849 he was made a member of 
the German Society of Philadelphia, 
and since then he has been prominently 
identified with its history. For a long- 
series of years he was one of the Board 
of Directors of the organization, and 
was the Chairman of the Committee 
on Library. 



In the fall of 1850 he was called, as 
the colleague of Dr. Demme and Eev. 
G. A. Eeichert, to the pastorate of the 
venerable St. Michael's and Zion's 
churches, and in the following year he 
became a member of the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania. In 1854 Eev. Eeichert 
resigned his pastorate, and Eev. G. A. 
Wenzel, D.D., was made the associate 
of Dr. Demme and Dr. Mann. From 
] 854 to 1860, as the editor of the Kirchen- 
freund, a monthly journal, he exerted 
considerable influence over a number of 
German Christians in this country. It 
was at this time that the Lutheran 
Church was very much agitated by those 
attacks on the Augsburg Confession, 
which culminated in the appearance of 
the anonymous pamphlet termed ''The 
Definite Platform." Dr. Mann prompt- 



488 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




EEV. WM. J. MANN, D, D., LL. D. 



ly wrote his "Plea for the Augsburg 
Confession" as a reply to The Definite 
Platform, and later, in the same year, 
1856, he wrote his book, "Lutheranism 
in America," to counteract Dr. S. S. 
Schmucker's "The American Lutheran 
Church" and his "American Luther- 
anism." 

The following year, 1857, he received 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity from Pennsylvania College. In 
1859 Dr. Demme resigned his pastorate, 
leaving Dr. Mann and Rev. Wenzel in 
charge of the principal German Lutheran 
church in Philadelphia. Dr. Mann, both 
at this time and until the end of his 
pastorate, was distinguished for the 
conscientious faithfulness with which 
he discharged his immense pastoral 
duties. His people were scattered over 
the whole city of Philadelphia, up-town 
and down-town, yet, notwithstanding 
his habits of close study, and the burden 
of professional, literary, public and social 
engagements, he never neglected the 



visitation of all the sick, and in a single 
year, during the cholera season, had no 
less than 271 funerals to attend. 

In the year 1864, at the memorable 
meeting of Synod at Pottstown, Dr. 
Mann was a member of the first com- 
mittee appointed to report on the es- 
tablishment of a theological seminary, 
and at the special meeting, held in July 
of the same year at Allentown, he was 
elected by the Synod as German Pro- 
fessor, Dr. C. P. Krauth being elected 
English Professor at the same time, and 
Dr. C. G. Schaeffer having become In- 
termediate Professor by the adoption of 
the committee report, of which Dr. G. 
F. Krotel was chairman. Since the 
death of Father Heyer, Dr. Mann has 
been the House Father of the Seminary 
on Franklin street. 

In this same year Dr. A. Spaeth, ar^ 
riving in Philadelphia, became Dr. 
Mann's pastoral colleague, and in 1867 
the property and congregations of old 
St. Michael's, Zion's and St. Paul's were 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



489 



divided; Dr. Spaeth founding the new 
congregation of St. Joliannis, and Dr. 
Mann retaining Zion's, which then 
erected the magnificent brown stone 
building opposite Franklin Square. 

For many years Dr. Mann was one of 
the writers on the Jiigend Freund^ he 
taking a peculiar delight in simple 
graphic explanation of pictorial illustra- 
tions for children, and an editorial con- 
tributor to Her old und Zeitschrift. His 
occasional ''Rundschau" for their liberal 
and comprehensive views, remarkable 
historical knowledge, and deep insight 
into the political status of the world, 
particularly of Europe, attracted much 
attention. 

In 1872 Dr. Mann, being Professor of 
Hebrew, Symbolics, and also of Ethics 
in the Seminary, published his General 
Principles of Christian Ethics, which is 
a very compact abridgement of Dr. Ch. 
Fr. Schmidt's Ethics, and is still used 
as a text-book in the Seminary. In 
1875 Dr. Mann made his second visit to 
Europe, he having gone back to the old 
world for the first time in 1867, and re- 
turned from his third visit to the old 
country just a few weeks ago. 

In 1881 he yielded to the urgent re- 
quest of many who had listened to his 
preaching, to publish a volume of ser- 
mons. Heilsbotschaft appeared, having 
a large sale, the proceeds of which were 
devoted to the Orphans' Home. At this 
time Dr. Mann, who, in conjunction 
with Dr. B. M. Schmucker, had become 
the highest authority on the early his- 
tory of our church in America, and on 
the life and times of the patriarch Muh- 
lenberg, was appointed by Synod to the 
new office of Synodical Archivarius, and 
began the organization of the Synodical 
Archives, of which he is still custodian. 

Dr. Mann has been President of the 
Ministerium of PennF^ylvania three 
times, declining, at the meeting in Potts- 
62 



town in 1881, to become a candidate in 
the future. He contributed the articles 
"Lutherische Kirche in Nord Amerika," 
and "Mormonism" to the last edition of 
Herzog and Plitt's Encyclopedia, and 
was a special contributor to the Ameri- 
can Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia. From 
1882 on, nearly every year has brought 
with it a book from his pen. In 1882 
there appeared his "Leben und Wirken 
William Penn's;" in 1883, "Ein Aufgang 
im Abendland;" 1884, "Das Buch der 
Buecher und seine Geschichte;" and in 
1885 the first volume of the new and 
richly annotated edition of the "Halle 
Reports," the result of incredible labor 
and research in manuscript, documents, 
and books. In this great work his co- 
laborers were Dr. B. M. Schmucker and 
Dr. Wm. Germann. This publication 
is, no doubt. Dr. Mann's greatest work. 

It was eminently fitting that one of 
Muhlenberg's successor should also be- 
come Muhlenberg's biographer, and in 
1887 he brought out "The Life aud 
Times of Muhlenberg," in which there 
is found such a richness of detail and 
thorough acquaintance with the period, 
that reviewers on every side have agreed 
that the student of early American his- 
tory cannot afford to neglect the book. 
A year later the title of Doctor of Laws 
was conferred upon him by Muhlenberg 
College. 

In 1884, Dr. Mann, in order to devote 
himself more completely to his profes- 
sional and literary labors, and to his 
historical researches, resigned his posi- 
tion as pastor of Zion's Church, and 
became its Pastor Emeritus. To his 
people he had endeared himself by 
faithful pastoral labors, and through all 
the years of his pulpit ministration, the 
freshness, piquancy and common sense 
of his preaching, the precise legal frame- 
work of his sermons, the concrete and 
practical handling of real life, the poetic 



490 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



insight that never allowed itself any 
affectation or unreal flights of imagina- 
tion, always drew for him large audiences 
of hearers. In his popular writings, 
such as, e. g.j his pamphlet on Personal 
Liberty, of which 40,000 copies were 
circulated, his compact, terse, striking, 
and simple sentences and great flexibility 
of highly polished style, has placed him 
among the first of German writers in 
America. In addition to his connection 
with the German Society, of which he 
is now an Honorary Member by special 
resolution, Dr. Mann is a member of the 
Society for Alleviating the Miseries of 
Public Prisons ; and was, for a number 
of years, one of its Acting Committee. 
For forty years he has been a Life 
Member of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, and is a Life Member of 
the Pennsylvania Bible Society, and of 
its Board. He is likewise a member of 
the Board of Managers of the Orphans' 
Home, of the Board of Directors of the 
German Hospital, and of the Board of 
Directors of the Mary J. Drexel Home 
and Deaconess House. 



In all Philadelphia circles his gener- 
ous impulses, liberal motives, and for- 
giving spirit, entirely devoid of malice, 
together with his quickness of insight, 
his intuitive perception and gifts of 
ready expression, his untiring industry 
and accurate scholarship, his remark- 
able intellectual versatility — an educated 
man at home in every branch — his 
aesthetic culture and critical mastery of 
the principles of music and art, his deep 
and liberal views of politics and states- 
manship, have made and retained for 
him hosts of friends. 

As a professor, he aims to convey the 
ground and substance of knowledge, to 
stimulate the student to a thorough 
mastery of elemental principles, to in- 
dependent production of thought, and 
to a self-criticism of that which is 
superficial or false. 

To sum up. Dr. Mann is an original 
character, many-sided, stimulating all 
with whom he comes in contact. — 
Indicator. 




REV. J. P. MARGART. 



Rev. J. P. Margart, of Batesville, Ala., 
is one of the oldest members of the 
United Synod. With the venerable 
chaplain of the South Carolina Lunatic 
Asylum, Rev. Edwin A. Bolles, he is the 
only survivor among twenty-four minis- 
ters who constituted the meeting of the 
South Carolina Synod in 1840. His 
ordination at this early date, reminds me 
of Fathers Rothrock and Davis of the 
North Carolina Synod who were or- 
dained in 1833, and Dr. J. F. Campbell, 
of the Yirginia Synod, ordained in 1845, 
and Father Stephen Rhudy and Rev. 
James A. Brown of the Southwestern 



I Yirginia Synod who were ordained in 

1 1842-3 respectively. 

Father Margart was born in Charleston 
in 1820. He was baptized and con- 
firmed by the distinguished Dr. Bachman 
and was educated by the German society. 
Graduated in the Theological school at 
Lexington in 1840 under Dr. Hazelius. 
Was licensed by the South Carolina 
Synod in 1840 and ordained by the 
same Synod at Ebenezer, Ga., in 1841. 
He and his good wife will celebrate their 
golden wedding before this work appears, 
if spared a few weeks from the date of 
this writing. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



^91 



REV. ADAM MARTIN, D.D. 



Prof. Adam Martin, D.D., was born 
in Budershausen, Bavaria, Aug. 8, 1835. 
He carae to this country early in life, 
was graduated from Hamilton College in 
1858 and Hartwick Theological Semi- 
nary in 1861. In September of that 
year he was ordained to the Lutheran 
ministry and became pastor of St. Mark's 
church, Middleburg, N. Y. In 1865 he 
was called to the Presidency of North- 
western University, Wisconsin. In 1869 



he accepted the Professorship of the 
German language and literature in 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa., 
which he now (1888) holds. In 1887 he 
received the degree of D. D. from Muh- 
lenberg College, Pennsylvania. He is 
a frequent contributor to the periodicals 
of his Church, and has translated the 
large catechism of Luther for the Book 
of Concord, edited by Prof. H. E, Jacobs, 
D.D. — Appl. Cyel Am. Biog. 



7^ 



REV. JACOB MARTIN. 



Rev. Martin studied theology under 
Rev. Father J. P. Schindler, of Sunbury, 
Northumberland Co., Pa., (his native 
place) and entered the ministry in 1824, 
and served different pastorates as follows: 
Danville, Livingston Co., N. Y., was 
his first charge, serving there two con- 
gregations about eighteen months, when 
he was called to Williamsburg, Hunting- 
don Co., Pa. Here his field of labor 
extended over a great portion of that 
county. Hollidaysburg, Frankstown, 
Martinsburg, Royer's Furnace, Cove 
Forge, etc., were some of the most 
prominent places. He remained at 
Williamsburg, Pa., some twelve years, 
and was next called to Greencastle, 
Franklin Co., Pa., where he remained 
a little over a year, when he was called 
to Hollidaysburg, one of the dependencies 
of his former charge, Williamsburg, and 
to which he had promised a visit so soon 
as the house of worship that congrega- 
tion was then erecting, should be finished. 
Here he served, with Frankstown only 
two miles distant, acceptably for several 
years, when discord was sown, caused 



by "new measures" which he did not 
approve. He then resigned and was 
invited to Mifflintown, Juniata Co., Pa. 
At this place he remained some fifteen 
months, when he returned to Hollidays- 
burg. He returned to this place feeling 
assured, as his friends informed him, 
that common sense had predominated 
over "new measures." But in time the 
discord was renewed and he therefore 
gave up the charge in Hollidaysburg as 
hopeless, and withdrew from the contest. 
He was next called to Berrysburg, 
Daughin Co., Pa., where he officiated in 
the German language altogether some 
two years. Giving up his German 
charge he went to Johnstown, Cambria 
Co., Pa., where he remained two years, 
and then removed to Petersburg, Adams, 
Co., Pa. Here his field of labor was 
again extensive and his duties arduous. 
Four years from thence he went to 
Westminster, Carroll Co., Md., and 
remained two years. His last pastorate 
being Reisterstown, Baltimore Co., Md., 
where he served three years aiding in 
the erection of a house of worship there, 



492 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and in the spring of 1871, returned to 
his native place, Sunbury, Pa., where 
he was permitted to enjoy the society 
of his friends and those of his youthful 
days who yet remained but a few months, 



and then departed to reap the reward of 
his forty-seven years of ministerial labor, 
on the sixth day of November, 1871, 
being over sixty-eight years of age. 

G. M. 



EEV. PHILIP R MAYEE, D.D. 



Dr. Philip Frederick Mayer, a son of 
George Frederick Mayer, was born in 
the city of New York, April 1, 1781, and 
continued to reside there until he had 
reached his twenty-first year. He was 
fitted for college at a Grammar School 
taught by a Mr. Campbell. He entered 
Columbia College in 1795, and graduated 
with the first honor of his class in 1799. 
He immediately commenced the study 
of theology under the Rev. Dr. Kunze, 
and took a three years' course, and then, 
before engaging in the active duties of 
the ministry, he traveled for some time, 
visiting several of our large cities, and 
other points of special interest. He was 
received as a member of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Ministerium of the state of 
New York on the first of September, 
1802, being the first licentiate of that 
body. His first pastoral charge was at 
Lunenburg (now Athens), Greene Co., 
N. Y., upon which he entered in the 
year 1803. Here he continued laboring 
with great acceptance for about three 
years, when he was induced to accept a 
call from an English Lutheran Church 
in Philadelphia. He commenced his 



labors with this charge in October, 1806. 
Here he not only maintained a high 
position as a preacher and a pastor, but 
was active in originating and sustaining 
many important charities of the day. 
He preached his last sermon on the 
last Sabbath of February, 1857, and 
died in the utmost tranquility, April 16. 
He was married May 24, 1804, to Lucy 
W., daughter of Daniel Rodman, of New 
York. He became the father of eight 
children, six of whom, with their mother, 
survived him. The degree of Doctor 
of Divinity was conferred upon him by 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, 
and by Columbia College in 1837. As 
early as 1812 he was appointed by the 
Ministerium to prepare a suitable collec- 
tion of hymns for public worship to 
which was to be appended a Liturgy, — 
a work which he executed with great taste 
and skill. He published also a sermon 
delivered on the fiftieth anniversary 
of his settlement at Philadelphia, 1856. 
He was a man of liberal culture, kindly 
disposition, gentlemanly manners and 
extensive usefulness. — Sprague. 




AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



493 



REV. JOHN Q. McATEE. 



Rev. John Q. McAtee, was born near 
Waynesboro', Franklin County, Pa., on 
the 25th of November, 1838. In the 
following spring his parents removed 
to Clearspring, Maryland. He was 
educated at first in a private school, and 
later, under the care of a private tutor, 
was prepared for the academy at that 
place. Entering afterwards the Junior 
Class at Pennsylvania College, Gettys- 
burg, Pa., he was graduated in 1858. He 
completed the full course of instruction 
in the Seminary at Gettysburg three 
years later, in the fall of 1861. He was 
at once ordained by the West Pennsyl- 
vania Synod, at its convention in Me- 
chanicsburg, Pa., and became pastor at 
Lunenburg, Novia Scotia, in the month 
of November. Here he remained until 
June, 1866. His next field of labor was 
Bedford, Pa., where his pastorate exten- 
ded from the autumn of 1866 to the 
spring of 1871. 

He was called thence to Pottsville, 
on a salary of $1,500, and at first de- 
clined. But after a renewal of the call 
by the congregation, with an accompany- 
ing promise of a parsonage', he accepted. 
There was a debt of some $2,800 resting 
at this time upon the Church. 

Nov. 8, 1877, Rev. McAtee tendered 
his resignation to the church at Pottsville 
in the following letter: 

To the Council of the English Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Church of Pottsville, Pa. 
Dear Brethren: — I hereby tender, 
through you, to the congregation, my 
resignation as pastor of the English 
Lutheran Church of Pottsville, to take 
effect the last of the present month. I 
do so, not from a desire to leave a people 
with whom I have been so pleasantly 
associated for seven years, or for any 
want of interest in you, but wholly from 



a conviction that in so doing I am walk- 
ing in the path of duty. A call, unex- 
pected, unsought, and unsolicited, has 
come to me from the church in Red 
Hook, N. Y., one of the largest in our 
connection in ^that State. It is a call 
given with unusual unanimity, and this, 
taken in connection with the support 
guaranteed me there, places me entirely 
beyond any anxiety on the question of 
temporal support. In consequence of 
the embarrassments brought on many 
of our members by the failure of the 
moneyed institutions in our midst, and 
the continued hard times and want of 
employment of others who were always 
liberal supporters of the Church, our 
revenue has been so diminished that I 
feel as a burden on the congregation at 
my present salary. I did, of my own 
accord, a few months ago, reduce it two 
hundred dollars, but I still find that the 
congregation is unable to pay what yet 
remains as my stated salary. 

Viewing all these circumstances, I 
am satisfied that the call given to me to 
a new field is of God. 

I regret indeed to leave you. My 
family entertain the same feelings. We 
know that we have warm places in your 
hearts, and believe the many declarations 
of regret that we hear in connection with 
our contemplated removal. We love 
you all as much, and shall always feel 
a great interest in your prosperity, 
temporal and spiritual. 

We believe we can say that a good 
and substantial work has been done by 
me as pastor, and you as a congregation 
working with me, not in our own strength, 
but by the grace and help of God, 

The church is in a flourishing condi- 
tion, with perfect peace and harmony 
among its membership. I do believe I 



49^ 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



can say we are a unit. I thank you as 
a council for the kind consideration you 
have inva"'iably shown toward me, and 
your willingness to assist me in every 
good work. 

There have been those who were once 
among us, who are now away. The 
fault was neither with you or the pastor. 
"They were not of us, therefore they 
went out from us." Their absence is 
no loss to the Church. 

Regretting that my labors were not 
more productive of good than they were, 
thankful that we have so many substan- 
tial tokens of some success in our work 
here, with earnest prayers for greater 
prosperity among you, I hereby tender 
you my resignation. 

J. Q. McAtee. 

Thereupon the following resolutions 
were adopted by the congregation: 

Whereas, It has pleased the Head of 
the Church, Jesus Christ, to call unto 
another field of work our beloved pastor. 
Rev. J. Q. McAtee, who has ministered 
so faithfully unto our spiritual wants 
during the seven years he has labored 
with us; therefore be it 

Resolved, That it is with the deepest 
regret that we learn of his determination 
to sever his connection with this Church 
as its pastor, and, in the acceptance of 
his resignation, we only yield to what 
we recognize to be a call of Providence 
and conducive to the best interest of 
our retiring pastor. 

Resolved, That we desire to express 
our high appreciation of his efforts to 
promote the spiritual and secular ad- 
vancement of this congregation during 
his ministry, and the affection we cherish 
for him as a minister and friend. 



Resolved, That we ask an interest in 
his prayers in behalf of this part of the 
Lord's vineyard, and that God may so 
direct our footsteps and guard us from 
the evils of life as to suffer us to be event- 
ually gathered into his own heavenly 
fold. 

Resolved, That it is our earnest wish 
that his new associations may prove 
pleasant, and his future work be rich 
in the fruits which must attend the 
preaching of a faithful Christian minis- 
ter, and that he and his worthy family 
may win the esteem and confidence of 
those in whose behalf they labor." 



In November, 1877, the same month 
upon which he left Pottsville, Rev. 
McAtee entered upon the labor of the 
new field to which he was called, and 
remained there, at Red Hook, N. Y., 
some eighteen months. 

In July, 1879, he accepted a call to 
Cumberland, Maryland, which he re- 
members as one of the most pleasant he 
has ever had, and where during a pas- 
torate of four and a third years, he was 
also attended by marked success. 

In November, 1883, he became pastor 
of St. Peter's Lutheran Church at Bar- 
ren Hill, Pa., a congregation which Rev. 
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg had found- 
ed, and to which he preached as their 
first pastor. 

It needs but a glance over the statis- 
tics of his pastorate here, to assure the 
reader of the tireless activity of this good 
brother at that time. He has carried 
the same energy into other fields, losing 
but three months out of a ministry of 
twenty-seven years, and is as vigorous 
to day as ever. — Rev. Hay's Hist. Pottsville 
Chureh. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



495 



REV. JOHN McCRON, D.D. 



Rev. John McCron, D. D., was born 
October 23d, 1807, at Manchester, Eng- 
land. He came to this country in 1831. 

He married Miss Martha Morse, of 
Vermont, and, having received in early 
life a good education, engaged, with her 
co-operation, in teaching at Mechanics- 
burg, Pa. He made a profession of 
religion among the Methodists, and 
became an exhorter and local preacher 
in that denomination. But, having 
become impressed with the conviction 
that he wa? called to the ministry, and 
having become acquainted with the 
doctrines and usages of the Lutheran 
Church, he gave them his decided pref- 
erence, and entered the Theological 
Seminary of the General Synod at 
Gettysburg in 1838. He was licensed 
by the West Pennsylvania Synod in 
1839, and called as pastor of the English 
Lutheran Congregation in Pittsburg. 
They erected a church building a year 
later. 

After a short pastorate here, he went 
to Lancaster, Ohio. In 1843, he accepted 
the charge at Pikeland, in Chester 
County, Pa., and, in 1847, of the Still 
Valley Church located three miles from 
Easton. In 1851, he went to Norristown, 
Pa., in 1852, to Rhinebeck, New York, 
and in 1854, to Middletown, Maryland. 
In 1855 he was called to the pastorate of 
the Monument Street Church, Baltimore, 
and in 1860 to that of the Lexington 
Street Church in the same city. He 
received the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
from Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia, 
in 1857. 

He accepted the Principalship of the 
Hagerstown Female Seminary in 1873. 
Thither he was called to the pulpit of 
the Lutheran Congregation at Blooms- 
burg, Pa., and thence to Pottsville. 



By a vote of ninety-four to two, 
immediately made unanimous, he was 
elected on the 20th of January, 1878, as 
pastor of this congregation, at a salary 
of 11,000 and parsonage. Though a 
a widower when he came, he was married 
the same year to Miss Martha Bailey of 
Baltimore, Maryland. 

Doctor McCron, upon leaving Potts- 
ville, took charge of the Lutherbaum 
congregation in Philadelphia, in which 
city, having reached the midst of his 
75th year, he died upon the 26th of 
April, 1881. 

His funeral services took place in St. 
Matthew's Lutheran Church, Philadel- 
phia, Rev. W. M. Baum, D.D., pastor, 
on the 29th of April. Rev. Drs. M. 
Sheeleigh, E. Huber, W. M. Baum, L. 
E. Albert, and S. A. Holman partici- 
pated in conducting the sad rites, and 
Revs. J. H. Menges, J. H. Steck, S. 
Laird, and Seiss, were present, as also 
members of the Lutherbaum Mission 
and other Lutheran churches of Phil- 
adelphia. He was laid to rest in 
Fern side Cemetery, West Philadelphia. 

Among the tributes to his memory 
that the news of his death elicited were 
two that appeared in the columns of the 
Lutheran Observer from the pens, 
respectively, of the Rev. Drs. George 
Diehl and Reuben Weiser. 

Doctor Diehl states : "Doctor McCron 
came to the Theological Seminary at 
Gettsyburg when I was connected with 
the College. I had but a slight acquaint- 
ance with him then. I remember his 
appearance. He had not the robust and 
ruddy look which a few years of active 
work in country churches gave him, six 
or eight years afterward. AVhen a 
theological student, he was rather slender 
and pale, with indications, however, of 



496 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



moderately good health. He had a 
refined and gentlemanly air — more 
scholarly in appearance than the average 
theological student. His face and form 
and manners would attract attention at 
once. He was then a married man 
about thirty-one years of age. Seeing 
him in a group of students, the question 
naturally arose, 'Who is that intelligent 
and sprightly young man?' He seemed 
to form few acquaintances among the 
citizens and the college students, partly 
because he did not remain the entire 
time of the years then given to the 
seminary course. Although not person- 
ally acquainted with him, almost every 
one knew Mr. McCron by sight. His 
reputation among students and citizens 
was that of a more than ordinary talented 
man. I know of only one public per- 
formance by Mr. McCron while a student, 
outside of the Seminary chapel — a 
temperance lecture delivered at the 
request of prominent citizens of the 
town, near the close of his student life. 
It was an address of marked ability, 
complimented by Thaddeus Stevens, and 
pronounced by Robert Goodloe Harper, 
the scholarly editor of the Sentinel, as 
the finest temperance speech he had 
heard. 

I was a near neighbor of Dr. McCron 
when he was pastor of the Still Valley 
Church, and again when he was at 
Mi-idletown, Maryland. At the former 
place I saw hiin every week, and heard 
him frequently. He was then in the 
prime of life, in vigorous and robust 
health, capable of much work, full of 
vivacity, exceedingly genial, entertaining 
and witty in conversation, very popular 
with the people, and doing a large 
amount of pastoral work in his large 
country parish. No minister in that 
region could draw such large congrega- 
tions. No pastor did his pastoral work 
in a more acceptable manner. He was 



especially popular at weddings, and had 
more than his share of marriages. 

I was well acquainted with his methods 
of work. In his country or village 
churches he usually preached extempo- 
raneously. His sermons were then 
characterized by plain, direct and forcible 
truth, delivered in an animated manner. 
He was always ready and fluent. When 
he preached before Synods, or in the 
city churches, his discourses were more 
elaborate — often overstrained. Those 
special efforts were not his best. They 
lacked the gospel simplicity and unction 
of his preaching among his own people 
in country churches. I was frequently 
with him in services held every night 
for a week, in several villages — Fines- 
ville, Springtown, Harmony, and Stew- 
artsville — lying several miles from Still 
Yalley Church, although belonging to 
the central congregations. In those 
services he gave the best sermons I ever 
heard from him. Forgetting himself, 
and aiming solely at the spiritual good 
of his hearers, his discourses were 
extremely felicitous, adapted to the 
occasion and the audience, abounding in 
scriptural truth, direct appeals to the 
conscience and the heart, full of tender- 
ness, unction and power, and always 
fluent, although many of them unpre- 
meditated. When listening to those 
fervent and powerful addresses, the 
regret often arose in my mind that Dr. 
McCron did not preach in the same 
strain when he came before great audi- 
ences in large towns, and before eccle- 
siastical conventions. If Dr. McCron 
had made Addison and Dr. South his 
models in style, instead of the Johnson- 
ian grandiloquence, probably taking- 
Chalmers and Melville as his models, 
his preaching would have been more 
popular among educated people. He 
was a man of more extensive reading 
and information than some have given 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



497 



him credit for. His memory was 
remarkably retentive, and the movements 
of his mind rapid. He had a good 
knowledge of some of the mathematics, 
and a decided taste for such studies. 
Although not of a philosophic or analytic 
turn, he possessed logical ability, and 
his arguments were sometimes keen and 
strong. He was highly imaginative^ 
and his elocution was excellent. His 
pictures were often strong and vivid, 
yet sometimes lacking delicacy of fancy 
and taste. Had his gr^at intellectual 
powers been subjected in youth to the 
severe discipline of a university or college 
training, the style of his oratory would 
have been more conformed to the taste 
of the learned. As he was, he has few 
equals in his own peculiar department. 
It was a customary remark of Dr. Steck, 
a few years ago, that, for readiness, 
fluency, fervid intellectuality, and glow- 
ing oratory. Dr. McCron stood without 
a rival. 

He was of a highly social nature. 
None enjoyed good company more than 
he, and none brought to the social circle 
a more genial flow of good spirits, 
sparkling conversation, and pleasant wit. 
His merriment was sometimes overflow- 
ing. He had a delicate regard to the 
feelings of others — never wounding one's 
sensibilities. However gushing his 
exhuberant spirits, or keen his wit, it 
was always in a vein of good nature. He 
was a man of quick sensibilities, and 
when he suspected a wrong to himself, 
his indignation would flash out. About 
the time of his accepting a call to the 
First Church of Baltimore, unfortunate 
circumstances alienated him from some 
of his brethren. He labored under a 
suspicion that some persons made a 
combined and persistent effort to dis- 
parage him. This produced some con- 
straint. Yet he had warm friends and 
admirers all the time. During the five 
63 



years of his pastoral connection with 
the Third Church, and for six or eight 
years in the Lexington Street Church 
he drew crowded houses. Among the 
popular preachers of different denomi- 
nations in Baltimore during the last 
forty years, there have been few who 
drew larger houses for a longer time. 
Among the popular admirers were men 
of high professional and literary ability. 
In the death of Dr. McCron, many of 
our ministers have lost one of their 
most trusted and cherished friends, and 
the Lutheran pulpit has lost one of its 
most brilliant ornaments. 

Dr. Weiser says: — 

"I first became acquainted with Dr. 
McCron in 1837, when he was a student 
at Gettysburg. He was a good English 
scholar before he weQt to the seminary 
He wrote a beautiful hand, equal to cop- 
perplate. He had a most tenacious local 
memory, and a wonderful flow of lan- 
guage. His articulation was clear and 
distinct, his gestures graceful and be- 
coming; in short he was a natural orator. 
In 1838 he went to Pittsburg as mis- 
sionary of the West Pennsylvania Synod 
and took charge of the mission in that 
city, which had been commenced by 
Father Heyer. In 1839 he came East 
to collect money for the building of the 
church at Pittsburg. He visited, among 
others, my churches at Woodboro. The 
people were everywhere carried away by 
his eloquence. He made a deep im- 
pression wherever he went, and raised a 
good deal of money. In the spring of 
1839 our General Synod met in Cham- 
bersburg. Brother McCron was there. 
I had been appointed by the Synod of 
Maryland to visit some of the Western 
states as an exploring missionary, and 
Brother McCron and I made arrange- 
ments to go as far as Pittsburg together. 
We traveled in a private carriage, and 
preached alternately in all the towns 



498 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



along the road. We had a pleasant time 
of it. When I came to Pittsburg I 
found that Brother McCron was very 
popular there, and was looked upon as 
the most brilliant orator in the city. 

Brother McCron was full of life and 
animation, but like all men of his tem- 
perament, had his times of gloom and 
depression. He was a cheerful com- 
panion, and was fond of jesting — so much 
so that some thought it bordered on 
levity. He was a pure-minded and good- 
hearted man, and brim full of good 
humor. He believed in the motto — 
'Laugh and grow fat.' And yet he was 
at times serious, and even grave, with- 
out being morose. He was honorable 
and dignified, polite and affable in his 
intercourse with men. His mind was 
well stored with the knowledge of Eng- 
lish literature; he was well acquainted 
with the best English writers. His 
theological learning was not very pro- 
found, as his mind did not run in that 
direction. He paid more attention to 
the beautiful and the ornate than to the 
protound. Thousands who read this 
article will recall his beautiful and fin- 
ished sermons. 

As an old friend of nearly half a cen- 
tury, I wish to hang this chaplet upon 
his monument, and thus to add my tes- 
timony to the talents and virtues of my 
departed brother. It is natural for us 
all to wish after we are dead that some 
friendly survivor may say a word in our 
favor. We would all rather have a few 
flowers scattered over our graves, than 
to have naught but the cold waves of 
oblivion roll over them. 

I do not know the particulars of his 
death, but I know that he who lives 
right will die right. I have no doubt 
that that blessed Saviour, whom he 
preached so long and so faithfully, sus- 
tained him in the hour of death. I have 
often heard him quoting the sweet lines: 



'Jesus can make a dying bed, 
Feel soft as downy pillows are, 

While on his breast I lean my head, 
And breathe my soul out sweetly there.' 

He would not be likely to forget this 
in his last struggle! He used often to 
quote with thrilling effect, a passage 
from Henry Kirke White: — 

'Yet Jesus, Jesus, there I'll cling — 
I'll crowd beneath his sheltering wing; 
I'll clasp the cross, and holding there, 
E'en me — O bliss! his wrath may spare.' 

We all kuQw how often and beauti- 
fully he quoted poetry. But he has 
gone; he has finished his course, and 
has received his crown in the better 
land. Peace to his ashes!" — Hay's Hist. 
Potisville Church. 



Dr. M. Sheeleigh writes concerning 
him: — 

"The memory of Dr. McCron is still 
fresh in the minds of thousands in our 
church. His father and mother were, 
respectively, of English and Irish birth. 
He was born in Manchester, Eng., Oct. 
23, 1807; and died in Philadelphia April 
26, 1881, in the middle of his 74th year. 

In 1831 our subject made his home in 
this country. He gave several years to 
the work of teaching. Sensible of a call 
to the ministry, he spent some time in 
the Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, and was made a 'minister in 1839. 
He served different pastorates in Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, 
and Maryland, also acted as Principal of 
the Hagerstown Female Seminary for 
two years. The doctorate was conferred 
upon him by Eoanoke College, Va., in 
1857, while pastor in Baltimore. 

Dr. McCron was a man of very notice- 
able physique and manner. He was 
naturally endowed with a brilliant mind, 
and his attainments were remarkably 
varied. His commanding presence, 
flashing eye, resonant voice, :forceful 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



499 



modulation, vast fund of words, fluency 
of utterance, rounded periods, poetic 
spirit, and absorption in his subject, are 
some of the elements which aided in 



making him one of the most popular 
orators that have ever appeared in our 
pulpits. — M. S. 




EEY. H. w. Mcknight, d.d., ll.d. 



The Rev. Harvey Washington Mc- 
Knight, D. D., was born April 3d, 1843, 
in McKnightstown, Adams Co., Pa. His 
father, Thomas McKnight, was a pioneer 
farmer, and also for a while engaged in 
the mercantile business. He could 
boast of the honor of being a veteran of 
the war of 1812, in which he served 
under General Harrison. His mother, 
Margaret F., with a long and influential 
life in shaping her son's career, now 
lives with her son. Dr. McKnight, at 
Gettysburg, Pa., aged eighty-eight years. 
Amongst a family of six sons and two 
daughters Harvey Washington was the 
only child who had early impressions of 
the Gospel ministry. Pressed by such 
convictions he entered Pennsylvania 
College, at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1860. 
Little did he suspect then that his youth- 
ful aspirations for a noble calling in life 
would suddenly be interrupted by the 
course of oncoming events. But in his 
freshman year, having felt the burnings 
of liberty in his heart, he at once deter- 
mined to sever his relations with the 
college where he was studying. So, 
with many other patriotic youths, he 
engaged in the service of his country 
when it was involved in one of the 
bloodiest conflicts of its entire history. 
He enlisted at Lincoln's first call, for 
three years, and was mustered into the 
United S^tates service August 16th, 1862, 
as first sergeant of Company B, 138th 
regular Pennsylvania volunteers. But 
his appreciated soldier services had not 



long duration. With a delicate constitu- 
tion, he soon felt himself constrained to 
resign and leave the army. His health, 
however, gradually improved, and in 
June, 1863, he again enlisted in the 
cause of his beloved land. During the 
last enlistment he served faithfully and 
was several times promoted to higher 
positions. He was present under gen- 
eral Grant when the Confederate army 
surrendered at Appomattox. June, 1865, 
he obtained an honorable discharge 
from the army. 

When the war ended he resumed his 
studies with the hopes of final gradua- 
tion. This he accomplished with the 
class of '65. He now entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., 
and after two years' course of dilligent 
study he was licensed to preach the 
Gospel. He received a call to his first 
charge at Newville, Pa., where he labored 
as a faithful servant of Christ from 1867 
to 1870. Meanwhile, November 12th, 
1867, he was married to Miss Mary K. 
Welty, of Gettysburg, Pa. Two child- 
ren have blessed this union. 

Near the close of 1872 he was unani- 
mously called to the pastorate of St. 
Paul's Lutheran Church, at Easton, Pa. 
During his stay in that city he became 
very popular, being held a most gifted 
preacher and a beloved pastor. Here 
he also came in contact with that whole- 
souled Dr. Cattel, then president of 
Lafayette College, by whose ripe ex- 
perience in college life and government 



500 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BI0GRAPHIE8. 




REV. H. W. MCKNIGHT, D.D., LL.D. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



501 



he was gradually and providentially pre- 
pared for the work which he now pro- 
secutes with such untiring zeal and 
vigor. 

In 1880 he was tendered a call to the 
First English Lutheran Church of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, which call he accepted. 
During his pastorate here he was emin- 
ently successful. His eloquence, finan- 
cial ability and faithfulness won for him 
reputation as one of Cincinnati's best 
men. While here he also was elected 
as one of the true tees of Wittenberg 
College, at Springfield, Ohio, in which 
capacity he distinguished himself for his 
shrewdness and sagacity on points of 
great financial concern. At this time 
he received the degree D. D. from Mon- 
mouth College, 111. 

His next charge was Hagerstown, Md., 
where, in 1884, he was enabled to tarry 
for a very short period. In consequence 
of the resignation of Dr. M. Valentine, 
then president of Pennsylvania College, 
he was elected to that important positiou 
as his successor. He accepted the ap- 
pointment only after several declina- 
tions, and then with the greatest reluc- 
tance. But September 3d, 1884, he was 
inaugurated as president amidst impos- 
ing ceremonies and with the highest 



hopes of his friends for the ultimate 
success of the college. 

Since that time he has been very active 
in upbuilding the institution. Under 
his competent and comparatively short 
administration the college has enjoyed 
a mighty fiow of prosperity in all its 
various interests. Distinguished for his 
discriminating judgment, and enthused 
by an energetic spirit of reform, he has 
given Pennsylvania College an impulse 
that will be felt far down the coming 
years. Meanwhile, he has obtained the 
enviable recognition of the New York 
Academy of Anthropology by being 
made a member of that body. And in 
1888 he was enrolled a companion of the 
Loyal Legion. Last year he was made 
president of the General Synod of the 
Lutheran Church of America. Recently 
Lafayette College has conferred upon 
him the honorary degree of LL. D. 

As a soldier, citizen, scholar and presi- 
dent of an institution of learniug Dr. 
McKuight has few equals. Possessed 
of a genial disposition, an ireuic spirit, 
engaging manners, profound Christian 
enthusiasm, great pprsonal magnetism, 
he is indeed a favorite wherever he goes 
among his fellowmen. — The Treaswy, 

April, isyo. 




REY. JOHN N. MARTIN. 



Rev. John Nicholas Martin was born 
in the Duchy of Deux Ponts or Zwei- 
brucken in Rhenish Bavaria, and came 
to America about the middle of the last 
century, as the pastor of an emigrant 
congregation from that neighborhood. 
He was then a married man with several 
children. 

The congregation landed at Phila- 
delphia, intending to settle, as so many 



of their countrymen had already done, 
upon the fertile soil of Pennsylvania. 
Most of the valuable lands of that state, 
however, then accessible, had been pre- 
viously occupied; and the inviting valley 
of the Shenandoah had already attracted 
a large share of the immigrant Germans. 
Their settlements had extended far up 
the great central valley of Yirginia from 
the North, and the way was open even 



502 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



into North Carolina. After some delay 
the congregation to which Mr. Martin 
ministered fixed its location far to the 
South, in the Washaw country, in Anson 
county, near the border of South Carolina. 
A very ancient Lutheran church still 
exists there, which was perhaps the 
scene of his labors. He remained here 
for some years, and a family of five sons 
and two daughters grew up around him. 
He is reported to have held in peculiar 
admiration the character of the Apoptle 
John, and this circumstance may account 
for the fact that he gave this name, 
which was also his own, to each of his 
sons. They were John Christian, John 
Leonard, John Thomas, John Peter and 
John Jacob. His daughters were named 
Elizabeth and Joanna Magdalene. 

After a time he removed, with most 
of his congregation, to the district be- 
tween the Broad and Saluda Eivers in 
South Carolina, a favorite spot with the 
Germans of the South. Several Luth- 
eran churches grew up on each of these 
rivers; and so numerous was the German 
population there that the whole district 
has loug borne the name of the Dutch 
Fork. Mr. Martin's pastoral charge in 
this region consisted of two congrega- 
tions, — Zion's church on the south side, 
and St. Michael's, six miles distant, on 
the north side of the Saluda. His orig- 
inal church had probably colonized both 
these localities. During his residence 
here he made a visit to Germany, from 
which he returned with a supply of 
books and other articles of interest, 
which were a great source of delight in 
the wilderness in which his children 
were growing up. It is probable that 
the interests of his church were the 
prominent object of this visit, but of this 
no evidence can now be furnished. After 
his return Mr. Martin labored for some 
years in these two churches. During 
all this period the German was the lan- 



guage both of the pulpit and of the 
household, and neither Mr. Martin or 
his wife ever learned any other. 

After some years of labor in the Dutch 
Fork Mr. Martin removed to Charleston 
where his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, 
had married as early as 1764. His 
regular engagement with the church 
there dates from 1776, when he was in- 
vited to assume the pastoral charge for 
two years, but he had probably removed 
there at a somewhat earlier period, and 
been connected, perhaps less formally, 
with the congregation. He apparently 
brought with him to that city a part of 
his original flock, as many of the names 
of those whose deaths are recorded in 
the church book at Charleston, were 
from Zweibrucken. In this field of labor 
Mr. Martin passed the remainder of his 
life. He was naturally of a fervid and 
intense disposition, and his preaching 
was characterized by a high degree of 
animation and power. His family disci- 
pline was of a stern and authoritative 
kind, and his children stood much in 
awe of him. His son, Peter, on one oc- 
casion playfully pointed his fowling- 
piece at his younger brother, unsus- 
picious of any charge in it, and, snapping 
it, fired a charge of powder into the 
lad's face. Instantly, perceiving the 
mischief, he rushed out of the house and 
concealed himself in the woods from his 
father's severity; nor did he venture to 
look his father in the face till several 
days had elapsed, and his mother's 
earnest intercession for him had pre- 
pared the way. This somewhat despotic 
authority of the domestic circle, Mr. 
Martin, according to the custom of the 
German clergy of that day, carried with 
him into the church. His vigorous 
judgment gave great weight to his de- 
cisions. In ser.'ous family disputes, and 
on other occasions of a similar kind, 
when all other means of conciliation had 



( 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



503 



failed, his influence was often resorted 
to with great success. 

The American Revolution interrupted 
the peaceful course of Mr. Martin's 
labors, and exposed him to serious trials 
and sacrifices. His ardent temperament 
impelled him to take a decided part in 
behalf of the Colonies in the struggle 
which came on. Under his auspices the 
patriotic feelings of his congregation 
were strongly developed; and a German 
fusilier company was early formed 
among them in anticipation of coming 
exigencies. All the members of the 
company belonged to Mr. Martin's con- 
gregation; its first lieutenant was Mr. 
Daniel Strobel, his son-in-law, and its 
second lieutenant was his eldest son, 
Christian. This company bore a promi- 
nent part in the military history which 
took place in and around the city; and 
the organization has ever since been 
cherished with much pride by the de- 
scendants of the original founders. 

When the war commenced Mr. Mar- 
tin's fourth son, — Peter, then a well- 
grown youth of sixteen, — was eager to 
join the company, but was deemed too 
young. He, however, accompanied the 
troop as a volunteer in all its service, 
and in the succeeding year was chosen 
a member. After this he participated 
in all of its engagements, and, at length, 
in the disastrous storming of Savannah 
in 1779, by the united French and 
American forces. In this memorable 
affair the fusilier company volunteered 
to join the regiment, — the Second South 
Carolina, which led the assault. Mr. 
Martin's family was represented on that 
occasion by three members, who all came 
off unhurt. The captain, however, was 
killed, and the safe return of the com- 
pany was mainly due to the coolness and 
judgment with which Lieut. Strobel ex- 
tricated it from a very difficult position. 
He was immediately chosen captain for 



his good conduct in the action. Mr. 
Martin's congregation had several 
widows to mourn that injudicious conflict. 

At the period of the first British ad- 
vance by land upon Charleston, which 
took place under Prevost in May, 1779, 
Mr. Martin was residing upon a small 
farm, then a mile outside of the city, 
but at present within its limits. In the 
panic which ensued, it was feared that 
his dwelling might afford a cover to the 
enemy's approach. It was, therefore, 
burned, in anticipation, by the military 
authorities. No assault, however, was 
made; the sickness of his troops and the 
rapid return of the American army 
forced Prevost to retire; the house, 
which had been cheerfully yielded to 
the necessities of the occasion, was joy- 
fully rebuilt when the crisis was over; 
and the pastor resumed his settled life 
and his regular labors as before. 

But the immunity was not to last. A 
second expedition, consisting of both 
land and naval forces, under Sir Henry 
Clinton, approached the city in April, 
1780. Mr. Martin's house, which was 
just beyond the line of our defensive 
works, was a second time burned by our 
troops. To this sacrifice, which was not 
in either instance compensated, Mr. 
Martin submitted as cheerfully as before. 
His son, Peter, was now an active mem- 
ber of the fusilier company, which oc- 
cupied an advanced position near his 
father's farm, while the enemy was pre- 
paring for the assault. His tent was in 
a very exposed position in the front, 
and he was accustomed to sleep in a 
hammock, which he had slung in it to 
protect himself from the dampness of 
the ground. His German flute he usual- 
ly kept under his head. On the morn- 
ing on which the fire of the besiegers 
was expected to open, he had risen earlier 
than usual and left his tent. During 
the few minutes of his absence the first 



504 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



cannon was fired from the British lines, 
and the shot passed through his tent, cut 
down his hammock and broke his flute 
in fragments. 

Upon the surrender of the city Mr. 
Martin was not at first molested. His 
house was probably again rebuilt, his 
church continued open, and his preach- 
ing was not interrupted. The fact that 
he preached in German rendered his 
political position somewhat less conspic- 
uous than that of the English-speaking 
clergy; and the Hessian troops, who 
formed a part of the British force of oc- 
cupation, were even sometimes sent to 
attend upon his ministry. It soon be- 
came known, however, to the authorities 
that, even when his church was filled 
with Hessian soldiers, his ministrations 
were not favorable to the royal cause. 
He was therefore informed that he must 
pray for the King in his public services, 
or he would not be allowed to cootinue 
them. This he steadfastly refused to do. 
The consequence was that his church 
was closed, and his pulpit labors inter- 
dicted, during the subsequent hostile 
occupation of the city. It is mentioned 
by the Rev. Dr. Bachman, Mr. Martin's 
successor in the pastoral office at the 
present time, — in his Anniversary Ser- 
mon, in 1858, — that Mr. Martin was not 
permitted to enter the city, and that his 
farm was confiscated. Of course it was 
restored at the evacuation of Charleston. 
In the meantime, more compliant 
preachers were found, religious services 
were resumed, and Mr. Martin's name 
does not appear upon the Church Records 
from this period till 1783. 

After the surrender in 1780, Mr. 
Martin's son, John Peter, left the city 
and joined the partisan corps of General 
Sumter. His intimate knowledge of the 
country in which that corps was opera- 
ting against the British outposts, and 
his unusual coolness and daring, ren- 



dered him of great use; and he soon 
became a captain and quartermaster of 
the brigade. When the enemy, to guard 
against the constant daring and success- 
ful assaults, by this corps, upon every 
exposed point, strengthened the out- 
posts. Gen. Sumter resolved to cut ofi:* 
their communication with Charleston, 
and Captain Martin, as second in com- 
mand, led a force by a long and indirect 
route to the very gates of the city. Here 
he swooped down upon a large party of 
British officers and Tories, who were 
enjoying themselves at a rural retreat 
called the Quarter House, a few miles 
out of the city, on Sunday afternoon, and 
captured them, together with ninety 
valuable horses which had been sent out 
for pasturage. In order to prevent pur- 
suit it was necessary to carry off all who 
might convey intelligence to the enemy 
in the city; and, accordingly, all who 
were found at the house were marched 
off as prisoners, for some miles, with the 
retreating force. Among them Captain 
Martin recognized a member of his 
father's congregation, named Speidel; 
and, commiserating his situation, as he 
trudged along in the dust, he lent him a 
horse on which to return home, with di- 
rections to leave it at the pastor's house 
near the city. 

It so happened, however, that a boy 
frorri Charleston, who had been looking- 
for his cows in the woods near the 
Quarter House, had witnessed the cap- 
ture, and arrived late in the evening 
with the news in the city. He had 
recognized the actors in the affair, and 
gave a distorted narrative of it, in which 
he related how he had seen poor Speidel 
held by one of the party, while young 
Martin had hewn him to pieces with his 
sabre. The absence of the man during 
the night seemed to confirm the tale, 
which, of course, spread like wild fire 
among the horror stricken congregation. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



505 



With the early morning they began to 
assemble at Mr. Martin's house, in a 
state of excitement hardly to be described. 
The horrible particulars of the massacre 
were reported to the bewildered and in- 
credulous father; the story grew by 
repetition; and the crowd increased till 
an indignant multitude were almost 
ready to tear down the minister's house 
over his head. At length, however, and 
in the very crisis of the excitement, 
Speidel himself ap^Deared, dusty and 
travel-worn, but safe and sound, intent 
upon discharging his obligation to de- 
liver the horse at the minister's house. 
His grateful acknowledgment of the 
Captain's kindness, and his vivid ac- 
count of the brilliant achievement, re- 
placed the feelings of indignation by 
emotions of pride and delight; while 
the relief of the pastor and his family 
may easily be conceived. 

By the close of the war Mr. Martin 
was too old to resume his pastoral labors 
with advantage. He was, however, in- 
vited to continue in the pastoral charge 
as before, until a minister could be pro- 
cured from Germany. For another 
year, therefore, he sustained that relation . 
Upon the arrival, in 1787, of his expected 
successor, Mr. Martin was released from 
farther service, with a vote of thanks 
from the church for his fidelity to their 
spiritual welfare. 

He lived several years after this dis- 
solution of his pastoral relation, to 
witness the prosperity of his children, 
and to find his old age soothed by their 



attention and regard. He continued to 
reside, till his death, upon his little 
farm, a part of which still remains the 
property of his descendants. During 
the later years of his life, his intellect 
failed, and he quietly sank to rest July 
27, 1795. His will bears the date of 
Dec. 31, 1785. 

Mr. Martin seems to have been a man 
of much energy of character and depth 
of feeling, united with a clear and vig- 
orous judgment, to the decisions of 
which he was ever faithful. His life in 
this country was spent in so many 
separate fields, that he does not seem to 
have become identified with any one of 
them. Though more distinctly con- 
nected with the church in Charleston 
than with any other, no definite me- 
morials of him are now known to exist 
there. In particular, no scrap of his 
handwriting can now be furnished, nor 
are there any trustworthy accounts of 
the character of his preaching or of his 
methods of study. 

It affords me pleasure to commemo- 
rate, even by so brief and imperfect a 
sketch, a pious, faithful and useful an- 
cestor, to whom both the nation and the 
church, in their early and feebler days, 
were alike indebted. I can only regret 
that the stormy times in which he lived, 
while they afforded him so many oppor- 
tunities of proving his faithfulness to 
the obligations of religion and patriot- 
ism alike, have rendered it possible to 
do only this inadequate justice to his 
memory. — Benjamin N. Martin. 




64 



506 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. G. W. MEOHLING. 



Eev. George W. Mechling was born 
in Hempfield township, near Greens- 
burg, Westmoreland county. Pa., on the 
15th of July, 1836. Both his paternal 
and his maternal ancesters were all 
Lutherans. His father was Eev. Jonas 
Mechling, son of Philip J. and Catherine 
(Coder) Mechling, a descendant of 
Theobold Mechling, who came from 
Eheinfels, Germany, and settled at 
Zionsville, Pa., in 1728. His mother 
was Florinda, daughter of Andrew and 
Sarah (McGloughlin) Greessinger, a 
native of the same place with his father. 

His father was for a half century pastor 
of a number of Lutheran congregations 
in Greensburg and its vicinity, partly 
contemporaneous with John, Michael 
and Michael John Steck; and the great 
strength of the Lutheran Church in 
Westmoreland County is largely the 
outgrowth of his labors. He was a firm 
adherent to the doctrines of the Lutheran 
Church, as set forth in the symbols, an 
eloquent preacher in both English and 
German, and a most efficient catechist, 
as well as a watchful and devoted pastor. 
He brought up six sons, of whom the 
subject of this sketch was the fourth, 
whom he sought to devote to the ministry 
from his childhood, although in giving 
him a name he chose one suggestive of 
military and political life. This son 
manifested a preference for the vocation 
of his father in early childhood. When 
scarcly old enough to wear boys' clothes 
he frequently gathered the children 
together in his father's orchard on fine 
Sunday afternoons and preached to 
them in his child-like way. On one of 
these occasions an aged man, named 
Eobinson, who was a Methodist presented 
himself and asked the privilege of par- 



ticipating in the services. As he was 
neither a child nor a Lutheran, he was 
told that he could not remain unless he 
should pay the preacher and help to 
conduct the singing, as this church was 
free only to children. He cheerfully 
complied with these conditions, and was 
thereupon allowed to join the congrega- 
tion. This was the first ministerial 
support that the young preacher ever 
received. He was much influenced in 
early childhood and youth by the example 
and conversation of distinguished men, 
among whom was especially Father C. 
F. Heyer, that were frequent visitors at 
his father's house. 

At five years of age he attended a 
well regulated public school at Fightner's 
school house, situated a long mile from 
his father's residence. Here his literary 
training began; and it was continued in 
the old Greenburg Academy, after his 
father had been called to the pastorate 
of that place, which had been vacated 
by the death of Eev. Michael John Steck. 

Here, after thorough instruction in 
the catechism, he was confirmed by his 
father in the Old Lutheran Church on 
Main Street, at the same altar where his 
father and mother had been admitted to 
communion by the same rite, admin- 
istered by the elder Steck. Not long 
afterwards he was sent to Capital Uni- 
versity, in Columbus, O., Eev. W. Eey- 
nolds, D. D., being then president of the 
institution. Here, having in due time 
completed the course of instruction, he 
graduated; and here he also studied 
theology under Eev. Prof. W. F. Leh- 
mann, D. D., a learned theologian, a 
thorough Lutheran, and an excellent 
teacher. 

In 1859 he was, after examination, 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



507 



ordained to the office of the ministry by 
the Eastern District of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio. Hav- 
ing received a call as pastor of the 
Lutheran church in Ligonier and as 
assistant to his father in the Greens- 
burgh charge, he immediately entered 
upon his labors in that field. In the 
same year he was married to Amanda 
Trimble, of Columbus, O. As this field 
of labor embraced, at the beginning, 
five congregations, stretching through a 
territory of not less than forty miles in 
length, with three mission stations, the 
pastor found it necessary to be almost 
constantly away from home, "In journey- 
in gs often, in perils of waters and of the 
wilderness, in hunger and thirst and in 
cold," and in labors most abundant. 
The visitation of the sick, the burial of 
the dead, the instruction of catechumens, 
with the regular services on Sundays 
and on week-days, claimed all his time 
and taxed all his energies. Besides 
caring for the organized congregations, 
he also established a church at Latrobe, 
and began the erection of the church 
edifice which now stands there. 

In 1865 he received a call from the 
Lancaster charge, in Fairfield County, 
Ohio. This call he at first declined; but 
it was soon renewed, and with such 
urgency that, against all his personal 
preferences, he was finally induced to 
accept it. In April, 1865, he therefore 
removed to Lancaster, and was installed 
on the first Sunday after Easter, in St. 
Peter's Lutheran church, which is one 
of the oldest in Ohio, having been foun- 
ded by Eev. Michael J. Steck. Here 
he has been laboring for a period of a 
little over twenty-five years. The con- 
gregation appropriately celebrated the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate 
in April, 1890. Meanwhile the congre- 
gation has grown from a communicant 
membership of about 200 to 785; 1302 



persons had been baptized, 830 con- 
firmed; added by letter about 200; mar- 
ried 345 couples; preached 4,500 sermons. 
In 1865 the congregation had no property 
but the little, old dingy church on Canal 
Street. It now owns a good parsonage 
and the finest church edifice in the city, 
and in the most desirable location. The 
church property is worth at least $50,- 
000. Meanwhile the pastor has also, by 
God's help, established a flourishing 
congregation five miles north of the 
city, in a district that had once been 
burned out by an un-Lutheran revivalism. 

Eev. Mechling w^as the first to intro- 
duce the full order of worship, as con- 
tained in the Church Book, in the state 
of Ohio. It has long been fully used at 
all his services; and he is among the few 
that have always worn the clerical robe. 
Besides attending to his pastoral duties, 
he has given much time and labor to the 
work of the District Synod of Ohio, with 
which he has been connected for many 
years. He has served the Synod first as 
secretary and as Missionary President, 
and was for fifteen years its president, 
and that during the most trying times 
and most severe confiicts it has ever had. 

He was a delegate to the Conven- 
tion of Lutherans held in Eeading, Pa., 
in 1866, which led to the organization 
of the General Council. 

He was also a delegate to the first 
meeting of that venerable body and of 
every convention of the same, save one 
(when he was ill) since its organization; 
and has been its English Eecording Sec- 
retary since 1887 until the present 
writing. The General Council has also 
held two conventions in his church. 
Although he has now been eno^aged in 
the work of the ministry for thirt}-one 
years, and has very seldom allowed him- 
self any rest from his labors, he is still 
as active as ever and with leys weariness 
than twenty years ago. 



508 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



REV. JONAS MECHLING. 



Rev. Jonas Mechling was born in 
Hempfield Township, Westmoreland 
Co., Pa., on the 14th day of August, 
1798. His father was Philip J. Mechling, 
a descendant of Theobald Mechling, 
who came from Rheinfals, Germany, in 
1728, and settled in Montgomery Co., 
Pa., at Zionsville, where his name stands 
at the head of the list of members of 
the Lutheran church. His mother, the 
wife of Philip J. Mechling, was Catherine 
Coder, in her early years a member of the 
Lutheran Church at Barren Run, in 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. Jonas was 
baptized in his infancy and his early 
education was conducted in the schools 
that were maintained by the churches in 
Westmoreland Co. During the year 1819 
he was a member of the class of Cat- 
echumens in the Old Lutheran Church 
in Greensburg, Pa., receiving instruction 
in Luther's Small Catechism from Rev. 
J. M. Steck, Sr. In a record which he 
kept of this season, "he not only shows 
how dear the remembrance of this holy 
time was to him, but gives a very 
touching testimonial to the faithfulness 
of our older pastors in the time-honored 
and blessed custom of catechetical in- 
struction." He says: "This important 
period of my life I shall ever remember 
with pleasure and gratitude to God, 
through whose goodness it was a season 
of unspeakable refreshing and pleasure 
to me. O! that all ministers would take 
the time and care which my faithful | 
pastor took to instruct the young!" No 
doubt his remarkably clear views of the 
truth, his faithfulness towards the old 
and the young, and his firm adherence 
to the doctrines and usages of the Luth- 
eran Church throughout life were largely 
due to this early instruction. On the 
19th of June, 1819, he was confirmed by 



Rev. J. M. Steck, Sr. He pursued his 
studies for the ofiice of the ministry 
under Pastors Schnee and Steck, Sr.; 
and, after examination, he was admitted 
to the Evangelical Lutheran ministry, 
at a convention of the Synod of Ohio, 
held in Zanesville, on the 19th of 
September, 1820, when he was a little 
over 22 years oi age. He at once entered 
upon his labors in Westmoreland Co. 
Two years later, December 22, 1822, 
he was married with Florinda, daughter 
of Andrew and Sarah ( McGlaughlin ) 
Griessinger, by Rev. J. M. Steck, Sr.; 
and this union was blessed with six sons 
and five daughters. 

He was a man of great energy and 
wonderful endurance ; and he gave him- 
self wholly to the work of the ministry. 
As early as 1829 he was the pastor of 
eight congregations, which were prin- 
cipally the fruit of his own labors: 
"Kintigs" (St. Johns), "Schwope's" 
(Zions), Hoffnungs, Salems, Brandts, 
Ridge" (St. Pauls), "Donegal, Youngs- 
town," and soon afterwards West New- 
ton. At one time he had twelve con- 
gregations, widely separated; but so 
great was his energy and zeal in the 
work, preaching on Sundays and on 
week-days, visiting the sick, and 
instructing catechumens in all the 
churches, in schoolhouses and in private 
houses, that all the congregations grew 
and prospered to a remarkable degree. 
The present prosperous and healty con- 
dition, and the soundness in faith and 
practice of the Lutheran Churches in 
Westmoreland County is largely due to 
his faithful, self-denying and efficient 
labors. Besides the care of so many 
churches he also gave much time and 
labor to the work of the Synod and was 
frequently its presiding officer. He also 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



509 



instructed and prepared for ordination 
Rev. D. Rothacker, who became one of 
the most efficient pastors in Ohio. 

When New-Measureism lifted its head 
in Pennsylvania it threatened the in- 
vasion of the churches in Westmoreland 
County; but Rev. Mechling proved him- 
self a most faithful watchman and a 
good soldier. He resisted it at every 
point, and saved the churches from its 
blighting influence. This cost him much 
trouble and subjected him to many 
trials and much extra work; but he had 
the satisfaction of witnessing the triumph 
of a sound faith and practice. 

About 1848, after the death of Rev, 
J. M. Steck, St., he became his successor, 
in Greensburg, where he had been 
confirmed; and here he labored with 
great success until the time of his death. 
The charge was composed of Greensburg, 
Herolds, Brushcreek, Manor and Hills; 
and for a considerable length of time 
he also continued to serve the "Ridge" 
(St. Pauls) and Youngston. 

On the second day of April, 1868, after 
an uninterrupted ministry of almost a 
half century within the county where 
he was born, always residing within 
three miles of his birthplace, he fell 
peacefully asleep in Jesus, aged nearly 



seventy years . He was a man of excellent 
attainments, full of faith and love, an 
eloquent preacher in both English and 
German, a devoted pastor, an unusually 
efficient catechist and an unflinching 
adherent to the confessions of the Luth- 
eran Church. To all this was added a 
mild and amiable disposition, which 
won for him the love as wejl as the 
respect of the whole community in 
which he lived. No man was better 
known over Westmoreland County than 
he, none was more generally beloved, 
and none over wielded a mightier in- 
fluence for good than he. The wide- 
spread, sound and vigorous Lutheranism 
of Westmoreland County is his monu- 
ment. During his public ministry he 
preached 6,237 sermons, baptized 6,286 
persons, confirmed 2,039, and married 
890 couples. 

His remains rest in the Old Lutheran 
and Reformed Cemetery, in Greensburg, 
Pa., beside those of the two Stecks and 
Michael Eyster. One of his sons, 
George W., of Lancaster, Ohio, is still 
in the Lutheran ministry ; and his wife 
departed this life in peace, in April 
1889, at the advanced age of eighty- 
seven years. 



:7^ 



REV. CHARLES A. MILLER. 



Rev. Charles Armond Miller, pastor 
of College church, Salem, Va., was born 
March 7, 1864. His primary education 
was conducted under the personal care 
of his father. Rev. Dr. J. I. Miller, the 
founder and for many years Principal of 
Staunton Female Seminary, now Presi- 
dent of Von Bora College, Lura, Va. 
Armond, as he is generally called by 
older friends, graduated at Roanoke 
College in 1887, with the first honors of 



his class, and graduated at the Phila- 
delphia Seminary, 1889. During the 
vacation of 1888 he was the assistant of 
Rev. J. E. Bushnell, pastor of St. Mark's, 
and enjoys the distinction of receiving 
a most flattering call at this juncture 
from the College Church before his 
seminary course was completed. By 
special arrangements for supply he took 
the third year of the seminary course 
while pastor of an influential congrega- 



510 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



tion. He married the daughter of Mr. 
John H. Sherman, of Luray, Ya., June 
18, 1889. Pastor Miller is a scholar of 
marked ability and has unusual musical 



culture. While churchly in his tendency, 
he is an active Y. M. C. A. worker, and 
is ever ready for evangelical services 
upon an inter-denominational platform. 



EEY. EPHRAIM MILLEE, D.D. 



To the noble Keystone State, Penn- 
sylvania, we trace the birthplace of 
this amiable and scholarly Christian 
gentleman. The rustic home of his 
childhood was in the vicinity of Me- 
chanicsburg. From his parents he in- 
herited neither riches nor fame; but 
blessings of greater value fell to his 
share by hereditary family discipline 
and Christian culture in the way of a 
vigorous intellect, pure mindedness, an 
honest and loving heart, generous im- 
pulses, and devoutness toward God. No 
greater treasure is possible than to be 
born of guileless Christian parents who 
early and believingly consecrate their 
children to God. Such was the happy 
fortune of Mr. Miller, His training 
for Christ began too early in his child- 
hood for memory to recall. With many 
others of like precious training, he is 
now, at the age of 70 and over, unable 
to tell when he began to be a Christian. 
In answer to a friend who lately in- 
quired of Dr. Miller on this subject, he 
said: "My father was an earnest Chris- 
tian and early began my Christian train- 
ing. I well remember how my heart 
was moved at the little talks which he 
held with me when I was but six or 
seven years old, as well as later in life. 
No instruction that I received from 
wisest or most eloquent lips affected me 
as profoundly as the simple, earnest 
words with which he sought to direct me 
so early to the Saviour of sinners; and 
his prayers at the family alter, after so 
many years, are still echoing in the 
depths of my soul." 



At the age of seven and continuously 
until the boy was fourteen years old, he 
attended the schools in his vicinity. He 
was then put to earning his living by 
service in a hardware store in Harris- 
burg of his native state. While here 
his zeal for knowledge and his inclina- 
tion toward books grew upon him . Soon 
after the expiration of this engagement, 
which lasted three and one-half years, 
and while yet in his eighteenth year, he 
went to Gettysburg, where he entered 
the preparatory department of Pennsyl- 
vania College. Here a praisworthy am- 
bition held him well to the front in his 
classes, while his industry and the rec- 
titude of his daily life won for him the 
good will of his teachers and fellow 
students. But in 1841, when nearing 
the end of his college course, the death 
of his father greatly embarrassed the 
farther prosecution of his studies. It 
became necessary that he should at once 
take upon himself the care and support 
of his mother, two brothers and four 
sisters. To do all this and continue his 
studies to graduation was indeed a se- 
vere task. Bravely and nobly did he 
try, and there came to him the whisper 
of an approving conscience with a col- 
lege diploma, well earned. 

Having the ministry of the gospel in 
view, Mr. Miller's heart was set on go- 
ing through the regular coitrse of study 
in the Lutheran Theological Seminary 
at Gettysburg. 

A very suggestive sentence in George 
Washington's first message to Congress 
is, "Every step by which we have been 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



511 



advanced to the character of an inde- 
pendent nation seems to have been 
distinguished by some token of provi- 
dential agency." This utterance of the 
great American Chieftain is recalled by 
the turn of affairs in the career of Mr. 
Miller, soon after the death of his 
father. In utter contravention of his 
purposes for a thorough course of the- 
ology in the Seminary and the total re- 
versal of his disinclination to go west, 
Divine Providence so tangled the young- 
man's movements as to turn the trend of 
them with invincible certainty to the 
new state of Illinois. A lately married 
sister of his was led by her husband, 
Eev. A. A. Trimper, to find a new home 
in the valley of the Mississippi, and the 
widowed mother was not content to 
think of her children scattered and 
some so far away. She refused to be 
comforted. There was no solace that 
could avail to moderate her longings 
but to migrate after the loved ones. As 
she looked to her son Ephraim for the 
general management of affairs, he of 
course must go with her. Thus of con- 
straint was the journey to Illinois, but 
qualified by his intention to return east 
for graduation in the Theological Semi- 
nary at Gettysburg, after having seen 
the family comfortably housed and pro- 
vided for in Illinois. 

At this turn of affairs there was 
opened to the eyes of the ardent ad- 
venturer the book of experience, at the 
page inscribed, "Man proposes, but God 
disposes." It became apparent that he 
must abide with, the family. His scheme 
to return east for graduation in theology 
was impossible. The unexpected issue 
struck him with dismay. The com- 
manding realization now afront of him 
was, that he must go into business for 
the support of those who were depend- 
ent on him. What the business should 
be was not long debated. He concluded 



that the only work for which he could 
claim any competency was teaching. So 
he taught school and was not long in 
finding his way to the principalship of 
Hillsboro Academy, which at that time 
(1843) was widely known and in high 
repute. In later years it became the 
property of the Lutheran church and 
as such, the seat of the "Lutheran The- 
ological Institute of the Far West." 
While at the head of the academy, Mr. 
Miller formed the acquaintance which, 
ere long, ripened into matrimonial al- 
liance with Miss Mary J. Boone, one of 
Hillsboro's most estimable lady citizens 
The marriage took place Oct. 13, 1846, 
about a year after his licensure for the 
ministry. 

During the period of his devotion to 
school work, Mr. Miller did not lose 
sight of his purpose to qualify himself 
for service in the pulpit. Amidst the 
surroundings then ' about him, his only 
Lutheran text books were Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical History, the Catechism, 
and the Holy Scriptures. With these 
and a few other adventitious helps, he 
worked faithfully and upward, until re- 
commended by Eev. A. A. Trimper, the 
devout and persevering young brother 
was favored with ad-interim license by 
the president (Eev. Francis Springer) 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of 
the west, in April, 1845. In October, 
1846, the licentiate, after due examina- 
tion by a committee of the Lutheran 
Synod of Illinois, then in its first con- 
vention at Hillsboro, was fully set apart 
to the ministry of the Gospel by solemn 
ordination. He was at that time princi- 
pal of a flourishing school in Shelby- 
ville and pastor of a Lutheran congre- 
gation consisting of only 35 members. 
Not only he but other clergymen of that 
day earned subsistence for themselves 
and family by teaching. Pioneering 
church work marks the "day of small 



512 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



things," with great results only dimly 
in prospect. 

Almost the severest disappointment of 
Eev. Dr. Miller's life was the reversal 
of his plans to the extent of hindering 
him from a regular course of Theology 
in the Gettysburg Seminary. But there 
is instruction in observing that no re- 
verse but insanity, sickness or death 
utterly thwarts the well meant purpose 
of the honest Christian mind to do that 
which is right. There is always present 
a benignly compensating Providence. 
Thrown upon his own God-given en- 
dowments the young Christian, aiming 
to be a competent laborer in the field of 
his Divine Master, becomes the discip- 
lined pupil of adversity. Henceforth, 



though destitute of the usual facilities for 
the study of his favorite science, he, 
selftaught, becomes an able theologian, 
an instructive expositor of the Scrip- 
tures, a methodical and impressive 
preacher, and a faithful pastor. 

The memory of Rev. Ephraim Miller, 
D. D., is fondly cherished by many hun- 
dreds of people within the bonds of the 
Lutheran synods of Central and North- 
ern Illinois, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 
Pennsylvania. That was a fitting tri- 
bute to real but modest worth which, in 
1881, brought to him loving recognition 
by his Alma Mater, Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, in attaching to his name the hon- 
orary office of D. D. 



REV. GEORGE B. MILLER, D.D. 



Rev. George B. Miller, D.D., was born 
at Emaus, Pa., June 10, 1795. His 
father, Rev. George G. Miller, was a 
native of Germany; his mother w^as of 
French descent. From eight until 
nearly sixteen years of age he attended 
an English and classical school. During 
the last few months of this course atten- 
tion was given to theological studies. 
We next find him occupied in Philadel- 
phia with teaching, and afterwards in a 
mercantile establishment. In August, 
1813, he again engaged in teaching as 
an assistant of the Rev. Dr. Hazelius, 
an eminent Lutheran clergyman, in an 
academy at New Germantown, N. J. 
There his theological studies were re- 
sumed under Dr. Hazelius. Dr. Miller 
was married July 15, 1816. After this 
he taught elsewhere in New Jersey. In 
1818 he went to Canajoharie, N. Y., 
where he remained nine years. During 
this time he established at that place a 



classical school, and having been or- 
dained to the ministry, also laid the 
foundation of a Lutheran congregation, 
both of which still continue. In 1827 
he again became an assistant of Dr. 
Hazelius, who had in 1815 become 
Principal of the Classical and Theologi- 
cal Seminary at Hartwick, Otsego Co., 
N. Y. In 1830 he was appointed Prin- 
cipal and Professor of Theology, Dr. 
Hazelius having accepted a call to the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. 
In consequence of ill-health, and for 
other reasons. Dr. Miller resigned his 
position in the fall of 1839. He subse- 
quently came to Dansville and resumed 
teaching. While here he published 
'•The Dansville Grammar," printed at 
Dansville, N. Y., by A. Stevens. Dr. 
Miller subsequently prepared Greek, 
French and other grammars, his students 
being required to copy them. His 
French grammar would undoubtedly 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



513 




REV. GEOKGE B. MILLEE, D.D. 



have been published, had not Ollen- 
dorf s system appeared at about the time 
the manuscript was ready for the printer. 
In 1844 Dr. Miller, by invitation of 
the trustees of the Seminary, returned 
to Hartwick as Professor of Theology, 
which position he continued to occupy 
the remainder of his life. He was a 
man of much learning, and of uncommon 
accuracy in his knowledge. Many of 
his pupils will remember how well he 
used to illustrate the valueless nature 
of inaccurate learning by the story of 
the old lady, who, about to purchase 
some indigo, remarked that good indigo 
would sink or swim, but she couldn't 
tell which. In style, in spelling, in 
pronunciation, in whatever he under- 
took, accuracy was sought after. As a 
teacher he was i^atient and thorough. 
''Repetition clinches the nail," he used 
to say. He loved his work. A daughter- 
in-law of the Doctor once told the writer 
that her father had said, during the pre- 
. 65 



ceding vacation, that if he could always 
have a seminary full of such students as, 
a certain one named it would be all that 
he asked for in this life. Of course, he 
was speaking then of his occupation 
merely, and of his delight in it. He 
was a hard worker, although possessed 
of rather a frail constitution. Required 
to teach but six hours a day, he never- 
theless, for years, without any extra pay, 
taught from eight to ten hours per day. 
Besides teaching, he preached regularly 
every Sunday morning, conducted the 
Sunday evening prayer-meeting, and 
presided at the Monday evening meet- 
ings of the Theological Society. He 
found exercise in his garden, or in rapid 
walks, often with some genial companion, 
who never failed to profit by his socia- 
bility and cheerful conversation, and 
instruction drawn from the simplest 
objects. 

In his family. Dr. Miller ever was, 
says one of his daughters, a kind hus- 



514 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



band, a sympathizing father, a judicious 
friend. He reared a large and noble 
family of children, excellent examples 
of good training and Christian nurture 
and admonition. In July, 1866, the gold- 
en wedding of Dr. and Mrs. Miller was 
celebrated at Hartwick — an event which 
I doubt not will be remembered by those 
who were present as one of the pleasant- 
est incidents in their lives . The presents 
amounted to nearly one thousand 
dollars. 

A son, Rev. Geo. Hazelius Miller, 
died soon after entering the ministry. 
Five daughters becamxe clergymen's 
wives, all whom, with their husbands, 
are still living. Rev. Dr. Sternberg, one 
of the sons-in-law, will be remembered 
as having formerly been the pastor of 
the English Lutheran church in Dans- 
vilie. Dr. Sternberg was Principal of 
of Hartwick Seminary from 1851 to 1864, 
and is now residing at Fort Harker, 
[1881, Ellsworth] Kansas. 

A volume of Dr. Miller's sermons was 
published in 1860. His preaching was 
not of the popular character which in 
the present day gives celebrity, but was, 
nevertheless, thoroughly orthodox and 
evangelical. His style was accurate 
and perspicuous. He did not follow 
creeds so much as he did the Bible.. 
He was not given to denunciation of 
those who differed from him. Those 
who knew him well, will testify that his 
words were always those of good will to 
men. In discipline he was fatherly, 
but strict. An evidence of his amiabil- 
ity and liberal feelings may be seen, 
further, in the terms he employed when 
speaking of others; thus he used to say, 
not '-the Presbyterians," "the Method- 
ists," "the rebels," but "our Presbyterian 
brethren," "our Methodist brethren," 
"our Southern brethren," etc.; for said 
he, speaking of the South, "We will 
continue to call them brethren, although 



erring brethren, even though they may 
not own us as such." In controversy, 
of which he was by no means fond, he 
always endeavored to avoid unkind and 
unchristian feelings. 

Six years with Dr. Miller, in the reci- 
tation room and in various other rela- 
tions, gave me an opportunity to know 
him well; and I may say, that I have 
never known a man in whose piety I 
had greater confidence, or whom I think 
of with greater esteem and affection as 
a model Christian. He was always a 
Christian, in all cases and places. His 
piety was not of a bigoted nor sectarian 
sort, but intelligent faith, hope and 
charity. His social qualities were, also, 
of a superior order. He exhibited much 
vivacity and true politeness which 
springs from kindness of heart. In 
movement he was sprightly. As may 
be supposed, he was beloved by all. 

His life was one of great labor, ac- 
tivity and usefulness, yet his reward 
pecuniarily was comparatively small; 
but we are sure that his reward is great 
in the good he has done in the world, 
and we are assured that his reward is 
correspondingly great in heaven. Thith- 
er he has gone to join loved ones gone 
before. Charlotte, a daughter, one of the 
most amiable and truly polite ladies that 
I ever knew, preceded him not long 
since. — Rev. A. Waldron. 

Rev. Dr. George B. Miller, of Hart- 
wick Seminary, N. J., and the Rev. Dr. 
Hazelius, our first American Theological 
Professor, came to the Lutheran church 
from the Moravians. Dr. Miller's father 
was pastor of the First Moravian church 
in Philadelphia, Pa., from 1814 to 1817, 
and died at Lititz, Pa., in 1821. Mr. 
Miller graduated at Nazareth Hall, Pa., 
in 1802, and studied at the Moravian 
Theological Seminary in 1810. At what 
time he united with the New York 
Ministerium we cannot recall, but he 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



515 



went to Harwick Seminary when Rev. liim wlien lie was called to Getty s 
Dr. Hazelius was there, and succeeded burg, Pa. 




REV. GEORGE F. MILLER, D. D. 



Rev. George Frederick Miller was 
born at Falkner Swamp, Montgomery 
Co., Pa., in 1824, and was the son of 
George Miller, who for a long period 
was engaged in the wholesale dry goods 
trade in Philadelphia. He was a nephew 
of Rev. Conrad Miller and Rev. Jacob 
Miller, both eminent clergymen of the 
Lutheran Church. He graduated at 
Pennsylvania University in 1843, stand- 
ing at the head of his class and delivered 
the Greek Salutatory. Judge James R. 
Ludlow, of Philadelphia, and Gen. 
George B. McClellan, were both his 
classmates at the University. Mr. 
Miller afterwards studied with Rev. Dr. 
C. R. Demme, and was a student with 
that gentleman at the same time with 
Rev. Dr. George F. Krotel, now pastor 
of the Church of the Holy Trinity, New 
York. He then studied three years in 
the Theological Seminary at Princeton 
College, N. J., graduating in 1847. 

The subject of this sketch became 
pastor of the Lutheran Church at Potts- 
town in 1847, succeediug Rev. Henry S. 
Miller, who is still living at Phoenixville. 
He continued to fill the pulpit here for 
about twenty-one years, retiring there- 
from about 1868. His ministrations 
were quite successful for many years, 
and the congregation increased and 
became so large that it was divided, and 
the English congregation, or Lutheran 
Church of Transfiguration was formed 
in 1858. On the 5th of August, 1859, 
the corner-stone of the new church of 
that congregation was laid, and it was 
completed in 1860. During the pastor- 



ship of Rev. George F. Miller he 
ofiiciated at a large number of weddings, 
and preached the funerals of hundreds 
of people who passed away to their final 
rest in this section of the country, 
in Montgomery, Chester and Berks 
counties. A great many of the present 
citizens of this community were by him 
united in wedlock. Mr. Miller was also, 
for a long period, pastor of the Lutheran 
congregations at Limerick, Montgomery 
Co., and Amity, Berks Co. 

After retiring from the pulpit of the 
Lutheran Church of the Transfiguration, 
Pottstown, Mr. Miller leased the Hill 
School at Pottstown, of Rev. Dr. Meigs, 
and was principal of that institution 
about three years. Subsequently he 
was elected a member of the Faculty of 
Muhlenberg College, at Allentown, 
taking the professorship of German and 
Literature. Six years ago he accepted 
a call to a charge in New Jersey, and at 
the time of his decease was pastor of 
the Lutheran churches at Yineland and 
Millville, but resided at Camden. 

Mr. Miller was married to Emily 
Weiser, daughter of Rev. Daniel Weiser, 
and sister of Rev. Dr. C. Z. Weiser, of 
Pennsburg, Montgomery county. His 
wife is also a niece of Judge B. M. 
Boyer, of Norristown. Mrs. Miller and 
three children — Rev. William J. Miller, 
Carrie and Maud Miller, survive him. 
The son is pastor of a Lutheran congre- 
gation at Leechburg, Armstrong county. 
Pa., and a rising young clergyman. Mr. 
Miller has three brothers and one sister 
living — Reuben B., J. Washington and 



516 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



William J. Miller, of Philadelphia, and 
Mrs. Sarah E. Yan Buskirk, of Pottstown. 
Eev. George F. Miller was a profound 
scholar and thinker, and his attainments 
took a wide range — the languages, the 
classics, history, theology, science, lit- 
erature, etc., and he was an extensive 



reader, a close observer, and a man 
possessed generally of a vast store of in- 
formation upon all subjects. 

The funeral took place on Friday 
afternoon, the 11th of March, 1884, at 
residence, No. 625 Elm street, Camden, 
N.J. 




HEV. HENRY S. MILLER, 



The oldest member of the Ministerium 
of Pennsylvania, has gone to rest. 
Sixty-four years ago he was admitted 
to the number of its members and he 
has continued in that relation ever since. 
He was born October 30, 1801, in 
Hanover Township, Lehigh Co., on the 
hillside overlooking the Lehigh river 
over against the little village of Allen- 
town. His father, Peter Miller, was a 
tenant farmer, cultivating the farm since 
owned by Mr. William Saeger. When 
the son was ten years old, his father 
removed to Easton, where he toiled as 
blacksmith and tinsmith, and resided 
on Second st., just north of the present 
public school grounds. Henry was sent 
to the congregational school of St. John's 
Church, then under the care of an ex- 
cellent teacher, Mrs. Mattes. In his 
early boyhood Rev. Christian Endries 
was pastor of the only Lutheran church 
in Easton, and through after years the 
strong religious impressions produced 
by him on the boy were never forgotten. 
In his seventeenth year, January 20th, 
1818, he began his studies preparatory 
to the work of the ministry, under the 
supervision of his pastor, Rev. John P. 
Hecht. In those days there was no 
College in all Pennsylvania under the 
care of the Lutheran Church. The boys 
on the farm where he was born can now 
look across the river and see the com- 
modious buildings of Muhlenberg Col- 



lege, since reared; and the boys at 
Easton can climb the hill to use the 
abundant provisions of Layfayette Col- 
lege, but then neither of these were in 
existence. Nor was there in all the 
land any Lutheran Theological Sem- 
inary except the feeble beginning of 
Hartwick Seminary started two years 
before. Students were compelled to 
seek instruction from their pastors, and 
Mr. Miller found in his pastor one who 
not only had led him to this work but 
who w^as willing and able to direct him 
in it. Mr. Hecht had himself been a 
student at the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and had been trained for the 
ministry by his pastors, Drs. Helmuth 
and Schmidt, and he himself continued 
this work by teaching many others. Mr. 
Miller and John Chas. A. von Schoen- 
berg, who went as missionary to Illinois, 
were his first students, followed by 
Wm. B. Kaemmerer, licensed 1826, 
Joseph B. Gross 1827, Richard Collier 
1834, Nathan Jaeger 1844. 

Henry Miller lived and studied at 
home and only recited to the pastor at 
his house. Text-books were used as the 
means of instruction and not lectures. 
In Dogmatics Reinhardt's work was the 
text-book. For six years these instruc- 
tions were attended until, in 1823, he was 
prepared to apply for admission to the 
Ministerium. For some time before the 
meeting of the Ministerium he had been 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



517 



sick, and feared the approach of con- 
sumption to such an extent, that for a 
time he doubted whether he could enter 
on the work to which he had so long 
and ardently looked forward. When 
the meeting took place in 1823, at 
Lebanon, he was unable to attend, and 
on the application and testimonials of 
his pastor, Revs. Conrad Jaeger, Jacob 
Miller and W. Meendsen were appointed 
to examine him at Easton, and on their 
recommendation the officers were em- 
powered to license him. Two weeks 
after the meeting of Synod the com- 
mittee were to meet at Easton, but 
Conrad Jaeger alone came. Miller was 
examined and licensed by his former 
pastor, Chr. Endress, as President. 

He had been married March 20, 1823, 
to Miss Camilla Clemens, a daughter of 
Dr. Clemens and his wife, born Nun- 
gesser. Her father had recently died, 
which led to an early marriage. He 
was of Mennonite descent and his father 
had been a preacher among those people. 
Her mother was of a family long before, 
and until this present time, devotedly 
attached to the Lutheran Church. After 
their marriage they lived with the wife's 
grandmother, Mrs. Nungesser. 

Mr. Miller's first pastoral charge was 
in Bucks County, in the congregations 
before under the care of Rev. Nicholas 
Mensch. The congregations were 
Springfield, Nockamixon, Tinicum and 
Bedminster, now often called Kellers. 
Mr. Mensch sold his farm and removed 
to Mt. Bethel, but retained charge of 
Durham for four years, when Mr. Miller 
took charge. The Durham Congrega- 
tion was begun by Rev. C. Jaeger, 
followed by Mensch. Mr. Miller lived 
at first near the Springfield Church, 
afterwards on the Durham road. His 
salary at first was between $200 and 
$300 besides the perquisites, afterwards 
$400, and the perquisites exceeded the 



salary. During his pastorate a new 
church was organized, known as Appel's; 
it was a Union Church, organized by 
the people themselves, and Mr. Miller 
became the Lutheran pastor in it. In 
this charge he labored nearly fifteen 
years. 

In April, 1838, Mr. Miller removed to 
the Trappe and took charge of the 
Trappe, Limerick, Pottstown English, 
Keely's and Towamencin congregations. 
From 1810 to 1812 he also supplied 
Zion's Church, Chester Co. In 1818 he 
resigned the Pottstown Church to aid 
in the formation of a new charge for 
Rev. Geo. F. Miller. He continued to 
live at the Trappe fourteen years. In 
1852 he removed, June 1st, to Norris- 
town and took charge of the congrega- 
tion there, and preached in Grermanand 
English. The congregation was as yet 
feeble, having been formed by Rev. A. 
T. Geissenhainer in 1817, and had since 
had several pastors for a short time, 
Rev. R. S. Wagner and J. Clemens 
Miller. The father had succeeded his 
own son, who had taken charge of Zion's 
and St. Peter's, Chester County. Mr. 
Miller buried his wife at Norristown, in 
the Montgomery cemetry, she having 
died Oct. 11, 1852. 

Dec. 1, 1851, Mr. Miller took charge 
of Salem Church, Lebanon, as succes- 
sor to Dr. G. F. Krotel, to which charge 
Annville also belonged. He was pastor 
here for nine years, living in the vener- 
able parsonage which had been occu- 
pied by his worthy predecesors, Drs. 
Krotel, W. G. Ernst, and J. G. Lochman. 
At Annville, when he had the charge of 
the old congregation, the "new measure" 
controversy entered among the people 
and was fomented by Winebrennarians 
and United Brethren. The result of the 
movement was the closing of the pas- 
tor's relation and of that of the congre- 
gation to the Synod to which from its 



518 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



establishment it had belonged. It found 
a synodical connection more congenial 
to the fanatical portion. Those who re- 
mained faithful to the established faith 
and usages of the Lutheran Church 
were afterwards gathered into a new or- 
ganization. In November, 1863, Mr. 
Miller's resignation of the charge was 
made. In January, 1864, he took charge 
of the Geigertown, Forest and Eck 
churches in Berks Co., and removed in 
April to Reading, remaining there only 
until July, 1864, when he took charge 
of Zion's and St. Peter's churches in 
Chester Co., removing Sept. 8th to 
Phoenixville. 

Of these congregations he had form- 
erly been the temporary supply for two 
years, and his son, John Clemens, after- 
ward the pastor. He had the care of 
Zion's until Sept. 27, 1872, and of St. 
Peter's until Nov., 1874. During his 
pastorate the congregation at Spring 
City was organized and a school house 
secured in which services were held. 
When growing infirmities of age and 
work at Phoenixville led him to resign 
Zion's a new charge was formed of this 
and the new congregation of which Eev. 
J. Neff became the pastor. 

In Phoenixville an effort had been 
made in 1859, to form a congregation 
by Rev. H. N. Riis, Pastor at Mana- 
yunk, who preached there only four 
times. In 1862 St. John's congregation 
was formed by the efforts of Eev. W. 
Weaver and G. Sill, a council elected 
and services held first by Mr. Sill and 
then by Rev. E. Peixotto, but during 
the war the little flock was scattered. 

When Mr. Miller came to the place 
he began to hold regular services in the 
place of worship of the Mennonites and 
he continued these services in the after- 
noon until 1872. He and his wife were 
deeply interested in the work of securing 
a church, and Mrs. Miller purchased 



the lot on which St. John's Church now 
stands, the cost of it to be gradually 
repaid her. The effort before this had 
been for the establishment of a German 
Church, but they began already to 
realize that English services would also 
be needed. With much wisdom the 
permanent peace was secured and cause 
of discord removed by making an agree- 
ment July, 1872, that if a division of the 
congregation should hereafter be de- 
manded, the property should be ap- 
praised and the Germans have the right 
first to take it at the axjpraisement, 
paying one-half to the English; if they 
declined so to do, the English portion 
then to have the same right, in either 
case the other part to build or buy and 
have a church. A building committee 
was then appointed, ground broken in 
August, the corner-stone laid Oct. 6, 
and the church consecrated April 20, 
1873. On the former occasion Revs. 
Laitzle and Father Heyer assisted the 
pastor, and at the consecration Eev. Dr. 
A. Spaeth and the President of the 
Synod, Dr. E. Green wald. A Sunday 
School was organized April 29, 1873. 
Mrs. Miller took a very active part in 
securing the funds, and to her zeal the 
congregation owes much. In Jan. 1875, 
Mr. Miller resigned the pastoral care of 
this the last place of his ministerial la- 
bors, but consented to preach until they 
were supplied, which he did until the 
settlement of Rev. F. C. C. Kaehler. 
He held the ofiicial position of pastor 
for fifty-two years. 

Since his resignation he has continued 
to reside in Phoenixville, near the 
church he last served and in whose wel- 
fare he was deeply interested until his 
death. His first wife died at Norris- 
town in October, 1852, after 31 years of 
wedded life. There were born unto 
them four children, two sons, Wm. 
Henry Hecht, M. D., of Williamsport, 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



519 



Pa., and Rev. John Clemens, who died 
at Lebanon, and two daughters, who 
both were married to Lutheran minis- 
ters, Mary Matilda to Rev. Nathan 
Jaeger, and Camilla Emma to Rev. J. 
F. Falls, all born in Bucks county. 

He was married a second time, Janu- 
ary 3d, 1854, to Miss Eliza Davis, also 
of Easton. Mrs. Eliza Miller is still 
remembered by many friends for her 
great love to her Lord and her diligent 
activity in the congregations where she 
lived, especially in Sunday-school work. 

Mr. Miller's father and his grand- 
father, also named Peter, lived in Lower 
Saucon Township, Northampton Co., 
Pa. He was named after his brother 
Henry who lived with his father, and 
he said to his brother — ''Peter, if he 
and I live, this boy must become a min- 
ister." His wish was fulfilled, but he 
died when the boy was only four years 
old. His ancestors for at least three 
generations were buried at the Lower 
Saucon Church, but his own father re- 
moved to Tompkins Co., N. Y., in 1823, 
and both his parents are buried near 
Lansingville. His mother's name was 
Seipel, daughter of Conrad Sei^Del, who 
died at their house at Norristown. His 
grandmother's name was Shi^De, and 
many persons of these names, Seipel 
and Shipe, live in Hilltown Township, 
Bucks Co., at this day. Of his own 
family, his sister Susan was married to 
Lockwood Mead, of Tompkins Co., N. 
Y.; Elizabeth to Jesse Bower and moved 
to Greenville, Pa.; Mary to Francis 
Jackson who moved to Illinois; his 
brother Peter lived near Greenville and 
died 1880. 

Mr. Miller's life, after many years of 
growing infirmities, came peacefully to 
an end, August 29, 1887. The funeral 
services were held September 1st, when 
Rev. O. P. Smith read the Scriptures 
and offered prayer at the house, after 



which the body was borne by the officers 
of St. John's Church to that place. The 
choir sang an anthem at the opening of 
the services, which were conducted by 
Revs. W. G. Laitzle and B. M. Schmuck- 
er, the sermon was preached by Rev. 
Dr. C. W. Schaeffer, now the member 
of the Ministerium, oldest in office, who 
is still in full service; after which a few 
remarks were made by Dr. G. F. Krotel, 
President of the Ministerium. The 
pastor of the congregation, Rev. E. H. 
Gerhart, read a sketch of his life and 
expressed the gratitude of the congre- 
gation for his labors and those of his 
wife; and B. M. Schmucker paid a 
tribute to the memory of his son 
demons. The interment took place in 
Montgomery Cemetery, Norristown, 
where all of his household who have 
died are laid. 

The life of Mr. Miller reaches back 
to the beginning of the century. It has 
witnessed marvelous growth in the 
Church to which it was devoted. The 
roll of the Synod in 1823 comprised 78 
names of those present and absent; now 
it comprises 251 names. Then it was 
the only Synod in Pennsylvania, now 
there are eight Synods with 651 minis- 
ters. Then there were five Synods in 
this country, now 57. In 1823 the 
address issued by the General Synod 
states that there were in this land about 
900 congregations and 175 Lutheran 
ministers; a year ago (1886), the clerical 
lists comi3rised about 4,000, and there 
were 7,573 congregations. Then there 
was one incipient Theological Seminary, 
now there are 22; then no Lutheran 
College, now 25; then no Classical 
Seminary, now over 30; then and for 
many years no Young Ladies' Seminary, 
now 12; then no Orphan's Home, Hos- 
pital or Immigrants house, now 47 such 
institutions. Then no periodical weekly, 
bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly in any 



520 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



language was issued in the interest of 
our Church, for the Evangelisches 
Magazine^ after living four years had 
been dead for seven years, now there 
are periodicals almost without number, 
English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, 
Danish, and even Icelandic. 

The ministerial life of Father Miller 
was extended for 64 years, from his 
entrance into the ministry to his death, 
and such instances are very rare; I do 



not think that it has been exceeded 
except in the case of Kev. Godfrey 
Dreyer, who lived 65 years after entrance 
on his work, and the venerable Dr. J. 
Daniel Kurtz, whose years after licens- 
ure were 72. Now at last he has gone 
to his rest. We will affectionately and 
gratefully remember his fervent zeal, 
his earnest faith, his warmth of heart, 
his personal interest in those committed 
to his care. — B. M. Schmueker. 




KEY. JACOB MILLER, D.D. 



Jacob Miller was born on the 11th 
of December, 1788, in Goshenhoppen, 
Montgomery County, Pa., — one of the 
most intensely German districts in the 
Commonwealth. He was a son of John 
Jacob and Hannah Miller, and was 
reared under religious influences, in 
accordance with the views and practices 
of the Lutheran Church. On reaching 
a suitable age, he attended a course of 
catechetical instruction, conducted by 
his pastor, the Eev. Dr. Geissenhainer, 
and was received, by the rite of Con- 
firmation, to the communion of the 
Church. His early mental develop- 
ments were, in a high degree, creditable, 
and this, in connection with the general 
stability and excellence of his character, 
suggested to his pastor the idea that his 
views should be directed to the Chris- 
tian ministry. Accordingly, — the con- 
sent of his father having been obtained, 
— he commenced his studies under Dr. 
Geissenhainer, and continued to pros- 
ecute them with great success for a 
period of five years. In 1808, his pre- 
ceptor having accepted a call to the city 
of New York, young Miller repaired to 
Philadelphia to complete his theologic- 



al studies, and placed himself under the 
instruction of those two venerable di- 
vines, Helmuth and Schmidt, who, at 
that time, had charge of a private sem- 
inary for the education of young men 
for the ministry. 

On the removal of Dr. Geissenhainer 
to New York, Mr. Miller, although he 
had not yet finished his course of study, 
received a unanimous call from the 
united congregations of Falkner Swamp, 
which, at that time, included Goshen- 
hoppen and Boyer's Church. He con- 
sented, agreeably to the advice of his 
Professors, to supply the vacancy tem- 
porarily, and to fill appointments, once 
in four weeks, until the completion of 
his studies. Before the close of that 
year, on his being regularly licensed to 
preach the Gospel by the Synod of 
Pennsylvania, the call was renewed, and 
he accepted it, and entered at once up- 
on the duties of his office. Here he la- 
bored with great fidelity, and a good 
measure of success, for twenty years. 

In 1829, on the occasion of the resig- 
nation of Dr. Henry A. Muhlenberg, 
as pastor of Trinity Church, Beading, 
Pa., he was unanimously invited to be- 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



521 



come his successor; but he was induced, 
chiefly by Ids strong attachment to the 
people among which he had labored so 
long, to decline the call. He was, how- 
ever, subsequently prevailed upon to 
reconsider his determination, and finally 
consented to a removal to Reading, 
which took place in May, 1829. The 
charge which he now assumed embraced 
the congregation in the town, together 
with four others in the country, name- 
ly. Sinking Spring, Alsace, Spies, and 
Schwarzwald. He regularly preached 
in Reading on the morning of the 
Lord's Day, and in the afternoon in one 
of the other churches; and, for some 
years, he officiated in the town in an 
alternate service with the German Re- 
formed minister, with whom he sus- 
tained the most friendly relations. 

He was honored with the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from the University 
of Pennsylvania in 1838. 

During Dr. Miller's residence at 
Reading, he was frequently invited to 
other positions in the Church, which 
many would have considered more eli- 
gible, but he could not be prevailed up- 
on to consent to another severance of 
his pastoral relation. He was much at- 
tached to his congregation, and he knew 
that he possessed, in large measure, 
their confidence and affection. He con- 
tinued their pastor until his death, 
which occurred on the 16th of May, 
1850, in the sixty-second year of his 
age, and the forty-second of his minis- 
try, having been connected with each of 
his two charges just twenty-one years. 
His health had been in a precarious con- 
dition for about a year preceding his 
death. He was subject to frequent at- 
tacks of vertigo, one of which seized 
him in the pulpit, during the services 
preparatory to the Communion. His 
symptoms seriously alarmed his friends, 
and, in compliance with the advice of 
6Q ' 



his physician, he suspended his official 
duties, in the hope of obtaining relief. 
But, as the desired relief did not come, 
and the prospect of a permanent recovery 
grew increasingly doubtful, he tendered 
his resignation as pastor, with the ex- 
pectation that an effort would im- 
mediately be made to secure a successor. 
His congregations, however, refused to 
accept it; and his pastoral relation con- 
tinued until the close of life. His ill- 
ness, which was protracted and painful, 
he endured with the most cheerful sub- 
mission to the Divine will, and finally 
passed away rejoicing in the triumphant 
hope of immortal glory. His funeral 
sermon, which was most impressively ap- 
propriate and pathetic, was preached by 
Rev. Dr. Demme, from John xiv, 2, 3; 
and the services at the altar and at the 
grave were performed by Rev. C. F. 
Welden. 

Dr. Miller was married on the 22d of 
of March, 1813, to Anna Maria, daugh- 
ter of the Rev. Dr. Geissenhainer. They 
had four children, — three sons and one 
daughter. The sons, who were young 
men of great promise, were all engaged 
in the study of theology, with a view to 
entering the ministry, but Providence 
defeated their hopes by bringing them 
severally to an early grave. The daugh- 
ter, Mrs. E. N. Endlich, wife of John 
Endlich, Esq., late United States Con- 
sul to Basle, with her mother, still 
survives. 

Dr. Miller was a man of marked abil- 
ity. He possessed great quickness of 
thought and fine powers of discrimi- 
nation, and his mind had been subjected 
to careful and diligent culture. His 
personal appearance was uncommonly 
impressive and commanding — his high, 
expansive forehead, and bright, pen- 
etrating eye, reminded one very much 
of Daniel Webster. If he had entered 
political life, he would have shone in 



522 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the halls of Congress, or in any other 
sphere of public activity to which he 
might have been designated. 

As a preacher he occupied a front 
rank in our ministry. His discourses 
were clear, strong, practical, and his 
manner earnest and impressive. His 
congregation at Beading was large, — 
consisting of from eight hundred to a 
thousand, — and they always gave him 
their undivided attention. He pos- 
sessed fine social qualities, and, though 
naturally quiet and reserved, and some- 
times apparently stern, he had really 
warm sympathies, and a frank, genial, 
cheerful disposition. He was enthusi- 
astic in his devotion to music. When 
a lad, it is said that he frequently rose 
from his bed at midnight, and practiced 



on the piano and violin until dawn of 
day. 

Dr. Miller wielded an immense in- 
fluence. In whatever position he was 
placed, his power was felt. He was par- 
ticularly influential in an ecclesiastical 
body, being at once a good debater and 
an able leader. Owing to his peculiar 
views on some subjects, he did not al- 
ways succeed in carrying his measures, 
though his friends, when they were 
constrained to differ from him, never 
failed to give him credit for the utmost 
sincerity and honesty of purpose. He 
was decidedly a man of mark, and his 
life was fruitful of blessing to the 
Church and the world. — W. L. Stoever, in 
Sprague's Annals. 




EEV. JOHN B. MILLEE, Ph.D. 



Rev. John B. Miller, Ph. D., was born 
of poor parents in Lancaster county. 
Pa., December 13th, 1839. When he 
was six years of age his parents moved 
to Darke county, Ohio, then almost a 
wilderness. His educational advan- 
tages were very limited. At the age of 
seventeen he could scarcely read, hav- 
ing never gotten higher in school than 
the third reader. At this time his 
parents removed to Bond Co., 111. 

Having arrived in his new home 
a new consciousness seemed to awaken 
in him, and he now determined to edu- 
cate himself. Having no time nor op- 
portunity to attend school (except two 
months) he determined to educate him- 
self at home. 

In carrying out this resolution he em- 
ployed every moment he could com- 
mand. His progress was such that he 
was in the school house teaching before 



he was 21 years of age. He taught and 
prosecuted his studies until the spring 
of 1862. He then attended the sum- 
mer term of Wittenberg college at 
Springfield, Ohio. During this term he 
studied Latin, Greek and algebra. He 
again taught and prosecuted his studies 
in these three branches and the follow- 
ing year he entered the Freshman class 
of Wittenberg college and graduated 
from it four years later. Thus ten years 
from the time he resolved to educate 
himself (when he could scarcely read), 
he was a graduate of one of the best 
colleges of Ohio, and in twenty years 
his Alma Mater conferred on him the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy. After 
graduating he studied theology and en- 
tered the ■ ministry. His ministry has 
been mostly in the state of Ohio. 

His life has been a life more of study 
than otherwise. He took a regular course 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



523 



in medicine, lacking but six months 
of graduation. His study has covered 
a very broad field. He has contributed 
some articles to educational journals, a 
few articles on political economy to 
political papers and occasional articles 



to the church papers. He is gathering 
the materials for a book entitled "Fif- 
teen Years Gleanings from the Fields of 
Science and Philosophy." He is now 
writing a book entitled "Philosophic 
Truths." 




REV. J. I. MILLER, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Rockingham county, Virginia, June 
2d, 1830. His parents were Joseph 
and Elizabeth (Link) Miller, who were 
active and pious members of the Luth- 
eran Church. Dr. Miller was educated 
at Roanoke college and Gettysburg 
Seminary, from which, however, he did 
not graduate, owing to ill health. He 
was married October 2d, 1860, to Miss 
Hules, of Baltimore, and was ordained 
to the Lutheran ministry at Hagerstown 
in the autumn of 1859. He is a mem- 
ber of the Tennessee Synod. He re- 
ceived the honorary degree of D. D. 
from Roanoke college, his Alma Mater, 
in 1886. He has served the following 
charges: At Clearspring, Md., two and a 
half years; five years at Shepherdstown, 
(running through the whole civil war); 
seventeen years at Staunton, Va., five 
of which he was pastor of the church, 
and twelve principal of Staunton Fe- 
male Seminary, and eight years in his 
present field at Luray, Va., in the 
double capacity of pastor and president 
of Von Bora college. Dr. Miller has 
been eminently successful both as pas- 
tor and educator, having built up all 
the congregations he has served, besides 



founding and building up two schools 
for girls. As to style and method of 
preaching. Dr. Miller is plain and ear- 
nest, preaching both with and without 
manuscript. He has written and pub- 
lished some sermons and addresses. 

The following clipping taken from 
^^Gospel Echoes/' July, 1890, speaks for 
itself: 

This excellent brother, whose college 
is advertized in our columns, needs no 
commendation at our hands. As theo- 
logian, pastor, preacher and educator, 
his name is a household word, and he is 
highly esteemed by the whole Church. 
All readers of the Lutheran Visitor and 
Lutheran Home, as also readers of other 
journals, are familiar with his words of 
wisdom and safe counsel. And not a 
few of us know how to appreciate the 
splendid literary training our wives re- 
ceived at his hands. 

Von Bora College, so ably presided 
over by him, is in a flourishing condi- 
tion, and elaborate preparations are be- 
ing made for a large patronage next 
session. Additional jDroperty has been 
purchased, and the prospects are very 
good for increased patronage and con- 
tinued prosperity. 




524 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



EEV. L. G. M. MILLEE. 



Eev. Lewis G. M. Miller was born in 
Strasburg, Blienandoah Co., Ya., April 
15, 1848. His parents were John Samuel 
Miller, of Winchester, Ya., and Jane F. 
Schmidt, of York, Pa. His ancestry 
were for the most part on both sides 
German Lutherans. He received his 
collegiate education at Washington Col- 
lege (now Washington and Lee Uni- 
versity), Lexington, Ya., where he was 
from*] 866 to 1870. He entered the 
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, 
Pa., in 1871, from which he graduated 
in 1874, at which time he was ordained 
by the old Pennsylvania Ministerium. 
He immediately took charge of St. 
Peter's church, North Wales, Mont- 
gomery Co., Pa., where he was a little 



more than one year. In August, 1875, 
he took charge of College church, Salem, 
Ya., where he remained until March, 
1888, at which time he became pastor of 
Grace church, Winchester, Ya., where 
he still is at the time of this writing. 
Having been pastor of the college church 
during a period of thirteen years, while 
the Theological Seminary was at Salem, 
his influence was exerted to a marked 
degree over the lives of our younger 
ministers. His devotion, earnestness, 
and efficiency as a pastor and preacher 
commanded the love and respect of all 
who knew him. Mr. Miller is pastor of 
one of the most historic and influential 
churches in the united synod. 




KEY. THOEBJORN N. MOHN. 



Thorbjorn Nilson Mohn was born the 
15th day of July, 1844, in Sande parish. 
Lower Thelemarken, Norway. His 
parents are Nils Thorbjornson Mohn 
and Eagnhild, nee Johnson. In 1853 
the family emigrated to America, set- 
tling in Otsego Township, Columbia Co., 
AYis., where they remained seven years. 
In 1860 the family moved to Minnesota, 
settling on a farm in Yernon Township, 
Dodge Co., where they joined St. Olaf's 
congregation. The father died in 1883, 
while the mother is still living on the 
old homestead. 

The subject of this sketch was tHe 
second of eight children (of whom two 
are dead), three girls and five boys. 
Being less than nine years old when he 
left Norway, his education is chiefly 
American. He attended the district 



school as well as the parochial school 
in Wisconsin and in the spring of 1860 he 
was confirmed by the Eev. H. A. Preus. 
Moving to Minnesota in the fall of the 
same year, he worked on the farm of his 
parents during the next five years, at- 
tending school during winter. On the 
14th of October, 1865, he entered Luther 
College, Decorah, Iowa, where he com- 
pleted the classical course, graduating in 
the spring of 1870. In the fall of the 
same year he entered the Concordia 
seminary in St. Louis, Mo., where he 
studied theology during the subsequent 
years, graduating in the spring of 1873. 
Having received a call from St. Paul's 
Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in Chicago, he was ordained by 
the. president of the Norwegian Synod, 
the Eev. H. A. Preus, in Norway Grove 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



525 



church, Dane Co., Wis., on the 28th of 
May, 1873. The following year he ac- 
cepted a call from the Norwegian Luth- 
eran congregation at St. Paul, Minn., 
where, however, his ministry lasted only 
a few months. 

On the 6th of Nov., 1872, St. Olaf's 
school was incorporated, and from this 
date up to the present (Dec, 1890) the 
Rev. Mr. Mohn has been intimately 
connected with this institution, since 
1889 known as St. Olaf college. Having 
been appointed principal of the new 
school, he removed to Northfield, Minn., 
in Dec , 1874, and on the 8th of January 
following, he began his work of teach- 
ing, in which he has ever since been 
employed. During the sixteen years 
which have elapsed he has been labor- 
ing to build up a good school, and from 
a humble beginning with but one assist- 
ant teacher, the school has developed 
into a college, with a faculty of nine 
teachers, of which he is the president. 
He also became pastor of the St. Johan- 
nes Lutheran congregation in Northfield, 



which he still serves. He was for several 
years chairman of the ministerial con- 
ference of the Norwegian Synod for the 
district of Minnesota, until 1888, when 
he, together with many others, severed 
his connection with the Synod and joined 
in forming the Anti-Missourian brother- 
hood. From that year he was one of 
the committee elected to edit the Luth- 
erske Vidnesbyrd, the organ of the Anti- 
Missourians. In June, 1890, he joined 
in forming the United Norwegian Luth- 
eran Church. 

He was married to Miss Anna Elisa- 
beth Ringstad, of Decorah, la., July 15, 
1875. Five children have been born to 
them, of which the four oldest are boys. 
Since 1875 the family has resided in the 
main building of St. Olaf College. 

In person the president is a tall man, 
lacking only one-half inch of six feet, 
erect, and broad-shouldered. His com- 
plexion is fair, hair and beard very light. 
His health has been uniformly good 
from childhood up to the present day. 



REV. E. F. MOLDEHNKE, Ph.D.. D.D. 



Rev. Edward Frederick Moldehnke, 
Ph.D., D.D., was born at Insterburg, 
East Prussia, August 10, 1836, a descen- 
dant, on his mother's side, from the 
expelled Salzburgers who found a new 
home in East Prussia. He received a 
classical education in the gymnasium 
at Lyck where his parents had taken up 
their abode. At the age of nine years 
he lost his mother and had a very sad 
life under the harsh treatment of a step- 
mother. When seventeen years old he 
graduated from college with great 
honor and went to the University of 
Konigsberg in the fall of 1853, in order 
to study theology. Dr. Justus L. Jacobi, 



Prof, of Church History, received him 
with the greatest kindness and proved 
a paternal friend until he died in 1888. 
When Jacobi was transferred to Halle, 
he invited him to follow him, in the 
spring of 1855. There he was taken 
into the household of Prof. Dr. Aug. 
Tholuck as amanuensis until 1857. 
It was his privilege to hear the great 
and good theologian Prof. Julius 
Mueller. He was for a time a good 
admirer of Hegel's Philosophy, repre- 
sented by Prof. Edw. Erdmann, but 
afterwards he preferred the critical 
method of his countryman, Imanuel 
Kant. He took a decided stand against 



526 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




REV. E. F. MOLDEHNKE, PH.D., D. D. 



the practice of dueling and with six 
other students founded a Christian 
Society, "Tuisconia," which exists and 
has proven a blessing to this day. On 
account of sickness from over work he 
returned home in the spring of 1857, 
passed his first examination pro Ueentia 
eoncionandi, in the fall of 1857, and the 
second, pro ministerio, at Koenigsberg, in 
the fall of 1858. 

As he desired practical work, he was 
given charge of a church school a few 
months after, and had to assist the 
pastor according to the then prevailing 
custom, all these church schools being 
largely endowed from church funds. In 
the spring of 1859 he passed a very good 
examination, pro rectoratu in order to 
retain his place as rector or principal of 
the school. But as a suitable instructor 
in religion for the higher and middle 
classes of the College at Lyck could not 
be found, he was prevailed upon to 
accept that place in July, 1859. Here 
he instructed the four upper classes in 



the various branches of Christian knowl- 
edge, also the two upper ones in 
Hebrew, and as Ordinarius of Upper 
Tertia, this class in Latin and German. 
But only two years he could do this to 
him most congenial and blessed work. 
For, two societies for imigrated Prot- 
estant Germans in America called 
repeatedly for a traveling missionary 
for the Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin, 
and as he had a great desire to do 
missionary work, he was in July, 1861, 
ordained at Konigsberg and sent out 
to Wisconsin. Together with his wife 
and child he went there in August, 1861 . 
He traveled, preached and gathered 
many scattered Lutherans with unde- 
fatigable zeal in Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota. His reports to Germany caused 
the publication of the monthly Ansied- 
ler im Westen at Berlin in 1862. 

In 1864 he became the first Professor 
of the Theological Seminary of the 
Wisconsin Synod at Watertown, Wis., 
and of the College in 1865, also the first 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



527 



editor of the Wisconsin ^^Luth. Gemeinde- 
blatt and was made Doctor of Philosophy 
by the Rostock University in Germany. 
In August, 1866, he went back to 
Germany and was given charge of a 
very large German and Polish congrega- 
tion at Johannisburg, East Prussia, but 
after hard work and many struggles he 
left the Prussian Union and went back 
to America in April, 1869. From the 
deathbed of his father he went to New 
York with his family. There he started 
a new congregation, Zion's, but when 
the Rev. Christian Hennicke left New 
York for Michigan for his health's sake, 
Zion's and the older St. Peter's congre- 
gation were united, and, thus strength- 
ened, bought a large substantial church 
from the Presbyterians on Lexington 
Avenue, corner 46th street, in Novem- 
ber 1871. There he has preached, 
worked and lectured until the present 
time. At the twenty-fifth anniversary 
of the church, in 1887, he had the 
pleasure of seeing all church debts 
removed. On June 29th, 1887, Muhlen- 
berg College at Allentown, Pa., conferred 
upon him the degree of Doctor of Sacred 
Theology. 

His writings are for the most part 
scattered in various church papers. 
"Five years in America" appeared in 
Hengstenberg's Evang. Kirchenzeitung^ 
Berlin, from October, 1868, to February, 
1870, and a Church History of New York 
City, "New^ Yorker Kirchenspiegel," in 
the same paper from August, 1870, to 
1873. "Die Luth. Kirche in Amerika 
und ihre theologische Literatur" in 



Ij}iih.a.vdVs Zeitschriftfuerkirehl. Wiss. und 
Kirchenlehen, 1881. Many articles in the 
Lutherische Herold from 1869 on, the editor 
of which paper he was from June, 1877, 
to June, 1879. He was also the first 
editor of the Luth. KirchenUatt, Readins:, 
Pa., (started Jan., 1884); was a member 
of the select committee with Drs. 
Schmucker and Spath, that prepared 
the German "Kirchenbuch ;" did much 
pioneer work for the Church and was 
for many years engaged in warfare 
against several doctrines held by the 
Missouri Synod, suffered since January, 
1888, from heart disease and had to retire 
from active participation in the councils 
of the Church. 

Dr. Moldehnke was the first editor of 
Siloah, the first and only German monthly 
for Home Missions, which he began 
publishing in January, 1882, and was its 
editor for seven years. The paper had 
a circulation of 8000. He also urged 
upon the committee on Foreign Missions 
of the General Council the publication 
of the Missionsbote, which soon reached 
a circulation of 18,000. This paper 
was begun in January, 1878. 

Separate publications: "Darstellung 
der modernen deutschen Theologie vom 
lutherischen Standpunkte aus," Water- 
town, 1865; Lutherbuechlein (publ. by 
Brobst, Diehl & Co., 1879); Das heilige 
Vaterunser (ibid., 1878, translated into 
English by Prof. Dr. C. W. Schaeffer), 
and a collection of "Vortraege" or 
lectures, held in the large hall of the 
Cooper Institute in New York. 




528 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




REV. J. G. MORRIS, D.D., LL.D. 



Rev. John Gottlieb Morris, D.D., LL. 
D., was born in York, Pa., Nov. 14, 
1803. He was graduated at Dickinson 
College in 1823, studied theology at 
Princeton Theological Seminary in 
1823-26, and at Gettysburg Seminary 
in 1827, being a member of the first 
class in the latter institution, and was 
licensed to preach in 1827. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. in 1839, and 
that of LL. D. in 1873, both from Penn- 
sylvania College, Gettysburg. Dr. Mor- 
ris was the founder of Trinity English 
Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Md., and 
its pastor in 1827-60, librarian of Pea- 
body Institute, Baltimore, in 1860-65; 
pastor of the Third English Lutheran 
Church, Baltimore, in 1864-73, and 
since 1874 of a congregation at Luther- 
ville, Md. He has been lecturer on 
Natural History in Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, Gettysburg, since 1834; on pulpit 
eloquence and the relation of science 
and revelation in the theological semin- 



ary there since 1874, and has delivered 
lectures in Smithsonian Institute, Wash- 
ington, D. C. He was secretary of the 
General Synod in 1839, and president 
of the same body in 1843 and 1883. 
and President of the first Lutheran 
Church Diet in Philadelphia in 1877. 

He has been a trustee of Pennsylvania 
College and director of the theological 
seminary at Gettysburg for many years. 
With his brother he founded Luther- 
ville Ladies' Seminary. In science he 
has devoted himself specially to ento- 
mology and microscopy. He has been 
elected to membership in many scientific 
societies in this country and has been 
chairman of the entomological section 
of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science. He is president 
of the Maryland Bible Society and the 
Maryland Historical Society. During 
the year 1846 he traveled extensively in 
Europe, and in the same year he aided 
in establishing the Evangelical Alliance 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



529 



at London. He founded the Lutheran 
Observer in 1831, was its editor until 
1833, and since then has been one of its 
contributors. He is the leader of the 
conservative party in the General Syn- 
od, and its ablest representative. 

Besides many translations of works, 
addresses; review and magazine articles, 
tracts, and scientific papers, he has pub- 
lished "Catechumen's and Communi- 
cant's Companion" (Baltimore, 1831); 
"Henry and Antonio," of Brettschneider, 
trauslated from the German (Philadel- 
phia, 1831; altered edition, entitled, 
"To Eome and Back Agaiu," 1853); 
"Catechetical Exercises on Luther's 
Catechism," altered from the German 
(Baltimore, 1832); Von Leonard's "Lec- 
tures OD Geology," translated from the 
German (1839); "Popular Exposition of 
the Gospels," (2 vol., 1840); ''Life of 
John Arndt" (1853); -'Life of Martin 
Behaim, the Gerijian Cosmographer" 
(1856); ''Life of Catherine de Bora" 
(1856); "The Blind Girl of Wittenberg" 
(Philadelphia, 1856); "Quaint Sayings 
and Doings Concerning Luther" (1859); 
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of North 
America" (1860); "Synopsis of the Di- 
urnal Lepidoptera of the U. S." (Wash- 
ington, 1862); "The Lords Baltimore" 
(Baltimore, 1874); "Bibliotheka Luth- 
erana" (Philadelphia, 1876); "Fifty 
Years in the Lutheran Ministry" ( 1878 ) ; 
"A day in Capernaum," translated from 
Franz Delitzsch (1879); "The Diet of 
Augsburg," (1879); "Augsburg Confes- 



sion and the Thirty-nine Articles" 
(1879); "Journeys of Luther" (1880); 
"Luther at Wartburg and Coburg" 
(1882); "Life of Luther," translated 
from Kostlin (1883); "Lutheran Doc- 
trine of the Lord's Supper" (1884); and 
Memoirs of the Stork Family (1886). 
— Appl. Cyd. Am. Biog. 

For many years he has been promi- 
nently connected with all the great 
movements in the Church, and is, per- 
haps, more widely known than any living 
minister connected with the General 
Synod. Besides his literary and theo- 
logical labors. Dr. Morris has, from the 
beginning of his ministry, given con- 
siderable attention to the study of 
Natural History, and has attained to an 
enviable position among the naturalists 
of this country. Two of his works on 
Natural History have been published 
by the Smithsonian Institute of Washing- 
ton, D. C, namely. Catalogue of the 
Described Lepidoptera of the United 
States and Synopsis of the Described 
Lepidoptera of the United States. He 
has also been a frequent contributor to 
scientific journals, both American and 
foreign, and is a member of two foreign 
learned societies, — one in Denmark, The 
Eoyal Anti-Columbian Society of North- 
ern Antiquaries, Copenhagen, and one 
in Germany, Die Naturhistorische Ge- 
sellschaft zu Nuernberg, Bavaria, and 
also a member of the American Scientific 
Association, and of over a dozen other 
Literary and Scientific societies. 



EEV. JONATHAN E. MOSEE. 



Eev. Jonathan Eeinhard Moser, son 
of Eev. Daniel and Mary Barbara ( Mo- 
ri tz) Moser, was born in Lincoln (now 
Catawba Co., N. C, July 29, 1813. He 
was baptized by Eev. Philip Henkel 
Sept. 19, 1813, and confirmed by his 
67 



father, Oct. 22, 1831. He prepared for 
college with his father, and completed 
his theological studies under his father's 
instruction. He was licensed by the 
Tennessee Synod, Sept. 15, 1836, and 
ordained by the same body in Coiner's 



530 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Church, Augusta Co., Ya. He was en- 
gaged at different times as private tutor 
in various families in North Carolina 
and Virginia. He had charges in North 
Carolina, after which he removed to 
Missouri, where he ministered in the 
counties of Bollinger and Wayne, and 
other points. He took an active part in 
the translation of the Book of Concord, 
Luther's Church Postil, and when 
attacked by his fatal disease, was en- 
gaged in the translation of Dr. Walther's 
"Pastorala," into English. At the time 
of his last illness he was teacher of 



German in Zion's High School, at 
Gravelton, Mo. He was married three 
times; his first wife being Miss Barbara 
Thomas, of North Carolina, whom he 
married July 24, 1838. He was married 
the second time Oct. 29, 1854, to Anna 
Bollinger, and July 14, 1859, to Catha- 
rine Shell Whitener, who survives him, 
with two children. ' Six children by his 
first wife also survive him. Rev. Moser 
died Sept. 10, 1885, of paralysis, aged 
72 years, one month and eleven days. 
He was buried at Zion^s Lutheran 
Church, Gravelton, Wayne Co., Mo. 




EEY. HENRY M. MUHLENBERG, D.D. 



Henry Melchior Muhlenberg was born 
in the city of Einbeck, in the Electoral 
Principality of Hanover, September 6, 
1711. His parents were Nicholaus 
Melchior Muhlenberg, a member of the 
Council of the above mentioned place, 
and Anna Maria Kleinschmied, daughter 
of a retired military officer. From his 
seventh to his twelfth year he was kept 



constantly at school in his native place, 
and was occupied chiefly in the study 
of the German and Latin languages. 
He was early instructed in the doctrines 
and duties of the Christian religion, and, 
at the age of twelve, was confirmed, and 
admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, by Mr. Benckhardt, Pastor of 
Einbeck. His father died about this 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



531 



time, leaving so little property that his 
mother was unable to continue him at 
school, and, accordingly, for the next 
three years, he was obliged to labor for 
the support of the family. Indeed, he 
was not fully relieved from this necessity 
until he had reached his twenty-first 
year; though he was able, probably in 
the intervals of labor, to devote some 
time to arithmetic, and also to playing 
on the organ, — an accomplishment which 
he found of no small advantage to him 
in subsequent life. The training to 
which he was hereby subjected, from 
his necessitous circumstances, had the 
effect of giving him a fine physical 
development, and probably of greatly 
increasing his power of endurance. 

At about twenty-one he resumed his 
studies, and for a year or more devoted 
himself chiefiy to Latin and Greek, 
under the instruction of Pastor Schussler, 
at Einbeck. In 1733, when he was about 
twenty-two, he visited the towns of 
Clausthal and Zellerf eld, for the purpose 
of obtaining some employment by which 
he might support himself while he 
continued his studies. In the latter 
place he obtained a situation as assistant 
teacher in a school, while he was to 
devote a considerable part of each day 
to his own studies, and have the oppor- 
tunity of reciting to the Principal. 
Here he continued a year and a half, 
and, during this time, read several of 
the Latin Classics, and the New Testa- 
ment in Greek, besides making a good 
beginning in the French and Hebrew. 

In September, 1734, he returned to 
Einbeck, where, for a while, he was 
occupied in reviewing his previous 
studies under Pastor Schussler. He 
was strongly desirous of taking a com- 
plete University course, but was destitute 
of the requisite pecuniary means, and 
knew no way of obtaining them. Most un- 
expectedly, however. Providence opened 



a way for the attainment of his object. 
The University of Gottingen was estab- 
lished about this time, and collections 
were made in the different cities and 
towns, and sent thither for the purpose 
of supporting students designated by 
the respective places from which the 
funds were contributed. The amount 
contributed by the city of Einbeck was 
sufficient to entitle it to send a student 
thither for a year; and as young Muhlen- 
berg happened to be the only one in the 
city, at that time, of the requisite age, 
who wished to go to the University, he 
was selected by the members of the 
Council to enjoy this privilege. Accord- 
ingly, he went to Gottingen in March, 
1735, at the age of twenty-four, having 
at least one year's residence at the 
University made sure to him. Up to 
this time he seems to have had no genuine 
experience of the power of Christianity; 
and, at the commencement of his course, 
he formed some associations among the 
students that proved unfavorable to his 
moral character; but his aberrations 
were of short continuance, and were 
succeeded by bitter regrets, and ulti- 
mately by new views of Divine truth 
and a thoroughly renovated character. 
He became an inmate of the family of 
Dr. Operin, one of the Theological 
Faculty of the Institution, and a man 
of eminent piety, and served as his 
amanuensis; and from him he received 
most important aid in the commencement 
of his religious life. As a consequence 
of this change, be began now to devote 
all his leisure to doing good to his 
fellow creatures. In 1736 he became 
associated with several theological stu- 
dents in giving instruction in the 
elementary branches, aud especially in 
the Catechism, to ignorant and neglected 
children. Some of the clergymen and 
schoolmasters, regarding this an irregu- 
larity, complained of it to the Govern- 



532 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



ment at Hanover, and requested an 
interdict upon the further prosecution 
of their benevolent plan. The matter 
was formally brought to trial, but an 
eminent lawyer and an excellent man 
volunteered to defend the young men 
concerned, so that the case was issued 
in their favor. 

In 1737 he was admitted into the 
Theological Seminary, and allowed to 
catechise and preach in the Church of 
the University. Shortly afterwards he 
was selected, by Count Keuss the XI, 
as his domestic Chaplain; and he was 
providentially brought to the notice of 
the Baron Yon Munchausen, who became 
his benefactor and greatly facilitated 
his course at the University. 

At length he received an invitation 
from two eminent individuals, in the 
city of Gratz, to visit that place, at their 
expense, with a view to occupying the 
post of Deacon there. On his arrival 
they thought him scarcely qualified for 
the position, but found means of sending 
him to Halle to enable him to make the 
necessary improvement. Accordingly, 
he reached Halle in May, 1738, and had 
committed to him the instruction of the 
primary school, whence he was regularly 
transferred, until he had passed through 
all the departments, successively, and 
was finally placed in charge of the 
classes in Theology, Hebrew and Greek. 
In July, 1739, Count Eeuss the XXIY, 
one of the eminent persons who had 
invited him to Gratz, and afterwards 
furnished the means of his going to 
Halle, sent him a call to become deacon 
or assistant minister in the church at 
Gross-Hennersdorf, Upper Lusatia, and 
also Inspector of the Orphan House at 
the same place. Before accepting this 
call he was publicly examined, by the 
Consistory at Leipsic, as to his qualifi- 
cations for the ministry, and received 
ordination. He then proceeded to his 



assigned post of labor, and remained 
there for three years, performing the 
double duty of pastor and inspector. 

In July, 1741, while he was on a visit 
to Halle, Dr. Francke informed him 
that he had jast received a request that 
he would cause a missionary to be sent 
to the scattered Lutherans in Pennsyl- 
vania; and he proposed to Mr. Muhlen- 
berg to engage in the enterprise. After 
giving the subject much serious conside- 
ration and obtaining the judgment of 
some of his most valued friends, he 
determined to accept the appointment; 
and, accordingly, left Gross-Henners- 
dorf, where he had been for some time 
a diligent and successful laborer, on 
December 9, 1741. He returned first 
to his native place, where he had to 
encounter severe persecutions in con- 
sequence of the prejudices which certain 
persons had taken against him; but his 
confidence in God never faltered, and 
he proceeded with calmness and firmness 
to the execution of his purpose. He 
made his way first to Holland, and thence 
to England, where he spent a few weeks 
with an old friend. Dr. Ziegenhogan, 
private chaplain to the King. On June 
13, 1742, the ship in which he embarked 
sailed from Gravesend for Charleston, 
S. C; but she had an uncommonly 
protracted passage, as she did not reach 
her destination until September 22. He 
suffered greatly on the voyage, as well 
from boisterous and profane company 
as the want of water and fresh provi- 
sions. After remaining a day or two in 
Charleston, he took passage for Savan- 
nah, to pay a short visit to the Eev. 
Messrs. Gronau and Bolzius, two Luth- 
eran clergymen, who had been laboring 
for some time in Georgia. He reached 
Charleston, on his return, October 20, 
where he remained a few days, and then 
embarked in a small sloop for Philadel- 
phia; and, after a passage rendere(i 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



533 



terrible by fierce storms and horrid 
oaths and curses, was safely landed 
there November 25, 1742. 

On his arrival in Philadelphia he 
found himself encompassed with mani- 
fold difiiculties. Here he was brought 
into unpleasant relations with Count 
Zinzendorf and his adherents; and, at 
Providence and New Hanover, self- 
constituted pastors, of little education and 
less morality, had reduced Lutheranism 
almost to the point of absolute extinc- 
tion. However, by his good judgment, 
patience and perseverance, he was 
enabled to surmount these difiiculties. 
He was soon elected pastor of the three 
congregations of Philadelphia, New 
Providence, and New Hanover, which, 
though distant from each other thirty- 
six miles, he served, with great fidelity, 
for the first two years and a half of his 
residence in America. In 1745 he was 
cheered by the arrival of several 
additional laborers; to one of whom, the 
Rev. Mr. Brunholtz, he relinquished, 
without actually resigning, the charge 
of the City Church. From this period 
till 1761 he lived at New Providence, 
and divided his labors chiefiy between 
that congregation and the one at New 
Hanover, though he took many long 
journeys for the purpose of collecting 
scattered congregations, and preaching 
to those which were without any stated 
ministry. 

In the year 1761 the congregation at 
Philadelphia, having become dissatisfied 
with the minister who had been for 
some time serving them, and fallen into 
a somewhat disordered state, earnestly 
requested the return of their first pastor, 
and Mr. Muhlenberg, accordingly, went 
back to resume his labors among them. 
His presence had the effect of restoring 
peace to the congregation, and, after 
about a year, he succeeded in introduc- 
ing a system of Church rules, which 



have formed the basis of many others 
in the Lutheran churches in this coun- 
try. In 1774 he made a missionary 
jouro oy to Georgia, by request of the 
"worthy Fathers in Halle," the history 
of which has since been published in 
the Evangelical Review. In 1776, in 
consequence of increasing bodily infirm- 
ities in connection with the breaking 
out of the Revolutionary War, his 
congregation consented, at the expense of 
dispensing with his services, that he 
should seek a more congenial home in 
the country. He, accordingly, removed 
to New Providence, but did not find 
there the repose which he coveted. His 
ministerial labors were not discontinued, 
except during the last five years of his 
life, when, in consequence of the swell- 
ing of his feet, he was scarcely able to 
leave his house; but, even during this 
period, his mind retained its full vigor, 
and he was useful in many ways after 
he had ceased to be heard in the pulpit. 
He suffered severely from the war of 
the Revolution. He was, throughout, 
the earnest friend of his adopted coun- 
try, and there was no sacrifice he was 
not ready to make, no peril to which he 
would not cheerfully expose himself, 
for sustaining and carrying forward its 
interests. In the last year of his life 
his bodily infirmities had very much 
increased — asthma and other painful 
disorders were added to the swelling of 
his feet; but in all his sufferings not a 
murmuring word escaped him. He died, 
with words of triumph on his lips, on 
the 7th of October, 1787. His funeral 
was attended by a vast multitude, and 
several sermons commemorative of his 
life and character were preached in 
diff'erent churches. 

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
conferred upon him, by the University 
of Pennsylvania, in 1784. 

It is not known that Dr. Muhlenberg 



534 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



published anything in this country but 
a collection of hymns and prayers for 
congregations. His reports of his 
missionary operations here were pub- 
lished in Germany, first separately, and 



afterwards in connection with the 
reports of other missionaries, in two 
volumes, entitled Hallische Naehrichten. — 
Sprague. 




REV. F. A. MUHLENBERG, D.D., LL.D. 



Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, D. 
D., LL. D., was born at Lancaster, Pa., 
August 25th, 1818. His father was 
Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg, who studied 
medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush, 
and graduated at the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania 
in the year 1815. His grandfather was 
Dr. G. Henry E. Muhlenberg, born in 
Montgomery Co., Pa., educated at the 
University of Halle in Germany; pastor 
of the Trinity Lutheran church at Lan- 
caster, Pa., for thirty-five years. He 
is generally known, and called by writ- 
ers on botanical science as the "Amer- 
ican Linnaeus." 

His great-grandfather was Dr. Henry 
Melchior Muhlenberg, who was educated 



at Halle and Gottingen and came to 
this country as missionary to the scat- 
tered Lutherans in Pennsylvania in the 
year 1742, who was known as the "Patri- 
arch of Lutheranism in the United 
States." 

His maternal great-grandmother was a 
daughter of Conrad Weiser, Indian inter- 
preter during our Colonial History in 
Pennsylvania. Weiser 's father had fled 
from religious persecution in the Palati- 
nate, first to England, then to New York, 
and finally to Pennsylvania in the first 
decade of the eighteenth century. 

His mother was the granddaughter 
of the Rev. John Helfrich Schaum,one 
of the early Lutheran missionaries 
from Halle to Pennsylvania, in the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



535 



middle of the eighteenth century. 

Though losing his mother in his 
eighth year, he must have received a 
careful education, as at the age of four- 
teen he entered the Sophomore class 
in Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg. 

In 1833, he entered ad eundem Jef- 
ferson college, and was regarded as one 
of the most thorough scholars, though 
one of the youngest in the class. His 
facility in acquiring the languages was 
remarkable, and has been put to good 
use in his subsequent life. He was 
youthful in personal address, but posted 
and ready in the class-room. Quiet, re- 
served, courteous, perhaps a little grave 
for one so young, he was yet loved by 
all. His most intimate friends were 
McGinley, Knight, Huntington and 
Cyrus Dickson of the Junior claps. 

After leaving college he spent one 
year in his pleasant home, and then 
entered Princeton seminary for a time. 
Feeling too young to enter upon the 
ministry, he returned home and opened 
a classical school, but was soon elected 
a professor in Franklin College, where 
he continued until 1850. Then he was 
elected to the Greek Professorship in 
Pennsylvania college, and in 1854, was 
transferred to the "Franklin Professor- 
ship" in the same college, which he oc- 
cupied for seventeen years. In 1854 he 
took orders in the Lutheran church, 
and has, in connection with his pro- 
fessional duties, preached the gospel 
ever since. He continued his connec- 
tion with Pennsylvania college as 
"Franklin Professor," until the year 
1867. July 5th of that year, his revered 
and beloved father was removed to a 
better world, after a life of varied use- 
fulness for fifty years, in the medical 
lorofession; and the professor at the same 
time was induced, through the earnest 
solicitation of many of the members of 
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania to 



resign at Gettysburg, to assume the 
presidency of a new college at Allen- 
town, Pa., to which without any solici- 
tation on his part, he had been elected 
and which he at first declined. The 
"Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
and adjacent states," were not entirely 
satisfied with the connection they had 
made with Pennsylvania college, be- 
cause the theological standpoint was 
not the same as their own. They wished 
to have a college of their own, on their 
own territory, east of the Susquehanna. 
Urged as before by prominent members 
of the synod to accept of the position, 
and aid them in the organization, he 
consented to remove to Allentown and 
give them his assistance for three or 
four years, until the work was fairly 
started. The trustees of the new col- 
lege, though not with his consent, 
called it "Muhlenberg College," in 
honor of the Lutheran Patriarch, Dr. 
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. 

Before leaving Gettysburg, the trustees 
of Pennsylvania College, without any 
request on his part, conferred upon him 
the degree of D.D., honoring the college 
therein. 

After his removal to Allentown, he 
entered zealously upon the work en- 
trusted to him, which he knew to be 
one of great magnitude, with fears as to 
himself, but with sincere trust in God, 
for the ultimate favorable issue, because, 
undertaken, as he thought, in accordance 
with the will of God. But he was 
disappointed as to the time in which the 
Institution would be in a condition to 
grant him relief from the post. Instead 
of remaining there three or four years, 
as was his intention in the outset, he 
was obliged to continue at Allentown 
for nearly ten, when without any agency 
on his part, he was elected in the fall of 
1876, with much unanimity. Professor of 
the Greek Language and Literature in 



536 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



the University of Pennsylvania, Phil- 
adelphia, to which place he removed and 
entered upon his duties in December. 
He would not leave Allentown, until a 
suitable successor had been elected and 
had consented to serve. 

He has been laboring, without inter- 
ruption in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania up to the present time, a period 
of ten years, [resigned 1888, upwards 
of twelve years] and been aiding with 
his associates in the preparation of young 
men for the important pursuits and 
duties of life. He has also had the 
satisfaction of seeing Muhlenberg College 
well established, and in January, 1886, 
was invited to be present at the inaugura- 
tion of the third president of the Institu- 
tion, and to deliver the charge to him. 
It was no small satisfaction to have to 
learn on this occasion that the young 
college after an existence of but eigh- 
teen years, had sent out upwards of two 
hundred and fifty alumni, all of whom 
are pursuing lives of usefulness, and 
more than one half in the ministry of 
the gospel in the Lutheran Church. The 
small seed deposited in prayer and faith, 
has thus far had the divine blessing. 
He will soon finish his fiftieth year in 
the work of instructing young men and 
he blesses Glod, in looking over the past, 
for the success he has granted to his 
imperfect labors; for the wonderful 
patience and long-suffering manifested 
by him towards his servant, and the 



good health and strength his mercy has 
permitted him to enjoy. Let it here be 
recorded, with gratitude to God, that in 
the course of the past fifty years, during 
which he has been engaged in his 
profession, he has lost but two days in 
term time, by sickness, and he still 
enjoys comparatively good health. 

He married, in 1848, Catherine Anna 
Muhlenberg, daughter of Major Peter 
Muhlenberg, U. S. A., and has now four 
living sons. His wife and living child- 
ren are still near him, and in the dis- 
charge of their relative and professional 
duties. May years of health and happi- 
ness, and still wider usefulness be yet 
given our beloved- class-mate. — Dr. I, 
M. Stevenson. 

The subject of the above sketch has f ur~ 
nished articles, either translated or or- 
iginal, for the Evangelical and Church 
Eeviews, the Lutheran and other church 
papers and is now doing work of the 
same kind, while living temporarily 
with his son. Dr. W. F. Muhlenberg, at 
Reading, Pa. 

The honorary degree of LL.D., was 
conferred upon him, without any re- 
quest on his part, by "Franklin and 
Marshall College," in 1887, at the cen- 
tennial anniversary of its literary ex- 
istence; and the same degree, also the 
same year, by the trustees of Muhlen- 
berg College. He completed the sev- 
enty-second year of his life, the 25th 
day of August, 1890. 




REV. G. H. E. MUHLENBERG, D.D. 



Gotthilf Henry Ernst Muhlenberg 
was the youngest son of the Rev. Dr. 
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, and was 
born at Trappe, Montgomery Co., Pa., 
November 17, 1753. The rudiments of 
his education he received in his native 



place and, after his father's removal to 
Philadelphia, he attended the public 
schools in that city. In the spring of 
1763, when he was ten years old, he was 
sent, with two of his brothers, to finish 
his academic studies, and to lay the 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



537 




EEV. G. H. E. MUHLENBEEG, D.D. 



foundation of his theological conrc?e. 
After a voyage of seven weeks they 
reached England, and, soon after, sailed 
for Holland. The brothers proceeded 
directly to Halle, and yonng Henry, 
having been placed under the care of an 
attendant, went by way of Oldenberg, 
Bremen, and Hanover, with the inten- 
tion of visiting Einbeck, his father's na- 
tive place, and in which many of his 
relatives still lived. On the journey an 
incident occurred which showed the un- 
common strength of purpose which, 
even at that early period of life, he pos- 
sessed. Having been basely deserted 
by the man to whose protection he had 
confided, in a land in which he was an 
entire stranger, he set out for his place 
of destination on foot, without money 
or friends, and in no wise disposed to 
yield to despondency. As he approached 
the end of his dreary journey, when al- 
most exhausted by fatigue, he was met 
by a stranger whose benevolent heart 
was touched by the sad tale of the boy, 
insomuch that he actually carried him 
on his back to Einbeck, and cheered 
68 



him on the way with the recital of 
pleasant stories. He never ascertained 
the name of this kind friend; but, at the 
time, he confidently believed that it was 
some good angel, commissioned by Prov- 
idence to aiford aid to him in this hour 
of need. He was soon after sent by his 
friends at Einbeck to Halle, where he 
at once commenced his studies, to use 
his own language, "among the orphan 
children of the Orphan House." In 
this school he continued for some years, 
spending a longer time in the higher 
classes than was necessary, as he had 
not yet reached the age required for ad- 
mission into the university. This he 
entered in the year 1769, and remained 
a member about one year. As Mr. 
( afterwards Dr. ) Kunze was coming to 
America about this time, he determined 
to accompany him; and, accordingly, 
they embarked together, and arrived 
here in the year 1770. 

Shortly after he reached home, Mr. 
Muhlenberg was ordained by the Syn- 
od of Pennsylvania, then in session at 
Reading. He immediately commenced 



538 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



the work of the ministry, and was, for 
many years, the assistant of his father, 
who was still preaching in Philadelphia, 
and had charge of several congregations 
in the vicinity. He occupied this field 
till 1776, when, in consequence of his 
devotion to the principles of the Amer- 
ican Revolution, he was obliged, with 
his family, to flee from the city, on the 
approach of the British. Although he 
afterwards returned for a season, he was 
again forced to retire during the occu- 
pancy of the city by the enemy. Dis- 
guised under a blanket, with a rifle on 
his shoulder, he nearly fell into the 
enemy's hands, through the treachery 
of a Tory innkeeper, and saved him- 
self only through the timely warning of 
a Whig inmate of the house. He now 
withdrew to the country, where, relieved 
for a time from his professional duties, 
he engaged with much zeal in the study 
of botany, and ultimately became not 
only an enthusiast, but a great proficient 
in that science. On the departure of 
the British troops, he resumed his cler- 
ical duties in Philadelphia, and contin- 
ued to labor there until the year 1779, 
when he resigned the place, with a view 
to take charge of several congregations 
m Montgomery county. Pa. In the 
spring of the next year, however, he 
was invited to the pastorate of the 
church at Lancaster, and, in view of the 
wider field of labor and influence which 
was then open to him, he consented to 
accept the appointment. He according- 
ly removed to his new home, and con- 
tinued to labor there till the close of his 
earthly course. He died suddenly, of 
apoplexy, on the 23d of May, 1815, in 
the sixty-second year of his age, having 
been the minister of Lancaster thirty- 
five years. Fully aware that the time 
of his departure was at hand, he com- 
mitted his church and congrega- 
tion to the great Shepherd and Bishop 



of souls, and, clasping to his heart the 
Bible, as his dearest treasure, he peace- 
fully fell asleep. His remains were fol- 
lowed to the grave by an immense con- 
course, and an appropriate discourse 
was delivered by Rev. Dr. Helmuth, of 
Philadelphia, from Hebrews xiii, 7. 

The University of Pennsylvania con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Master 
of Arts in 1780, and, at a later period, 
that of Doctor of Divinity. 

Dr. Muhlenberg carried on an extens- 
ive correspondence with many of the 
distinguished naturalists in Europe, and 
contributed much by his communica- 
tions towards the progress of natural 
science. In 1786 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety; in 1798, a member of the "Natur- 
forshender Freunde," in Berlin; in 1802, 
a member of the Philosophical and 
Physical Societies of Gottingen; and 
he was also a member of various other 
associations in Sweden, Germany, and 
elsewhere. His letters are frequently 
referred to in Wildenow's Species 
Plantarum. His herbarium was pur- 
chased and presented to the American 
Philosophical Society. 

Besides numerous articles on Scien- 
tific questions, which appeared in the 
newspapers of the day, he published 
"Rede bei der Einweihung des Franklin 
Collegiums," 1788; Catalogus Plantarum 
Amer. Septent, 1813; and English and 
German Lexicon and Grammar, two 
volumes. Descriptio Uberior Graminum, 
1816. He left in manuscript Flora Lan- 
castriensiSy also much on ethics and 
theology. 

Mr. Muhlenberg was married in 1774, 
to Catharine, daughter of Philip Hall, 
of Philadelphia. There were two sons 
by this marriage, who attained to dis- 
tinction. One of them, Henry Augus- 
tus, had a high reputation, first as a 
clergyman, and afterwards as a civilian. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



539 



The other son of Dr. H. E. Muhlen- 1 tinguished physician in Lancaster, Pa. 
berg, above referred to, became a dis- 1 — Sprague. 




REV. HENRY A. MUHLENBERG. 



Henry Augustus Muhlenberg was 
born in Lancaster, Pa., May 13, 1782. 
Though he never went to college, his 
education was of the most liberal kind, 
being conducted partly by his learned 
father, and partly by other accomplished 
teachers who were employed for the 
purpose. In 1802 he was ordained as a 
clergyman of the Lutheran Church, 
and took the pastoral charge of Trinity 
Church, Reading, Pa. In 1824 he was 
honored with the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. He remained at Reading until 
1828, when, in consequence of the fail- 
ure of health, he resigned his charge and 
retired to a farm ; soon after which, he 
was elected a member of the twenty- 
first Congress, from the district com- 
posed of Berks and Lehigh counties. 
To this post he was re-elected until 
1838, when he resigned his seat, having 
held, during his term of office, a promi- 
nent position as chairman of several 
important committees. In 1835 he was 
nominated as the candidate of the dem- 



ocratic party in Pennsylvania for gov- 
ernor, but was not successful. In 1837 
President Van Buren tendered him a 
position in the cabinet, as secretary of 
the navy, and also the mission to Russia, 
both of which he declined; but, in 1838 
he accepted the mission to Austria, and 
was unanimously confirmed by the 
senate. After an absence of nearly 
three years, -he was recalled at his own 
request, and returned in December, 
1840. In 1844 he was again nominated 
by the democratic party as candidate 
for governor, and would undoubtedly 
have been chosen, had not his death 
occurred previous to the election. He 
died on the 12th of August, 1844, at 
the age of sixty-two, leaving behind 
him the well-earned reputation of an 
accomplished and useful minister of 
the Gospel, and an upright and able 
statesman. Whilst he was abroad, he 
visited all the more interesting parts of 
Italy, Germany and Switzerland, in do- 
ing which he found much to gratify his 
fine classical tastes. — Sprague. 



REV. JOHANN P. G. MUHLENBERG. 



Rev. Johann Peter Gabriel Muhlen- 
berg was born Oct. 1, 1746, in Trappe, 
Montgomery Co., Pa., and was the oldest 
son of the Patriarch Muhlenberg. When 
his father, in 1761, moved to Philadel- 
phia, Peter entered the academy, where 
he studied for some time under Dr. 
Smith. In 1763 (April 27) he and his 



two brothers, Frederick and Heinrich, 
were sent to Halle, Germany, to study 
for the ministry. Peter, however, did 
not remain long at Halle, as he regard- 
ed the discipline of the school too severe 
He then determined to devote himself 
to the mercantile profession, and en- 
gaged himself to a merchant in Lubeck 



540 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES, 




REV. J. P. G. MUHLENBERG. 



for six years, but after three years lie 
left Lubeck and sailed for America Oct. 
2, 1766, arriving in Philadelphia Jan. 15, 
1767. He now devoted some time to 
theological study under Provost C. M. 
Wrangel, and was ordained in 1768, 
when he became assistant pastor of 
Zion's and St. Paul's churches in New 
Germantown and Bedminster, in Hun- 
terdon and Sommerset counties, N. J,, 
and the following year he assumed the 
pastorship of these churches alone. 

On the 6th of November, 1770, he was 
married to Miss Anna Barbara Meyer. 



In 1772 he received a call to the pas- 
torship of the Lutheran church^ in 
Woodstock, Shenandoah Yalley, Va. In 
order to accept this call Muhlenberg 
was obliged to go to England and re- 
ceive a new ordination, as the law of 
Virginia required that the ministers 
should belong to the Episcopal church. 
His ordination took place April 23, 1772, 
at the royal chapel St. James, the 
bishop of London officiating. He left 
London May 24, arriving at Philadelphia 
in July, whence he went to Virginia 
and entered upon his duties as pastor 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



541 



of the Lutheran church at Woodstock. 
He soon became very popular, not only 
among the members of his church, but 
in the whole community, and became 
the leading character in all public 
affairs. He was an intimate friend of 
George Washington, Patrick Henry, and 
others of lasting fame. At the state 
convention in Richmond, March 20, 

1775, he took active part with Patrick 
Henry in advocating the cause of inde- 
pendence, and seconded his motion to 
the effect that Virginia should take up 
arms. By the expressed wishes of 
Washington and Patrick Henry, Rev. 
Muhlenberg was appointed Colonel of 
the 8th Virginia Regiment. About the 
middle of January, 1776, he preached 
his farewell sermon, having on that oc- 
casion mounted his pulpit both in mili- 
tary uniform and clerical robes. After 
the service he laid aside his gown, and 
outside the church door he enlisted 
about 300 men for military service in 
the cause of independence. Col. Muh- 
lenberg with his regiment took part in 
the battle of Sullivan Island, in June, 

1776, and he also took active part in the 
campaigns and military operations in 
Georgia and South Carolina. He was 
appointed Brigadier-General Feb. 21, 

1777, and had the command at the bat- 
tle of Brandy wine and German town. He 
took part in the battle of Monmouth 
and Stony Point, Va., under Lafayette. 



In the engagement at City Point he 
achieved a glorious victory on the 25th 
of April, 1781, over the powerful forces 
of Arnold, which led Baron von Steuben 
to send in to Congress a most flattering 
account of his valor. He was present 
with his brigade in the assault upon 
Yorktown, Oct. 15, 1781. 

After having served seven years in 
the war he was again called (1783) by 
his old congregation in Woodstock to 
become its pastor, but he did not accept. 
The winter of 1783-4 he spent at home 
with his father, and later he removed to 
Philadelphia. He was elected to the 
legislature, and in 1785 he became Vice- 
President of the Common Council of 
which Benjamin Franklin was President; 
this position he held for two years. He 
was then elected to Congress, where he 
served from 1789 to 1791, 1793 to 1795, 
and 1799 to 1801. In 1797 he was one 
of the presidential electors, and in 1801 
he was elector senator, but resigned in 
1802. 

He died at his home at Gray's Ferry, 
Philadelphia, on the sixty-first anni- 
versary of his birth, Oct. 1, 1807. His 
remains were brought to Trappe and 
interred in the Lutheran burying 
ground, at the side of his father. He 
had three sons, Francis, Peter and Henry, 
and one daughter, Esther. — Andersen's 
History. 



7^ 



PROF. H. C. MUELLER, A.M. 



In the early part of this century there 
arrived in St. Petersburg, the great 
metropolis of the north, a German fam- 
ily, consisting of an aged mother, four 
daughters and a son, whose home had 
been in Memel, a town situated in the 



extreme north of the Prussian kingdom. 
The object of their leaving the old 
homestead and fatherland was none less 
than the arrival of Thomas Mueller, the 
head of the family, who, being in com- 
mand of a merchantman, was to come 



542 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




PROF. H. C. MUELLER, A.M. 



a cargo from 
sailed from a 



to St. Petersburg with 
Cuba, whither he had 
German harbor. 

But the anxiously looked for sea- 
faring spouse and father did not come, 
and at last news was brought from over 
the Atlantic that he had died, a victim 
of the yellow fever, and his remains 
had been laid to rest in the far away 
town of Havana. The responsibility 
of supporting the fatherless family now 
fell upon the shoulders of the only son, 
John Bernhard Mueller, then a lad of 
seventeen years. He soon succeeded in 
finding employment, and became ac- 
quainted with an Engliph Quaker fami- 
ly, who cared for him in a truly Chris- 
tian spirit. Having the advantage of 
acquiring the neccessary knowledge in 
the science of engineering and drain- 
ing, he, in course of time, became prom- 
inent in the work of draining the 
swamps which surrounded the metrop- 
olis for many miles, and soon we find 
him connected with the Imperial Gov- 



ernment in this capacity as a complete 
and successful civil engineer. In 1848 
he married Miss Emily R. Kroehl, after 
having been left a widower for some 
time, and to them was born, on the 24th 
of January, 1854, a son, who received 
the name of Herman Carl, being bap- 
tized in the Evangelical Lutheran 
church at Pavlovsk, near St. Petersburg. 
Being the fourth child, Herman found 
much loving care and kind attention 
from his parents, as well as his older 
sisters. A truly Christian spirit and 
purely evangelical piety were the sur- 
rounding influences of his childhood; 
competent tutors and governesses were 
intrusted with the education and train- 
ing of the boy, and not until his four- 
teenth year was he sent to school in St. 
Petersburg. He entered a gymnasium 
endowed by the oldest and wealthiest of 
the many German Lutheran congrega- 
tions there, where, after completing the 
classical course, he graduated, with the 
approval of his professor, as being 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BI0GBAPfllE8. 



548 



"a very studious young man, of more 
than ordinary intellectual capacities." 
An especial gift for languages, modern 
as well as ancient, naturally developed 
in him a taste for philological studies, 
and though at first he was not permitted 
to put his knowlc dge auJ acquirements 
to practical use in public teaching, yet 
he soon found private pupils, who loved 
and respected him as the most enthus- 
iastic and successful teacher they had 
ever had. 

He was engaged as tutor in some of 
the most prominent families, the "elite" 
of St. Petersburg's best society; among 
others he was, for some time, teaching 
at the count of the Russian grandduke, 
Wladimir (second brother of the pres- 
ent Czar. ) 

His father having died in December, 
1873, he was for several years the sup- 
port of his mother and younger broth- 
ers, but not finding a permanent situa- 
tion to his taste and desires, he at length 
decided to emigrate to the United 
States, where his brother John, at that 
time had charge of a Lutheran congre- 
gation in Pennsylvania. He landed in 
this, his adopted country, in the sum- 
mer of 1877, and was for about a year 
employed as teacher and tutor in the 
private institute of Dr. Weiner, New 
York City. Thence he went to Beaver 
Falls, Beaver County, Pa., where he at 
once became actively engaged in teach- 
ing, devoting his time during the week 
days to private instruction, while on 
Sundays he could be found busying 
himself in the Sunday School, employ- 
ing his Christian knowledge and expe- 
rience in the service of his Master and 
his church, which he loved from con- 
viction for her pure doctrines, and true, 
evangelical life. 

Here he projected an academy, which 
at first promised to become a useful 
institution, but the realization of his 



fondest hopes were frustrated by the 
fact of the covenanters removing their 
Geneva College from Logan Co., O., 
to Beav^er Falls. That induced Prof. 
Mueller to abandon his plans, and to 
seek another field of usefulness. 

In the fall of 1882 he was married to 
Miss Ella B. Kensley, of New Brighton, 
Pa., and removed to the prosperous and 
growing town of Canton, Stark Co., O., 
where he was soon elected teacher of 
German and Latin in the High School. 
While there he was to experience the 
saddest affliction of his life; his young 
wife died in the fall of 1883, leaving 
him a son, who is now enjoying the 
love and care of his father's mother at 
Springfield, O. 

In the summer of 1884, the principal 
of the fund of the Alumni Endowment 
Association of Wittenberg College had 
accumulated to about $30,000. The 
Association resolved to endow a chair, 
to be known as the Alumni Chair of 
Modern Languages, and appointed a 
committee to find a suitable man for 
the place. 

A ripe scholar and competent teacher 
was required, and, what was of no little 
importance, he should also be an excel- 
lent English scholar. 

Prof. Mueller's name had been favor- 
ably brought before the committee, with- 
out any knowledge or the least solicita- 
tion on his part, and a member of the 
committee was instructed to visit the 
Professor at Canton. The result of this 
visit is summed up in the following 
words: "The Association elected Prof. 
H. C. Mueller to the Alumni Chair of 
Modern Languages of Wittenberg Col- 
lege without a dissenting vote." He 
began his work in the College October 
1, 1884, and, after a trial of one year, 
was, in June, 1885, re-elected, and his 
salary increased twenty-five per cent. 

To say that he was a competent and 



544 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



faithful teacher would be to echo the 
words which one of his co-laborers at 
the College expresses in the following 
way: "As a teacher, Prof. Mueller was 
faithful to duty, always present, always 
prepared, always courteous, always 
exacting, always accurate to the smallest 
detail. As a member of the Faculty, he 
was helpful, and ever ready to assist in 
any department where he could be of 
service. His heart was enlisted in his 
work, and he was deeply interested in 
the welfare of the College, for whose 
prosperity he could have done so much, 
had his life been spared." — Irof. S. F. 
Breekenridge. 



When seemingly he had started on a 
most promising career, bidding well to 
become a man of prominence among the 
educators of this country, which he 
loved most devotedly with his whole 
heart, when, after a life-long struggle, 
we may say, he at last had found a place 
where his work and talents were appre- 
ciated, and his usefulness became of a 
permanent kind, he was suddenly and 
unexpectedly cut down in the midst of 
life and activity. He died in the harness. 
On the morning of April 13, 1886, he 
entered his class-room, after a hurried 
walk from his residence to the College 
building, and upon taking his seat. 



noting down the date in his class-book, 
and calling upon one of the students to 
recite the day's lesson, he fell from his 
chair, a lifeless body; no human help 
nor medical assistance could stay the 
progress of that grim enemy of human 
life; death had laid its cold hands upon 
him, and embraced him for all time. 
He had attained the age of thirty-two 
years, two months and twenty days — a 
short, a young life, yet full of events, of 
struggles, of hopes blasted, of plans 
frustrated, of much usefulness and 
activity. Endowed with no mean abilities, 
yea, of superior mental qualities, he was 
a man of industry, of energy, devoted 
to study, of amiable and kind disposition, 
and possessing that true crown- jewel of 
all learning, modesty. The natural 
cause of his so sudden demise is attrib- 
uted to valvular disease of the heart, 
with which he was affected from his 
birth, and which at last accomplished 
that over which human science has no 
control. The funeral took place on 
Friday, April 16, 1886, President Ort, 
S. T. D., and Eev. Gotwald, D. D., 
officiating. The students attended in a 
body, and marched in order of their 
college classes from the residence to 
Ferncliff Cemetery, where the remains 
were laid to rest. — Hist. Witt. College. 




AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



545 




EEV. BEENT J. MUUS. 



Bernt Julius Muus was born in the 
parish Snaasen in Throndhjems Stift, 
Norway, the 15th day of March, 1832. 
His parents were Ingebrigt Muus, who 
kept a country store, and Birgitte 
Magdalen a, daughter of the rector of the 
parish, Jens Eynning. When a year 
and a half old his mother died, and he 
was received in the house of his mother's 
parents, where he was taken care of till 
sent out in the world. 

In the year 1842 he entered the Latin 
School at Throndhjem, from which he 
was graduated in 1849, and the same 
year matriculated as a student at the 
University in Christiania, with the 
character Laudabilis. In 1850 he took 
examen philosophieum with the same 
character. 

He then commenced studying theol- 
ogy, as he had never seriously thought 
of any other course. It seemed to 
be a common understanding in the 
family, that he should be a clergyman, 
69 



and his mother had also expressed this 
wish on her deathbed. The closer 
study of things divine brought more 
clearly before his mind, how unfit he 
was for the holy office. He therefore 
turned his mind to mathematics and 
kindred branches with the intention of 
becoming a civil engineer. His fath- 
er, however, wrote him to keep on 
with the study of theoloofy. Wishing 
to keep what he could of the command- 
ments of God, he again took up the 
study of theology in obedience to his 
father's command, lest he should break 
the fourth commandment. While study- 
ing theology he found the way of salva- 
tion by faith in Christ and not by works; 
and he determined to try to do what he 
could, in taking his cross up and doing 
what he could perceive the Lord would 
have him to do. 

In 1854 he took his degree as candi- 
date in theology with the character 
Laudabilis. After that time he remained 



546 



* AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



five years in Christiania, making his 
living as a tutor for children and as a 
teacher in two schools. 

Under the conviction of his imper- 
fections he shrank from trying to secure 
a position as pastor in the church of his 
fatherland, because he knew that gen- 
erally some one else would apply for 
the same office, and his Christian mod- 
esty forbade that he should be in the way 
of better men. He therefore determined 
to go where nobody else would go. So 
he thought of going, under the auspices 
of the Norwegian Mission Society, to 
Zululand in South Africa; but he was 
not accustomed to manual labor and 
feared, that he might not stand the 
bodily work required there. He then 
concluded to go to America. The emi- 
grants there were sorely in need of pas- 
tors, and there he would not be in any- 
body's way. 

He then accepted a call from Holden 
congregation, Goodhue Co., Minnesota. 
The church government kindly allowed 
him to be ordained without taking the 
usual "mmister's oath," which he could 
not take without conscientious scruples 
and in 1859 he sailed with his newly 
married wife for America. 

In October he came to La Crosse, 
Wis., the Norwegian synod just holding 
its annual session in Coon Prairie. At 
this convention he was received as a 
member of the Synod being the twelfth 
or thirteenth of its ministers. 

In the first part of November he ar- 
rived at his field of labor, the Holden 
congregation, then consisting of the 
Norwegian settlement in Goodhue and 
Eice counties, Minn., which afterwards 
was divided into seven congregations. 
But besides this he had to work as mis- 
sionary throughout the state of Minne- 
sota, where Norwegian settlements were 
found excepting only three or four coun- 
ties. He also had to work in the north- 



western part of Wisconsin and had in 
all twenty-eight preaching stations. The 
most of these he could only visit twice 
a year, in the spring and fall. 

From 1863 he gradually received more 
and more help. Ministers were installed 
in his district, and at this time (1890) 
he serves two congregations, Holden 
and Dale, and one small mission station. 

He has taken active part in the work 
of his synod and contributed largely to 
religious and secular papers. 

When in 1876 the Norwegian Synod 
was divided into District Synods, and 
the Minnesota District Synod was 
organized, he was elected president and 
acted as such until 1883. 

Seing the necessity of providing for 
a higher education of the many yoijng 
people in his congregations, than they 
could get in the home schools, and being 
impressed with the importance of im- 
parting such education in a Christian 
spirit, he began to work for the establish- 
ment of an academic institution in 
Northfield, Minn. By the help of God 
and good men this was founded in 1874 
under the name of St. Olafs School. 
This is now (1890) a prospering college 
with the name St. Olafs College. 

From 1856 to 1859, assisted by his 
friend Th. C. Bernhoft, he was editor 
and proprietor of a religious weekly, Norsk 
Kirkeiidende, printed in Christiania, 
Norway. He has published "Parabler 
f ra Naturen," a translation from English, 
which was printed in Christiania, Nor- 
way, 1858. In America, besides numer- 
ous art'cles in papers already mentioned, 
have appeared a number of sermons in 
Evang. Luth. Kirkeiidende and Lutherske 
Vidnesbyrd. In 1881 he wrote and 
published at Decorah, Iowa, "Soger 
hjem!" — words to the congregations he 
had formerly served. In 1890 at North- 
field, Minn., was published, "Til mine 
Confirmander," — admonitions to the 
young he had confirmed. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



547 




KEV. PKOF. CORNELIUS NARVESEN. 



Prof. Cornelius Narvesen was born in 
Eggedal, Norway, on the 23d of June, 
1841. His parents were Narve Haakon- 
son Grronhord and Gunhild, born Hal- 
dorsen. At the age of twelve years he 
came to America, where his first 
achievement was to earn by hard manual 
labor enough to pay his own and his 
parents' passage across the ocean, which 
amount had been advanced by a friend, 
with the understanding that it was to be 
refunded as soon as possible. On the 
fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1858, he 
was confirmed by the Rev. F. C. Caussen, 
being among his first catechumens. 
After his confirmation he taught Nor- 
wegian parochial school for a few years 
in Norwegian Ridge congregation, near 
Spring Grove, Minn. In September, 
1865, he entered Luther College, De- 
corah, la., with a view to qualify him- 



self for school teaching, and graduated 
in 1867. He next studied several years 
at Winona Normal School, Winona, 
Minn., and subsequently took a position 
as parochial and district school teacher 
in Spring Grove congregation, which 
consisted of a large, well-to-do Nor- 
wegian settlement. When Prof. K. 
Berg, in 1873, was obliged to take a rest 
from his labors at Luther College, De- 
corah, la., owing to failing health, Mr. 
Narvesen was called to serve temporarily 
as Assistant Professor at this institution, 
and in this position , he remained for 
eleven years, and discharged his duties 
with faithfulness and ability. 

Prof. Narvesen was married to Miss 
Bertha Maria Blixrud, of Spring Grove, 
on the 12th of November, 1879, with 
whom he had three children. His death 
occurred on the 24th of July, 1884. 




548 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



KEV. PEOR E. NELANDEE, A.M. 



Eev. Prof. Edward Nelander, A.M., 
was born at Knoxville, 111., Sept. 16, 1855. 
Was educated in the public schools of 
Knoxville; Knox Academy, Galesburg, 
111.; Augustana College, Eock Island, 
111., and at the University of Berlin, 
Prussia. He received the degrees of 
A.B. and A.M. from Augustana College. 
He was elected President of Bethany 



College, Lindsborg, Kas., in 1883. This 
position he held for seven years, during 
which time the institution, from an at- 
tendance of sixty students and two in- 
structors, increased to 340 students and 
thirteen instructors. He accepted the 
pastorate of the Swedish Lutheran 
church, at Kansas City, Mo., in 1889. 




EEV. JOHN NICUM. 



John Nicum was born Jan. 6, 1851, at 
Winnenden, "Wurthemberg, the birth- 
place of John Albrecht Bengel. His 
parents were Johannes Nicum and Anna 
Margaretha nee Schaefer. Scarcely three 
years old he was sent to a private school 
where hymns, bible verses and biblical 
stories were taught. His mother was a 
woman of earnest piety. Upon awaken- 
ing he often found her kneeling at his 
bedside engaged in prayer for her only 
child. His father, for many years con- 



nected with the large orphanage at 
Winnenden, and no less devout, be- 
lieved in vigorous educational methods. 
Himself missing no church service, he 
would always take his son with him. 
After dinner young John had to give 
a minute account of the service, the 
hymns sung, the text, the introduction, 
theme and divisions of the sermon, and 
if the examination did not prove satis- 
factory punishment would follow. 
Among the warm friends of the family 




Rev. E. Icelander. 

Page 548. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



549 



were the late Inspector Josenlians, of 
Basel, Dr. K. Lechler, now Praelat at 
Ulm, and Dekan K. Kapff. 

The father's ancestors in conse- 
quence of religious j)ersecution in the 
Palatinate had, in the early part of 
the eighteenth century, taken refuge in 
Wurthemberg, whilst other members 
of the family emigrated to America. 
From these are descended the Nickums 
in Eastern and the Nycums in Western 
Pennsylvania. 

At the age of six years John was sent 
to the public schools, and at the age of 
ten he entered the Latin schools of the 
town, where Latin and Greek, as well as 
French, were taught. It had been the 
earnest desire of his mother that her 
son should become a minister of the 
gospel, but she died before he was fifteen. 
His father had contemplated sending 
him to the Horticultural Academy at 
Hodenheim. At the earnest desire of 
an aunt in Blair county. Pa,, he visited 
America, and, contrary to his expecta- 
tions, this county has become his per- 
manent abode. In the fall of 1867 he 
felt a strong desire to become a foreign 
missionary and join a former school- 
mate, now missionary in China, in the 
Missionary Institute at Basel. He con- 
iSded his purpose to his pastor, the 
Rev. A. Spaeth, D.D., who persuaded 
him to remain and become a minister in 
the Lutheran church in this country. 
January, 1869, he entered Muhlenberg 
College, from which he graduated four 
years later. Whilst attending college at 
Allentown, Pa., he organized a Sunday 
school from which has grown St. 
Michael's Evangelical Lutheran church, 
now served by Rev. G. F. Spieker, D.D. 
In the fall of 1872 he entered the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Theological Seminary 
in Philadelphia. As in the neighbor- 
hood where the buildings to the Cen- 
tennial Exposition were being erected, 



a large number of German Lutherans 
were settling, he organized in March, 
1874, Christ's Sunday school, now the 
German Lutheran congregation of the 
same name served by Rev. H. Weigand. 
In June, 1876, he was ordained at the 
meeting of the Pennsylvania Synod in 
Trinity Church, Reading, Pa., Rev. Dr. 
J. Fr}), pastor. In March of the same 
year he had accepted a call to Zion's 
Evangelical Lutheran church of Frack- 
ville, Schuylkill Co., Pennsylvania, 
preaching in both German and English. 
In Sept., 1878, he became pastor of Im- 
manuel's German Lutheran church of 
Frankford, Philadelphia. In March, 
1880, he received an urgent call to St. 
John's German Lutheran church in 
Syracuse, New York. In this congre- 
gation he labored for nearly eight years, 
amidst many and severe trials. In 
all sound Lutheran and conservative 
measures, he was violently opposed by 
several prominent and influential 
church officers. The^' persistency of 
their efforts may be judged from the 
fact that they preferred twenty-five 
charges against the pastor before the 
Conference, but this body, after a most 
thorough investigation, dismissed the 
charges and rebuked the disturbers. 
They appealed to Synod, but also in 
vain. It unanimously declared that 
"we approve of the conduct of pastor 
John Nicum." There was also several 
suits at law brought by this unlutheran 
church for the possession of the church 
property. In these pastor Nicum was 
also finally successful. His adversaries 
then withdrew and organized an inde- 
pendent church. 

In the fall of 1887 Nicum was unani- 
mously elected pastor of St. John's 
church in Rochester, New York. The 
blessing of God has most signally at- 
tended his ministrations here. The 
membership of the church has increased 



550 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



rapidly, numbering now 1367 confirmed 
persons and 840 unconfirmed, a total of 
2207 persons. 

He is the author of a law passed by 
the legislature of N'ew York, in 1887, 
and granting the Lutheran churches in 
that state privileges with reference to 
the management of their property, not 
heretofore enjoyed by them. In the 
midst of this Syracuse struggle the large 
Western Conference of New York Minis- 
terium elected him its president, in 
which capacity he served several years. 
When the New York Ministerium in 
1886 celebrated its centennial, he was 
chosen to deliver the German and Eng- 
lish address in Association Hall, New 
York city. Since 1886 he has held the 
position as German Recording Secretary 
of the General Council, and since 1888, 
the Secretaryship in the German Board 
of Home Missions of the same body, 
having also editorial charge of the Siloah, 
the German mission paper. 

Pastor Nicum has published : Gleich- 



nisreden Jesu ( Reading, Pa., 1884 ) ; Laws 
of the State of New York, relating to 
churches, (Syracuse, N. Y., 1884); 
Reformations Album, (Reading, Pa., 
1885); Doctrinal Development New 
York Ministerium, Syracuse, N. Y., 
1889); Geschichte des New Yorker 
Ministeriums (Rochester N. Y., 1888); 
Missouri on Secret Societies and Con- 
gregational Rights in the General Coun- 
cil (Rochester, N. Y., 1890); Nothge- 
drungene Abwehr der neuesten mis- 
sourischen Angriffe auf das General 
Konzil (Rochester, N. Y., 1890); Die 
Lutheraner in Amerika, translated from 
the English of Dr. Wolf and enlarged 
by the subject of this sketch (New York, 
1891); Mensel's Kirchliches Hand- 
lexicon, published in Leipzig, Germany, 
also contains several articles from his 
pen. To Her old und Zeitschrift, a general 
Lutheran church paper, published at 
Allentowji, Pa., he has been a regular 
contributor for fifteen years. 




REV. E. NORELIUS. 



The Rev. E. Norelius was born in the 
parish of Hassela, Province of Helsing- 
land, Sweden, on the 26th of October, 
1833. His parents were farmers in 
middling good circumstances, and he 
was brought up on the farm till his con- 
firmation in his 15th year. Being pious 
people, his parents instilled in his mind 
from childhood a God-fearing disposi- 
tion, and he cannot remember a time 
when he did not pray and feel the ad- 
monition of the holy spirit. At the 
age of nine, during a great religious 
movement, he was taken by the so called 
"preaching-sickness" in common with 



many other children. Having fallen 
into a kind of swoon or unconscious 
state, they commenced to talk and exhort 
to repentance. This experience did not, 
however, have a wholesome effect upon 
his spiritual condition, for it led him 
into selfrighteousness. After some time 
he became more careless about his soul 
and religion; yet he felt all the time the 
upbraiding of conscience and the chas- 
tening of the holy spirit. After having 
been confirmed, he became most serious 
and earnestly sought abiding peace 
for his troubled soul. Through the 
reading of the Scriptures and Luther's 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



551 




^^^f^.7^£%^/ 



EEV. E. NOEELTUS. 



Exposition of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Galatians his mind was opened and by 
the illumination of the spirit, he could 
lay hold upon the great truth, "the 
just shall live by faith." From this 
time he could see everything in a new 
light and he entered into a new relation 
to God, to the world and to himself. 
From childhood he had a great thirst 
after knowledge, and no thought was 
dearer to him than to become a minister 
of the Gospel. But the opportunities 
for securing an education were not the 
best. The parents discouraged him 
from seeking auy further knowledge 
than was necessary for confirma- 
tion. The parish school at that time 
was not of much account and was some 
seven miles away from his home. He 
managed however to atterxd this school 
for a short time and soon acquired 
what was to be learned there. After this 
he borrowed an old Latin grammar from 
the minister of the parish and obtained 



some other school books and studied 
them diligently at home. By many im- 
portunities and tears the parents were 
finally prevailed upon to permit him to 
attend the elementary school at the city 
of Hudiksvall, some fifty miles from 
his home. It was in the same institu- 
tion where the sainted L. P. Esbjorn had 
commenced his studies. It was in Jan- 
uary, 1849, when he had entered upon 
his 16tli year, that he commenced his 
studies in this school and he spent parts 
of two years there. During the summer 
of 1850 he emigrated to America. The 
motives for such a step he can hardly 
explain. It was as if an invisible power 
laid hold upon him and compelled him 
to go. Spending eleven weeks on the 
ocean he landed in New York on the 
31st of October, and immediately set 
out for the then far west. The mode of 
traveling at that time, especially in the 
case of immigrants was not of the com- 
fortable kind. The immigrants, were 



552 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



treated more like cattle than men. Ar- 
riving at Chicago he met Eev. G. Uno- 
nius (a Swede) who had become an 
Episcopalian. From him he received 
the advice to go to an Episcopal Semi- 
nary at Nashota, Wis., in order to prose- 
cute his studies for the ministry. 

Young as he was he knew the difference 
between the Episcopalian and Swedish 
Lutheranism, and could therefore not 
entertain the well meant proposition. 
He was not personally acquainted with 
Pastor Esbjorn, but he knew that he had 
come to America the year before and 
that he had settled at Andover, Henry 
Co., 111. He now concluded to look him 
up, believing that he was the right person 
to give him the best advice. Conse- 
quently he set out from Chicago to 
hunt up Esbjorn, going by canal 100 
miles to La Salle, and footing the rest 
of the road for some 60 miles to Andover. 
Here he found Esbjorn living among 
his countrymen in a primitive way in 
great poverty and sickness. Esbjorn 
received him most kindly and gave him 
his best advice. The result of them 
was that he ought to go to "Capital 
University," Columbus, Ohio, where 
support had been offered to a poor 
Swedish student preparing for the minis- 
try in the Lutheran Church. Accepting 
this offer, Esbjorn set out with him in 
the spring of 1851 for Columbus, and 
placed him in the Institution as a student. 
For defraying the expenses of the 
journey from Illinois to Ohio, and for 
some clothing, Dr. Passavant had sent 
him through Esbjorn twenty-two dollars. 
Here he spent parts of five years. Dur- 
ing 1854-55 he studied theology under 
Eev. Prof. Wm. F. Lehman. His vaca- 
tions were spent in various ways; some- 
times he worked on a farm, sometimes 
he chopped cord wood; then again he 
sold books for Henry Ludvig, of New 
York, up along the Delaware river from 



Easton; at another time he taught 
school and preached at Chicago, and his 
last vacation he spent in Chisago Lake, 
Minn., preaching and teaching school. 
Having been recommended by the 
Scandinavian Conference of the Synod 
of Northern Illinois, to take charge of 
a Swedish Congregation in Tippecanoe 
Co., Ind., he was licensed, in 1855, by 
the president of said synod to preach the 
Gos})el and administer the sacraments. 
His field of labor was in and around the 
city of Lafayette. Here he spent one 
year. The charge consisted of five 
preaching places, which were quite far 
from each other. 

The people were newly arrived im- 
migrants who were not really settled. 
Land in that part of the county was 
already too high to be bought by poor 
people. Consequently, as there was no 
good prospect for a permament settle- 
ment, the people determined to look 
around for some other place where land 
could be had cheaper. Mr. Norelius, to- 
gether with another gentleman, were 
therefore employed as a committee to 
go to Minnesota and seek a suitable 
place for a settlement. Such a place was 
found in Goodhue Co., Minnesota, 
where a Swedish settlement had already 
been founded. During the fall of 1855, 
Mr. Norelius organized two congrega- 
tions in this county, one at Eed Wing 
and the other at Vasa. Eeceiving and 
accepting a call from these two congre- 
gations, he came to Minneapolis in 1856, 
a part of his people in Indiana moving 
with him. Those who remained con- 
centrated in and about Attica, where 
they afterwards were organized into a 
new congregation. In Minnesota Mr. 
Norelius had to suffer all the incon- 
veniences and trials of pioneer life. 
Many settlements were founded and he 
had to spend his time more as a travel- 
ing missionary than as a settled pastor. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



553 



At first he was the only Swedish Luth- 
eran pastor on the west side of the 
Mississippi in Minnesota, as Bev. P. A. 
Cederstam was the only one on the east 
side. In the fall of 1856 he was ordained 
at Dixon, 111., by the Ev. Luth. Synod of 
Northern Illinois. The most of the time 
of his ministry he has spent in Goodhue 
Co., Minn. The field which originally 
constituted his pastorate is now divided 
into fifteen congregations, served by 
nine pastors. 

In 1857 he commenced the publication 
of the Minnesota Posten at Bed Wing, 
the first Swedish newspaper in Minne- 
sota. At the end of the next year this 
paper was united with Hemlandet, pub- 
lished by Eev. Dr. T. N. Hasselquist, at 
Galesburg, 111., and both papers were 
removed to Chicago and given over into 
the hands of an organized Publication 
Society. At the same time Pastor 
Norelius was elected editor of the com- 
bined papers. His health having failed 
he was compelled to resign this position 
in the fall of 1859. He then took up 
his abode in Attica, Indiana, and had 
the temporary charge of the congrega- 
tion at that place, during which time a 
neat frame church was built and con- 
secrated. Recovering somewhat from 
his illness he accepted a call as travel- 
ing missionary in Minnesota and re- 
moved to St. Paul in the fall of 1860. 
Among many perils and self denials he 
now traveled quite extensively and 
visited every nook and corner where any 
Swedes had settled, preaching and ad- 
ministering the sacraments and organiz- 
ing congregations. During that time 
he passed through many a thrilling 
event, but space forbids to relate any of 
them. His salary amounted to about 
$4:00 a year, which was altogether too 
inadequate, as he had to pay all the 
traveling expenses out of this amount. 
In the fall of 1861 he accepted a call 
70 



from his old charge at Yasa and Red 
Wing and took up his residence at the 
latter place. 

From this time up to the present he 
has continued to labor in this region 
with the exception of some short inter- 
vals. In 1868 he relinquished the church 
at Red Wing which needed the whole 
time of a pastor and confined his labors 
chiefly to Yasa, but in 1878, his health 
having again failed, he resigned. He 
was however able to serve a small annex 
and some vacant churches in the neigh- 
borhood, when the weather was not too 
inclement. After having done some 
missionary work on the Pacific coast, 
and various other parts of the country, 
he served his old charge at Yasa again, 
temporarily, for two years, till a pastor 
was obtained. His health has been 
delicate during the greater part of his 
ministry. Caused by over-exertions, he 
had a severe attack of hemorrhage of 
the lungs as early as 1857, at the age of 
twenty-four, and this malady has very 
often returned, when he has over- worked 
himself. Besides his regular work in the 
ministry he founded an orphanage at 
Yasa in 1865 and conducted it himself 
for eleven years. In 1862 he com- 
menced a private school at Red Wing, 
which has grown up to be Gustavus 
Adolphus College at St. Peter, Minne- 
sota. In 1874 he was elected president 
of the Augustana Synod and served in 
that capacity for seven years. He has 
been the editor of several church jour- 
nals. Lately he was editor in chief of 
Augustana at Rock Island, the organ of 
the synod of the same name, until fail- 
ing health again compelled him to re- 
sign. He has published some small 
books, and is now engaged on a history 
of the Swedish Lutheran churches of 
America, the first volume of which has 
left the press. May God spare him to 
see the other volume finished ! 



554 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. EUGENE A. NOTZ. 



Prof. Eugene A. Notz, Professor and 
Inspector of the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary of the Synod of Wisconsin, 
located at Milwaukee, Wis., was born in 
Haberschlacht, Wurtemberg, Grermany, 
on the 7th of October, 1847. He re- 
ceived his classical education at Geis- 
slingen, Germany. He took his philo- 
logical and philosophical courses at the 
Seminary of Blaubeuren, Germany. On 
arriving in the United States, in 1870, 
he entered the Northwestern University 
at Watertown, Wis., graduating in 1877, 
in the meantime having taught one year 
in the University at Watertown. He 
was ordained to the ministry July 15, 
1877, at Menominie, Dunn Co., Wis., 
where he labored till the fall of 1878, 
having charge of four congregations. 
He was called in the fall of 1878 to his 



present position — that of Professor and 
Inspector at the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary in Milwaukee. His depart- 
ment is that of Symbolic Theology and 
Old Testament Exegesis. 

He was married in December, 1879, to 
Miss Dora Bading, daughter of Eev. 
John Bading, President of the W^iscon- 
sin Synod, and pastor of St. John's 
Lutheran church in Milwaukee. 

Prof. Notz is also assistant pastor at 
St. John's church. He has a library of 
about one thousand volumes of standard 
theological and philosophical works, a 
large percentage of which date from the 
period of the Reformation. He is a 
frequent contributor to the periodicals 
of the Lutheran Church, and has been 
very successful, both in the school room 
and pulpit. — History of Milwaukee, 




EEV. FEEDEEICK W. A. NOTZ, Ph.D. 



Frederick William Augustus Notz 
was born Feb. 2, 1841, near the city of 
Weinsberg, in Wurtemberg, Germany, 
as the son of the Eev. Theophil Notz, a 
minister of the Evangelical Lutheran 
church, and his wife, Wilhelmina Louisa. 
He received his early education in the 
common school and by private instruc- 
tion. In his tenth year he entered the 
Latin school at Leonberg, being then 
under the direction of a distinguished 
educator and classical scholar by the 
name of C. Holzer. When the latter 
was promoted to a Professorship at the 
Eoyal Gymnasium of Stuttgart, his de- 
voted pupil followed him and entered 
the same institution, in his twelfth year, 
1853, finding a friendly home and 
fatherly guidance in the family of his 



master. For two years he pursued his 
studies there and was twice awarded a 
prize, consisting of a silver medal, for 
proficiency. 

After a rigid examination in the sum- 
mer of 1855 he became a student of the 
so-called Seminary or Kloster-schule at 
the Abbey of Maulbronn, a higher 
Gymnasium maintained from church 
funds for the education of a limited 
number of youths who intend to take 
up the study of theology, after having 
completed their four years' course pre- 
scribed in classics and science. The 
Principal, or "Ephoras" as he is called, 
of the institution at that time was a man 
well known also among American class- 
ical scholars by his writings on Greek 
grammar, on Homer, his Commentary 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



555 



on the Gospel of St. John and others — 
Dr. Wm. Baeumlein. For four years 
the subject of this sketch was under the 
guidance of this and other teachers, 
some of whom are still living and oc- 
cupying a high rank among German 
educators. 

In his eighteenth year of age (1859), 
after having successfully passed the 
prescribed examination, he entered the 
University of Tubinger, where he de- 
voted a four years' course to the study 
of philosophy and theology. In 1863, 
having successfully passed the exami- 
nation for the entry of the ministry of 
the Lutheran church, he made up his 
mind to stay another year at the Uni- 
versity for the exclusive study of classi- 
cal philology and pedagogics. At the 
close of his University career the 
Philosophical Faculty conferred on him 
the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor 
of Philosophy upon his handing in a 
Latin treatise on the origin of the city 
of Rome, and the first era of Roman 
history. Two years before he had se- 
cured an academic prize by an essay 
written on the same subject. 

After leaving the University, in 1864, 
he entered upon the duties of a private 
tutor in the family of a Russian noble- 
man living at that time in the capital 
of his native country. But wishing to 
see more of the world he exchanged this 
position with a similar one in an Amer- 
ican family, with whom he came to 
America in 1866. After a two years' 
stay on American soil he made up his 
mind to make this his permanent home 



and to devote himself to the service of 
the church in which he had been born 
and reared. At the invitation of friends 
he came from Georgia, his first place of 
abode, to Pennsylvania, where he first 
temporarily filled a vacancy in the chair 
of the Professor of German Language 
and Literature at Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, Pa. He accepted a call to 
the same position at Muhlenberg Col- 
lege, Allentown, Pa., in 1869. Finally, 
in 1872, he followed a call to the Chair 
of Greek Language and Literature at 
Northwestern University, Watertown, 
Wis., which position he has held now 
for eighteen years. Besides Greek he 
teaches also Hebrew and, being himself 
a disciple of the fine arts, drawing and 
painting. For fifteen years he has been 
editor of the Lutherisehe Schulzeitung , a 
monthly published by the Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin. Here, 
two years ago, he opened the fight 
against the oppressive new school legis- 
lation which now stands foremost among 
political issues and demands most of his 
time and closest attention. For fifteen 
years he held also the position of In- 
spector and Housefather of the North- 
western University. Besides writing 
numerous essays and articles in the 
above named monthly and other peri- 
odicals he has published a translation 
of Dr. Conrad Dieterich's Institutiones 
Catecheticse, in the year 1876. 

In 1875 he was married to Miss Julia 
Schulz, of Watertown, Wis., and is now 
the father of five children, two sons and 
three daughters. 




556 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



REV. S. E. OCHSENFORD, A.M. 



Solomon Erb Ochsenford, son of 
Jesse and Mary Ochsenford, was born 
in Douglass Township, Montgomery 
county, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 
1855. His earlier educational advan- 
tages were limited, owing to the strait- 
ened circumstances of his parents ; hence 
the years of childhood and youth were 
spent in the country, near Falkner 
Swamp, one of the earliest German set- 
tlements in the state of Pennsylvania. 
The public schools afforded the advan- 
tage of acquiring the rudiments of an 
education. He received his preparatory 
training in Mount Pleasant Seminary, 
Boyertown, Pennsylvania, 1871-73; in 
the fall of the latter year he entered 
the Sophomore class in Muhlenberg 
college, Allentown, Pennsylvania, grad- 
uating in 1876. His theological train- 
ing ho received in the Lutheran Theo- 
logical Seminary at Philadelphia, 1876- 
79, under Drs. Krauth, Mann, C. F. 
and 0. W. Schaeffer, and Spaeth. On 
June 9, 1879, he was ordained to the 
office of the ministry in the Lutheran 
church, by the Evangelical Lutheran 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania and adja- 
cent states, the oldest Lutheran Synod 
in America. In September of the same 
year he became pastor of the Selins- 
grove parish, consisting of the first 
Evangelical Lutheran church, Selins- 
grove, and Zion's Lutheran church, 
Kratzerville. In 1888 he organized a 
congregation at Yerdilla, which he 
serves in connection with the other two. 
In 1884-5 a handsome church was 
erected in Selinsgrove, to take the place 
of the old log church erected in 1803-4. 
Although he has received a number of 
calls to other and more desirable par- 
ishes, yet he has preferred to remain 
with the people among whom he has 
spent his first years in the ministry. 



The subject of this sketch has always 
had a passion for study and early in life 
acquired the habit of studying with pen 
in hand; as a result of a habit of this 
kind, a number of literary efforts have 
been published. The following produc- 
tions of his pen have been published m 
book form: My First Book in Sunday- 
School and Home, Beading, Pennsyl- 
vania, 1883 (Second edition, 1889); The 
Lutheran Church in Selinsgrove, Selins- 
grove, Pennsylvania, 1884; The Passion 
Story, Philadelphia, 1889. Among his 
more important published articles may 
be mentioned, "History of our Telugu 
Mission from the beginning until 1884," 
in Foreign Mission, Philadelphia, 1884- 
5, "Lutheran Cliurch in America" Luth- 
eran Church Review, Philadelphia, 
1885; "Lutheran Doctrines", in Church 
Messenger, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 
1886-88: the article "Lutherans" for 
Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for the 
years 1884-89, with the understanding 
that he is to furnish the same article 
in the future; One Hundred Sketches 
of Lutheran Ministers and Laymen for 
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American 
Biography, published in 1886-89; "Luth- 
eran History", Lutheran Church Review, 
Philadelphia, 1888; "Salzburg and the 
Salzburg Lutherans," Lutheran Church 
Review, 1888; and numerous other 
articles in the various church periodi- 
cals, such as "The Lutheran", "Church 
Messenger", Lutheran Church Review", 
etc. He was statistical editor of Church 
Almanae, Philadelpia, 1883-4, 1889; 
editor of The Lutheran Church Annual, 
Philadelphia, since 1890. Since 1886 
he has been devoting much of his leis- 
ure time to the study of Lutheran his- 
tory and has in course of preparation 
an extended outline of the history of 
the Lutheran Church in America, and 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



557 



a history of the General Council, nearly 
completed. In the year 1889, he was 
elected editor of a book to be issued in 
the interest of Muhlenberg College, 
in 1892, the quarter-centennial of the 



establishment of the famed institution. 
On the 21st of October, 1890, Rev. 
Oclisenford was elected president of the 
Fifth Conference of the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania. 




KEY. MORPaS OFFICER, A.M. 



Rev. Morris Officer, A.M., was born 
in Holmes Co., O., July 21, 1823. His 
childhood and youth were marked with 
great energy of character, and after a 
deep religious experience he became a 
member of the Lutheran church in 1842. 
After that his mind was much occupied 
with the conviction that he ought to 
prepare for preaching the gospel of 
Christ. To do this he came to Witten- 
berg College in 1846. He was an indus- 
trious student, and Dr. Keller observing 
his singular aptness for business, em- 
ployed him in various ways to assist in 
the work connected with the founding 
of a college. His student life had con- 
nected with it many laborious and re- 
sponsible duties as agent, teacher and 
superintendent of building the college 
edifice. In these arduous duties he, 
probably, laid the foundation of the 
disease that in after years cut short his 
useful life. 

In the early part of his college life he 
became interested in foreign missions, 
and after much reflection and prayer, 
became convinced that it was his duty 
to devote his life to that work. He read 
and conversed much on the subject and 
reached the conclusion that the Lutheran 
church should establish a mission in 
Africa. But in the judgment of most 
of the prominent men of the church, the 
time had not yet come to undertake such 
a work. He then proposed to give his 
attention to other work, but found that 



the only work upon which he could fix 
any settled purpose was a mission to the 
heathen. He then arranged to be sent 
to Africa by the American Missionary 
Association in an engagement that 
would not hinder him from endeavoring 
to interest the Lutheran church in es- 
tablishing a mission there at some future 
time. And in December, 1852, he, in 
company with eight other missionaries, 
sailed for the Mendi Mission. He 
labored in connection with the Mission 
until May, 1854, when he left to return 
to America. 

During his stay in Africa he corres- 
ponded with leading men on the west 
coast, and visited Monrovia, in Liberia, 
and made a partial exploration of the 
St. Paul river. He became convinced 
that in the frontier settlements of 
Liberia would be the best location for a 
mission by American missionaries. 

As soon as he was at home he began 
to lay before the church his plans for a 
mission. And in June, 1855, the Miami 
Synod recommended to the General 
Synod the founding of the mission. The 
General Synod, which met a few days 
later in Dayton, O., appointed a com- 
mittee of five persons to superintend the 
preparatory work for such a mission. 
In December following they commis- 
sioned Mr. Officer to visit the churches 
and solicit aid. In this agency he 
traveled and labored with an activity 
and persistency that has never been 



558 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



surpassed by any Christian worker. The 
difficulties he met and the labor with 
which he overcame them, will always be 
a wonder to the student of history, and 
an inspiration to enterprising Christian 
workers. 

The General Synod, in May, 1859, re- 
solved that Mr. Officer, accompanied by 
an assistant, be sent to Liberia to select 
a site and begin a mission. In Febru- 
ary, 1860, he and Mr. Heigard, as assist- 
ant, set sail for Africa. They landed at 
Monrovia April 5, 1860. After most 
careful consideration of all the available 
and practicable localities, the site of the 
present mission at Muhlenberg, on the 
St. Paul's river, was chosen. The locality 
was remote from other settlements, and 
in contact with a vast interior popula- 
tion of heathen people. It was elevated, 
and on that account as healthful as any. 
It had a fertile soil and was easy of 
access, being near the river, at a point 
which, at times, can be reached by 
boats. Mr. Officer satisfied himself that 
the advantages were as good as could be 
obtained. He at once made application 
to the government for a grant of one 
hundred acres of land for the mission, 
and commenced the work of clearing 
the land and erecting the house, the 
material for which he had taken with 
him from this country. Additional 
buildings were immediately erected. He 
was constantly with the men employed 
about the work, and labored with his 
own hands. The rapidity with which 
the work was done, was the surprise of 
all the missionaries in Liberia. Scarcely 
was the mission opened when he had 
occasion to take into charge twenty boys 
and twenty girls, Congo children taken 
from a captured slaver. With these the 
work of teaching the heathen properly 
began. Leaving Mr. Heigard in charge 
he returned home, and reached Balti- 
more in April, 1861. He continued his 



agency of the African mission until the 
meeting of the General Synod in May, 
1862. In June following he accepted 
the financial agency of the Committee 
of Foreign Missions. In May, 1864, the 
General Synod instructed its Executive 
Committee of Home Missions to appoint 
a superintendent. Mr. Officer was at 
once thought of as the man for that 
work. He was urged to take it, and 
finally resigned his agency for Foreign 
Missions and entered upon the work for 
Home Missions in November, 1864. 

After his return from Africa he de- 
sired to be more settled and to be more 
at home with his family, but the dread- 
ed constant travel now began more than 
ever, and he had seven years more of 
life "on the wing." His activity in all 
the fields of labor which he occupied 
was truly wonderful. His remarkable 
capacity for organizing general work 
had a severe trial and a complete tri- 
umph in the Home Mission department. 
Prior to his superintendency only 
some of the churches co-operated with 
the General Synod's Society. He at 
once saw that great efficiency required 
concentration of the entire work in one 
Society, or Board. But the difficulties 
in the way of doing this were greater 
than at first supposed; and it required 
tact and persistency and long time to 
arrange into one whole, a work that had 
been carried on by many congregations 
and societies, acting independent of 
each other. 

No man was ever more profoundly 
impressed with the grand magnitude of 
the work of Home Missions in the 
Lutheran church of this country than 
was Mr. Officer. He saw it in its rela- 
tions to the future Christianity of the 
millions coming to this land, and sought 
in every way to awaken the Church to a 
full sense of her opportunities and the 
magnitude of her responsibilities. He 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



559 



sought to awaken a true missionary 
spirit in the entire membership, and to 
develop a comprehensive system of mis- 
sionary operations. Every one familiar 
with the history of the mission work in 
the General Synod, will readily recog- 
nize the importance of his labors in this 
department of church enterprise. To 
his mind, missionary work was the end 
to be obtained by all other church en- 



terprises; and the idea was correct. 
In June, 1871, Mr. Officer retired 
from the missionary work of the Luth- 
eran church. He was at the time in 
very feeble health. He removed, dur- 
ing the autumn of 1871, to Lindsay, 
Kas. He next removed to Topeka, Kas., 
where he died Nov. 1, 1874. — History 
Wittenberg College, 




KEY. PROF. SVEN OFTEDAL. 



One of the foremost educational in- 
structors of the city of Minneapolis, 
Minn., is Rev. Prof. Sven Oftedal, who 
was born in the noted seaport-town of 
Stavanger, on the western coast of 
Norway, in 1841. He attended the 
local college, in which his father has 
been a prominent instructor during his 
whole life, from which institution young 
Oftedal graduated in his eighteenth 
year. He next prosecuted his studies in 
the University of Norway at Christiania, 
where he was graduated, having taken a 
theological course. 

The laws of Norway require that 



individuals desiring to hold office shall 
have graduated from the University, and 
at the time of his graduation Prof. 
Oftedal had the choice of but four 
courses. Although at the time he had 
no idea of becoming a minister or en- 
gaging in evangelical work of any kind, 
the subsequent course of events would 
seem to indicate that a wise Providence 
led him to choose this from the other 
courses presented. 

From the course of his University 
career until he was thirty years, Prof. 
Oftedal spent his time in traveling over 
the continent and studying the moderu 



560 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



languages, mastering twenty or more, 
and also gaining a comprehensive knc wl- 
edge of European affairs. He studied 
in Paris for some time in company with 
Prof. Geo. Sverdrup, the result of this 
acquaintance being that Prof. Sverdrup 
followed him to America and joined 
him in his work in Augsburg Seminary, 
located at Minneapolis, Minn. 

Prof. Oftedal came to Minneapolis in 
1873, and Prof. Sverdrup in 1874. Their 
history since then is the history of 
Augsburg Seminary, as they have de- 
voted their entire time and exceptional 
abilities to the upbuilding of that insti- 
tution, their success, under the circum- 
stances surrounding the seminary, being 
remarkable. 

Augsburg Seminary was established 
in Minneapolis in 1871, and in 1872 the 
school board was incorporated under the 
corporate name of the Norwegian, Dan- 
ish, English, Lutheran, Augsburg Sem- 
inary. It was first under the charge of 
Prof. Wenous, but active growth did not 
commence until later when Professors 
Oftedal and Sverdrup took part in its 
management. Prof. Oftedal has been 
president of the Board of Trustees, and 
Prof. Sverdrup president of the sem- 
inary since 1876. The institution was 
badly in debt until 1877 when Prof. 
Oftedal inaugurated a system of com- 
mittees among the two hundred congre- 
gations then supporting the seminary^ 
and in less than four months he raised 
$18,000, so comprehensive and complete 
was the organization. At that time 
(1888) the Conference included Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa, Dakota and Minnesota, and the 
two hundred committees he appointed, 
consisting of ten to fifteen men, women 
and children, raised the money by per- 
sonal solicitation, about 30,000 members 



of the Conference subscribing, the aver- 
age thus being but little over fifty cents 
each. In a few instances it amounted 
to 1100, and in some to only five cents. 
One advantage gained was that the 
entire Conference came to have a per- 
sonal interest in, and a knowledge of the 
seminary, and there are those now 
attending who as boys subscribed their 
few dimes for its support. 

The seminary has since constantly 
prospered, and from 1876 has been 
filled to its utmost capacity. It has now 
(1888) 130 students, all of whom are 
earnest, energetic, self-supporting young 
men. The property, which includes a 
brick- veneered seminary building, dor- 
mitory, professor's residence, etc., be- 
sides the block upon which they stand, 
is valued at about 1150,000, and the in- 
stitution has an endowment fund of 
about 1175,000. The course of study 
includes five years of preparatory, and 
three years of theological. Professors 
Oftedal and Sverdrup, and, since 1890, 
also Dr. F. A. Schmidt and M. O. S. 
Bokman are the professors in theology. 

For eleven years Prof. Oftedal has 
been a member of the school board of 
the city of Minneapolis, which may be 
mentioned as an evidence of his popu- 
larity, and he can undoubtedly retain 
his position as long as he shall be will- 
ing to serve, as his policy is liberal and 
progressive. His work in and for Augs- 
burg seminary has been a noble one, 
requiring much self-sacrifice and de- 
votion to uninteresting and tiresome 
details. He is a gentleman of broad 
mind and scholarly attainments, and is 
held in high esteem by the large num- 
ber who know him, both in public and 
private life. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



5€1 



REV. J. F. OHL, A. M. 



Rev. J. F. Ohl, A. M., was born at 
Cherry ville, Northampton Co., Pa., on 
the 26th of June, 1850. At the age of 
sixteen, after having attended the pub- 
lic schools of his native place, and also 
learned the tinsmith's trade, he began 
his preparatory studies at Mercersburg 
College, Franklin Co., Pa. He entered 
the Freshman class at Muhlenberg col- 
lege, AUentown, Pennsylvania, in Jan- 
uary, 1868, graduating in June, 1871; 
studied theology in the Lutheran The- 
ological Seminary at Philadelphia, from 
which institution he graduated May 
27th, 1874; was ordained on the third of 
June following, at the meeting of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania in the city of Lancaster, 
and immediately entered upon the duties 
of his office at Quakertown, Pa., where 
he is still the pastor of a prosperous 
parish to which he ministers in English 
and German. 

Since 1876 Mr. Ohl has uninterrupt- 
edly served in the Board of Trustees of 
Muhlenberg College, and has been a 
special lecturer in said institution. He 
was secretary of the First Conference 
of his Synod, during 1884 and 1885; 
delegate to the General Council in 1886 
and 1889; is a member of the Council's 
Church Book committee; chairman of 
its committee on Sunday-school work, 



and editor of the musical department 
of The Helper. Mr. Ohl has devoted 
much time to the study of liturgies, 
hymnology, and church music, especial- 
ly the latter, and has contributed num- 
erous articles on these subjects to the 
Lutheran Church Review, The Lutheran, 
and other publications. Besides being 
chief editor of the General Council's 
infant school hymnal, the "Little Chil- 
drens Book", he has also edited the fol- 
lowing services: "The Christ-Child — A 
service of song for the festival of 
Christmas", 1879. Brobst, Diehl & Co., 
AUentown, Pa, "Christmas; A festival 
service for the Sunday-school" ("Hel- 
per" Christmas Service, No. 1), and 
the music to the Helper Christmas ser- 
vice." 1883. The Lutheran book store, 
Philadelphia: — "The Helper Christmas 
service No. 2" and "The music to the 
Helper Christmas service No. 2", 1884. 
The Lutheran book store, Philadel- 
phia; — "The Helper Christmas service 
No. 3," and "The music to the Helper 
Christmas service No 3", 1885. The 
Lutheran book store, Philadelphia: — • 
"The Helper Easter Service No. 1." 
and "The music to the Helper Easter 
service. No. 1," 1886. The Lutheren 
book store, Philadelphia: — "Easter Ves- 
pers for the Sunday-school", 1887. The 
Lutheran book store, Philadelphia. 




REV. SAMUEL A. ORT, S. T. D. 



Samuel Alfred Ort was born Novem- 
ber 11, 1843, at Lewistown, Mifflin Co., 
Pa. He was the younger of two brothers. 
His grand parents both came to this 
country from Germany and settled near 
71 



Lewistown, Pa., in the year 1780, where 
in 1804 Samuel Ort, the father of our 
subject, was born. He married a Ger- 
man lady who never learned to speak 
the English language. Both his father 



562 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




REV. S. A. ORT, S. T. D. 



and mother were very pions and devoted 
Christians. His father was one of the 
most active and energetic men in the 
church of which he was a member, and 
chief supporter. Samuel, the younger 
of the two boys, was at the time of his 
birth consecrated to the gospel of Jesus 
Christ by his pious Christian mother, 
who died when her son was about ten 
years old. Though his mother died at 
that early period in his life, she had 
already, by her Christian example and 
training, aided him in laying the founda- 
tion of a Christian character. While 
yet a small boy he was so familiar with 
the catechism as to be far in advance of 
those who were many years his seniors. 
At this time in his life a circumstance 
took place which might have proven a 
great detriment to him and forever 
changed the course of his life. Having 
attended a course of catechetical in- 
struction and become thoroughly familiar 
with the requirements necessary to be- 
come a Christian, when the time came 
for the older members of the class to be 



received into full membership with the 
church he was told by the pastor that 
he need not come any more. This was 
a sad blow to his young heart; the reason 
for this, that he was too young, was 
clearly evident to his mind; but why 
this should be so was a trying question 
to him, consequently he did not unite 
with the church until he was in his 
senior year at college. 

Though not having identified himself 
openly with the church until that time, 
his early impression of truth and piety 
was the underlying principle and motive 
of his whole life. Shortly after the 
death of his mother the active prepara- 
tion for the work to which he had been 
solemnly consecrated was begun. His 
father sent him from home to the 
Kishacoquillas Seminary, in the beauti- 
ful Kishacoquillas Yalley, about ten 
miles from Lewistown, where he began 
diligent preparation to enter college. 
Three years time was spent there chiefly 
in the study of the Greek and Latin 
languages. It was while there during 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



563 



those three years of early boyhood that 
he laid a solid foundation for his after 
life of hard study. When he left the 
seminary he had read Latin as far as 
the Sophomore and Greek as far as the 
Junior year. While at that institution 
he fell sick of scarlet fever in its most 
malignant form and barely escaped 
death. At the age of thirteen he came 
west and entered Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, O. It had been his inten- 
tion all the while he was at the' seminary 
to enter an eastern institution, but owing 
to the fact that his brother Melanchthon, 
who desired to take a college course, 
had previously been at Wittenberg and 
preferred attending school there, it was 
his father's^ desire that he should ac- 
company his brother and become a 
student at Wittenberg, an institution 
of the church to which his parents had 
been so devotedly attached during their 
lives from early youth, instead of enter- 
ing an eastern institution, for which he 
had especially prepared. 

Though far advanced in the languages 
he commenced in the preparatory de- 
partment and took a thorough course. 
During the former part of his course 
he did not push forward as rapidly as 
was possible, but waited for his brother, 
who was not so far advanced in the 
languages as he, that they might gradu- 
ate in the same class. During his 
entire college life he was a most thorough 
student and recognized as a young man 
of most extraordinary talents of mind. 

He was a member of the Philosophian 
literary society and one of its leading 
members. He was a close student of 
literature, and made society work a 
matter of special care and attention. In 
1863 he represented the society as orator 
at the anniversary meeting. He grad- 
uated in 1863, with the first honors of 
his class. While in his Sophomore 
year he was attacked with that awful 



disease small-pox, in its severest form. 
The school was at once dismissed. A 
small house was built on the west side 
of the college campus, which still remains 
standing, to which he was taken, where 
he remained until his recovery. The 
effects of the disease left him very 
noticeably marked, and it was only 
because of his strong constitution and 
good medical aid that he was enabled to 
survive the ravages of the disease. 

After graduation he spent two years 
in studying theology at Wittenberg. 
Part of the time while taking his the- 
ological course in the seminary he was 
tutor in the preparatory department of 
the college. In 1865 he received a call 
from the Lutheran church at Findlay, 
O., which was accepted. He remained 
there as pastor until 1868, when he 
received an invitation to teach Latin and 
literature in Hagerstown female semin- 
ary; having remained there but one year, 
in 1869 he came back to Wittenberg col- 
lege as tutor. The following year he 
was elected assistant professor of mathe- 
matics and taught rhetoric, English liter- 
ature and logic; at this time the chair 
of Belles-lettres and English literature 
was offered him, which he did not accept. 
Afterwards he was elected professor of 
mathematics and continued to fill the 
chair of Belles-lettres, English literature 
and logic, also hearing some recitations 
in sacred philology. 

In the fail of 1874 a call was extended 
him from Louisville Mission, at Louis- 
ville, Kentucky. This he accepted and 
again severed his connection with the 
college, very much against the wishes 
of his friends, and entered upon the 
work there November 1st, 1874. This 
mission was at that time under the faith- 
ful care and labors of Rev. J. M. 
Ruthrauff. Immediately after entering 
upon his work there, the work of erect- 
ing a church building was begun, which 



564 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



was completed the next fall. From a 
small beginning the congregation stead- 
ily grew, until four years after the com- 
mencement of his ministry there the 
membership had increased from twenty- 
five to 350, and the Sunday-school had 
grown from forty to between 500 and 
600, then being much the largest in 
Louisville, which position it has held 
ever since. It was while there, in 1875, 
that he was married to Miss Anna 
Sen ten y, a lady of that place. They 
have a family of seven children, six of 
whom, two boys and four girls, are living. 
In the winter of 1879 he was called and 
went to St. James church, New York 
City, beginning work in the new field 
in April of the same year. The effect 
of his labors there soon began to be felt, 
and the hopes and prospects of that 
charge brightened. 

In the summer of 1880 he was elected 
to the chair of Sacred Philology in 
Wittenberg college. After much hssita- 
tion to leave a promising work and wide 
field of usefulness there in the active 
ministry, he decided to respond to the 
call of his Alma Mater once more, and 
accepted the position tendered him, 
entering upon the performance of his 
duties as professor of theology in 
October of the same year. 

In the spring of 1882 the President's 
chair of the college was made vacant by 
the resignation of Dr. Helwig, and Dr. 
Ort was elected to fill that position. 
Shortly after this the work of recanvass- 
ing the city of Springfield for funds to 
erect a new college building was begun. 
In this work Dr. Ort took a most active 
part besides his regular duties as Presi- 
dent and teacher in the college. After 
$50,000 had been secured in subscription 
he called a special meeting of the Board 
of Directors for the purpose of deciding 
the question of active operation in the 
work of erecting a new college building. 



At this meeting it was decided to begin 
the work at once. Because of the hard 
time that had just set in it became very 
difiicult to secure subscriptions, but the 
work was pushed vigorously forward 
from time to time until the necessary 
amount, 167,000, was raised. 

The building was completed and ded- 
icated, June 16, 1886. The new college, 
the finest in the state, and a great honor 
and benefit to the Lutheran church, 
stands a monument to his untiring per- 
severance and labor. Besides the bur- 
densome duties of the presidency of the 
college, he has since 1882 filled one 
chair in the college department and one 
in the theological department. In 1884 
he was elected professor of Systematic 
Theology, and since that time has been 
performing what is in the leading col- 
leges of the state and country, the work 
of three men, for which he only re- 
ceived the salary of one. When he ac- 
cepted the high and responsible position 
which he now occupies, he took upon 
himself a great care, the weight of 
which few are familiar with; but, like 
every other undertaking he has ever 
laid his hands upon, the work of carry- 
ing Wittenberg College forward has 
been marked with rapid development 
and remarkable success. The beginning 
and close of every term gives unmistak- 
able evidence that the institution is 
steadily advancing, by its methods of 
instruction and modes of government, 
higher and higher in the scale of per- 
fection and honor. 

Dr. Ort occupied the position of Sec- 
retary of the General Synod from 1873 
to 1879. He also preached the sermon 
at the opening of the General Synod at 
Baltimore, in 1875, and at Wooster in 
1879, and was elected president of that 
body, at Omaha, Neb., June 2d, 1887. 
From 1881 to 1885 he was editor in 
chief of the Lutheran Evangelist, pub- 



^T{r/A^^, 




Kev. J. Olsen. 

Page 565. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



565 



lished in Springfield, O. He delivered 
the second lecture in the "Holman" 
lecture course before the theological 
students at Gettysburg College, Pennsyl- 
vania, June, 1887, on the first article on 
the Augsburg Confession, concerniug 
God. 

The following is a list of his princi- 
pal productions: "Doctrine of the Ees- 
urreclion." "Criticism on Theistic Argu- 
ment." "Three articles on the Minis- 
terium," published in the Lutheran Quar- 
terly Review. An address on "The True 
Idea of Brotherhood," (printed in 
pamphlet in 1867. ) "Jesus and the Scien- 
tist," published in the Homiletic Review, 
1879. "Christ the Climax of Human- 
ity," (pamphlet 1890.) "The Pre-emi- 
nence of the Spiritual," 1884. "Christ 
the Completeness of Man," 1886. A 
lecture on "Ideas," one on "Gustavus 
Adolphus," and one on "Martin Luther." 

As a teacher in the class room, be- 



cause of his faculty in thought and ex- 
pression and great breadth and depth of 
mind, he is recognized by every one as 
thorough and clear By his explanations 
those questions which seem to the mind 
of the student to be surrounded by a 
mysterious darkness, divest themselves 
of their coverings and stand forth in 
the full clear light of the understanding 
and reason. As a preacher and man of 
eloquence in the pulpit, Dr. Ort's ability 
is widely known to be that of the high- 
est type. 

As a scholar and thinker he is thor- 
ough, and because of his strong origi- 
nality in thought and ability to grasp 
and handle with ease and perfect clear- 
ness the most intricate and subtle scien- 
tific and philosophical questions he is 
regarded as one of the most profound 
scholars and philosophical thinkers of 
the present time. — Hist. Witt. College. 



;r^ 



EEV. JOHAN OLSEN. 



Eev. Johan Olsen was born July 3, 1834, 
in the parish of Bindalen, Helgelad, Nor- 
way. His parents were Ole Johan and 
Anne Jacobsen. Johan was the only 
child of this marriage. Later, when 
the boy was six years old. they moved to 
the neighboring district Vig, where they 
secured a small farm. They were poor, 
but pious people; they had, like many 
others, come under the influence of the 
so-called Hans Nilsen Hauge's religious 
movement. The boy was not very old 
ere he was sent out to herd cattle, a task 
usually allotted to boys in ISTorway. He 
then, from some eminence, preached his 
first sermons in a child-like way, with 
cows and sheep as his only listeners. 
He very early evinced a taste for books, 



and an equal dislike for manual labor of 
any kind. When about fourteen years 
of age he was confirmed by Provost P. 
Marstrander, and the year following he 
taught the parochial school (which, in 
Norway, is not exclusively religious) in 
the parish. It is evident that the young 
boy must have been well gifted to be 
able to do this work on poor schooling 
and the small opportunities he had en- 
joyed, although it must be admitted 
that the requirements were not very 
great. As he wished to fit himself bet- 
ter for the work of teaching, he entered 
the teachers' seminary at Tromos when 
eighteen years of age. He remained 
there until 1854, when he graduated 
with honors. Immediately afterwards 



566 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



he became foresinger and teacher of the 
parochial school at his home, where he 
had taught before. After having acted 
three years in this capacity, to the satis- 
faction of pastor and people, he was 
promoted to the principalship of a high 
school in Kaafjorden, Finland (Fin- 
marken), where he remained two years. 
It was very fortunate for the young man 
that he obtained this position, for here 
his whole future career, so to speak, was 
to be determined. Provost Wettesen, 
the pastor of this place, soon became 
aware of the extraordinary gifts of the 
young teacher. Wettesen and a friend 
of his, then studying in Christiania, en- 
couraged him to attend higher schools 
in the capital in order that he might 
enter the university there. 

He thirsted after knowledge, but how 
could that thirst be satisfied? He had 
no money, nay, was even in debt. The 
study of theology was his chief desire, 
but there were great diflSculties in the 
way. "Where there is a will there is a 
way," he thought; a desperate ejffort 
needed to be put forth. He resolved to 
do his best and not to give up before he 
had reached the goal. He went to 
Christiania in the summer of 1859, to- 
gether with his wife, whom he married 
Aug. 15, 1858. Here hard realities 
stared him in the face; work, nothing 
but work. Teaching was resorted to in 
order that he might make a living for 
himself and his family, and, besides, his 
studies must not be neglected. It was 
indeed trying; at times not knowing 
where the next meal was to come from. 
Yet the young man continued studying, 
until in August, 1863, he passed examen 
artium, or Bachelor of Arts. The re- 
quirements for examination were, how- 
ever, far greater than here. Now the 
heaviest burden was cast off, and in 
1864 he passed, without any difficulty, 
examen philosophicum. The two ensuing 



years he studied theology at the univers- 
ity and also passed examinations in 
Hebrew. His health was now nearly 
broken down from overstudy and the 
hard work of supporting a family, which 
by this time numbered three children. 
In 1886 he received a call from America 
to become a teacher in the college of 
the Swedish Augustana Synod at Pax- 
ton, 111. The place offered him, and 
which he accepted, was that of teaching 
Hebrew and other branches. A great 
misfortune met the emigrating family 
on their way across the Atlantic, Asiatic 
cholera taking away the two younger 
children. While he was teaching in the 
college he also received private instruc- 
tion in practical theology from Prof. 
Hasselquist, D.D,, the President of the 
school and of the Synod. In June, 
1867, he was ordained by him and re- 
ceived his first charge: at Neenah, Wis. 
Although he had many difficulties to 
contend with, many have spoken of his 
patience and kindness. Soon he moved 
with his family to Ft. Howard, because 
this place was more convenient as a 
residence. In this part of Wisconsin 
he established many congregations, 
which by this time have been served by 
several ministers. 

During his stay here (August, 1870,) 
the Conference of Norwegian Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran Church of America was 
organized, Rev. C. L. Clausen, of St. 
Ansgar, la., being its first president, 
and Rev. J. Olsen its vice-president. 
On account of the continued illness of 
the president the work naturally de- 
volved on the vice-president, J. Olsen, 
who two years later was elected presi- 
dent of the Conference, which office he 
held nine years in succession. That he 
was an able chairman is proven by the 
fact that he was re-elected so many 
times, and very often unanimously. 
Besides, during his terms of presidency 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



567 



the Conference was shaken with sec- 
tional strifes. The president sided with 
the conservative party, yet he did not 
go to any extreme; justice was done to 
both sides. 

During his presidency of the Confer- 
ence, and of late years, he took a lead- 
ing and active part in the work of 
uniting the different church bodies into 
one consolidated body. The object 
sought for was reached in June, 1890, 
the United Church of America. Be- 
sides holding a position which gave 
him great opportunities for promoting 
this cause, he had just the qualifications 
requisite: mildness, moderateness, and 
a Christian-like spirit. He was deeply 
interested in the cause, spending time 
and money for its sake. Had it not 
been for his sake the Conference would 
not have taken part in the joint meet- 
ing in Decorah, la., in 1871. He was 
one of the parties bringing about — in 
spite of opposition and ill-will — the 
joint meeting at St. Ansgar, la., in 1881, 
which was of such great consequence. 
We may now exult that the union is 
consummated, notwithstanding all the 
prejudice and party-spirit of the past, 
but we must not forget that the good 
was not reached without prayers and 
hard work, above all, not without the 
grace of God. At the annual meeting 
of the United Church Rev. J. Olsen was 
elected visitor of his district of minis- 
ters and congregations. He is also 
vice-president and trustee of St. Olaf's 
College, Northfield, Minn., which school 
belongs to the United Church. 

Rev. J. Olsen's name has become 
widely known as a very able preacher. 
It is evident that he must have been 
one of the foremost pastors in the Con- 
ference to get the place at St. Ansgar, 
la., one of the best charges in the 



United Church to-day. He moved to 
St. Ansgar in January, 1873. Here he 
has lived for eighteen years, and is loved 
by his parishioners and others, as is 
evidenced by many acts of kindness. 
Great changes have been wrought 
through his instrumentality: St. Ans- 
gar 's Academy being built in 1878 (now 
bearing the name St. Ansgar's Seminary 
and Institute) near his home, the con- 
gregations having increased and are 
now in a flourishing condition. The 
chief characteristic of his preaching is 
originality, yet he strictly adheres to 
the text. His listeners get a clear in- 
sight into the portion of scripture under 
consideration from the point of view 
which he gives them. His discourse is 
to the point, logical and clear, per- 
meated with the pure, unadulterated 
gospel. His delivery is very powerful. 
An earnest appeal is made to the soul 
so forcibly that the hearer must heed it. 
Gospel- truth, with a powerful agency, 
is driven home with all earnestness to 
the hearts. This mode of preaching 
wears, — unlike the sentimental preach- 
ing of the day, which soon becomes 



wearisome. 



He has a very pleasant home in the 
vicinity of St. Ansgar, where a happy 
family has lived for years. The oldest 
son living is in Neenah, Wis., where he 
has resided as minister four years. A 
younger boy attends the State Uni- 
versity at Minneapolis, Minn. The 
oldest daughter living has graduated 
from the Musical Conservatory of Min- 
neapolis, and is now teaching music at 
home. A younger daughter will gradu- 
ate next year from the Normal School 
at Oshkosh, Wis. There are now six 
children living — fiva are dead. — Rev. 
Sigurd Olsen. 



568 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REV. PROF. O. OLSSON. 



No man, with one or two exceptions, 
is better known among the Swedish 
Americans than is Professor O. Olsson, 
and no man is more loved and esteemed 
among the Swedes in America, be they 
Lutherans or not, than is he. 

Professor Olsson was born in the 
province of Yermland, Sweden, March 
31, 1841. Seventeen years of age he 
entered Fjelsteds College, Upsala, Swe- 
den. There he soon showed himself to 
be one of the most diligent and gifted 
of the students. After less than five 
years of study he was ordained to the 
ministry of the gospel before Christmas, 
1863. 

During the six following years he 
served as vicarious in the diocese of 
Karlstad. In this diocese he spent 
some of the most happy days of his life. 



But the land beyond the waters in the 
far off West, soon began to rise before 
his vision too, as before many others of 
his countrymen. Soon he entertained 
the thoughts of, together with a number 
of his congregation who dearly loved 
him, emigrating to America, where they 
would establish a church of only true 
Christians. In 1869 the plan was real- 
ized and Professor Olsson, together with 
a great company, left their fatherland 
for America. 

Coming to this country they did not 
settle down until they reached the beauti- 
ful, but then yet wild, Smoky Hill 
Valley, in McPherson county, Kansas. 
if any colony had romantic claims s\irely 
this had. Here Professor Olsson was 
for his friends what William Penn was 
for his colony in the colonial days of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



569 



America. He was loved by all, and his 
heart was full of joy and thanksgiving 
to his heavenly Father. 

During those years he served one or 
t >vO sessions in the legislature of Kansas 
and showed himself there to be an 
excellent advocate of republican princi- 
ples and an active representation for 
his people. 

In 1871 he, together with his congre- 
gation, joined the Swedish Lutheran 
August ana Synod. Soon after, a strife 
started in many congregations of said 
Synod concerning the redemiDtion 
through Christ. In Professor Olsson's 
congregation, too, there were a number 
that were captured by the new doctrines. 
His grief for his friends was great, but 
he hesitated not a moment to tell them, 
in pulpit and by pen, the invincible 
truths of the true Gospel of Christ, 
which were more to him than even his 
best friends. 

His faithfulness to his church and his 
great ability in defending its doctrines 
made him well known in the Synod he 
had joined, and in 1877 he was called 
to Augustana College, Rock Island, 111., 
as professor in theology. 

At this, the most prominent college 
among the Swedes in America, he soon 
proved himself an able man in his place, 
and this, together with his humble dis- 
position and his loving kindness, made 
his students his admirers. 

Augustana college at that time was 
burdened with heavy debt. In the efforts 
afterwards started to pay off those debts 
Professor Olsson was the head and 
hand. His plans proved the best, and 
his success in getting liberal subscrip- 
tions for the college was unexceptional. 

At this college he stayed till 1888, 
then compelled to resign for his failing 
health. The previous year his dearly 
beloved wife, whom he married in 1864, 
suddenly died. This was too much for 
72 



his tender, loving heart. His home was 
not home any more. She who had been 
his companion from his boyhood was 
gone to rest. So great was his grief 
that he sometimes had to leave his work. 

That the students were sorry for los- 
ing this, their beloved teacher, we need 
not say. Expressions like the following 
from his former students, we often have 
heard, "We can never get a man in his 
place and be for us what he has been," 
"The truths he taught us we shall never 
forget." "He not only spoke as a Chris- 
tian, but lived as one." "He was before 
us the personification of sympathy and 
love, but at the same time he hesitated 
not a moment to speak the truths as re- 
vealed by the Word of God." 

Professor Olsson is a talented writer. 
His style is interesting, lively and 
original. Ever since his early days in 
the west, his pen has been more or less 
active in contributing for the press or 
writing books. Soon after the death of 
his wife, he wrote a book entitled "Det 
Kristna Hoppet" (The Christian Hope). 
In this book his tender feelings and great 
grief, but at the same time the consol- 
ing faith he has in God, is masterly put 
forth. Probably not a book in the 
Lutheran language, except the Bible, 
can so console a grief stricken heart as 
the soothing contents of that book. 

After having traveled around in the 
west, during the first part of 1889, he 
with his four children started for Ger- 
many, where he stayed for over a year. 
During his stay abroad he visited sev- 
eral historical and renowned places in 
southern parts of Europe, and among 
others, Rome. 

During his stay in Europe he received 
calls from several congregations of 
Augustana Synod to be pastor. Finally 
he accepted the call from a congregation 
of said Synod in Woodhull, 111. 

Since his return last summer till last 



570 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



fall he has been busily writiog a book 
on his travels in Europe entitled "Till 
Rom och Hem igen" ( To Rome and back 
Home). This book is without doubt 
the best of Professor Olsson's literary 
works. The work is illustrated and 
elegant, full of historical facts, observa- 
tions very interesting, and reflections 
sterling and practical, thus making it 
easy to read and instructive to all. 

Professor Olsson is a successful pulpit 
orator. His voice is strong, his deliv- 
ery winning, and his imagination pro- 
ductive of striking figures. His great 
theme is: "We the sinners, Christ our 
Redeemer." 

What more than his great natural 
abilities has, probably, made him a 
great man among his countrymen is 
his great sympathy for his fellow-beings, 
and his pure honesty. Not seldom, 
when he yet was a young man, say those 
that knew him then, was his benevolence 
so great that he at times was near of 



suffering thereof himself. It is his 
pleasure to give to all in need whenever 
he cau, and sorry he is if he cannot 
help such that ask his help. 

Professor Olsson with his remaining 
family is now living at Woodhull, 111., 
where he hopes he may stay and devote 
the remaining part of his life in preach- 
ing the gospel and in Christian literary 
work. 

In 1873 he edited a religious news- 
paper called Nyt och Gammelt, at Linds- 
borg, Kansas, and Luther Kalender, an 
annual, (Rock Island, 111., 1883). 
Besides the excellent book referred to 
above. The Christian Hope, he has also 
written and published "At the Cross," 
(Rock Island, 111.,) which has been re- 
printed in Sweden; and " Greetings from 
Afar; being Recollections of travel in Eng- 
land and Germany" ( 1880, also translated 
into Norwegian and published in 
Norway.) 




REV. JACOB AALL OTTESEN. 



Rev. Jacob Aall Ottesen was born in 
Norway, June 1, 1825, in the country par- 
sonage of Fedt, where his father and 
grandfather had resided as clergymen 
for fifty years. The family, which is 
among the oldest and best known in 
Norway, is noted for its many clerical 



members. Among the near relatives of 
the subject of this sketch there are, or 
have been forty clergymen. 

Having completed the usual course of 
theological studies at the University of 
Christiania, Jacob Aall graduated with 
honors in 1849. The succeeding three 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



571 



years he spent as teacher at the Nissen 
Latin School and at the Heltberg Pre- 
paratory Institute for the University. 

But Norway was not to be the field of 
his usefulness. About this time the 
first tide of emigration to the United 
States had set in, and in 1852, some of 
his countrymen, who had settled in and 
about Manitowoc, Wis., sent him a call 
to become their pastor, which he ac- 
cepted. After receiving ordination to 
the ministry at the hands of Bishop 
Arup, he took passage for America in a 
sailing vessel with his young wife, Cath- 
erine Doderlein, a daughter of head- 
master' Doderlein, of the Ohristiania 
Cathedral school. A few weeks' journey 
brought them to New York City. At 
the request of Ole Bull, who had just 
founded his short-lived colony of Nor- 
wegians — Oleano — in Pennsylvania, 
Kev. Ottesen went there and preached 
to his countrymen before setting out 
for Manitowoc. 

But it was in the latter place that his 
life-work was commenced. The charge 
was made up of three organized con- 
gregations in and about Manitowoc, and 
eight or ten missionary stations stretch- 
ing all the way from Green Bay to Mil- 
waukee. This was doing pioneer work 
of the most trying kind, requiring, in 
the face of the many privations, not 
only an ardent love to do the Master's 
work, but also great physical endurance. 
Like the circuit rider of other denomi- 
nations his time was spent in unceasing 
travel, mainly on horseback. From 
thirty to fifty miles a day would be cov- 
ered in this manner, sometimes along 
the shores of Lake Michigan, then 
through the silent, trackless primeval 
forests, often in the cold of winter. 

Here he contracted a chronic rheu- 
matism which has ever after reminded 
him of those first days of toil and travel 
in his endeavor to bring the gospel of 
Christ to his countrymen. 



But his work was soon to have a 
wider horizon than was dreamed of, 
perhaps. In February, 1858, he was 
found in that heroic little band of Nor- 
wegian missionaries which met at Kosh- 
konong, Wis., to consult about the future 
and welfare of their congregations, and 
it was there that the Synod for Norwe- 
gian Lutheran Church of America was 
founded, then as now the representative 
body of the Norwegian Lutherans in this 
country. For a number of years Bev. 
Ottesen served the Synod as its secretary. 
Not long after the organization of the 
Synod he was sent on a most important 
mission on behalf of that body. In 1857 
he, together with the Rev. N. Brandt, 
was appointed a delegate of the Synod 
to visit the Lutheran theological semin- 
aries at St. Louis, Mo., Columbus, Ohio, 
and Buffalo, New York, with the view 
of finding a suitable institution for 
the education of young men among the 
Norwegians to the ministry. The semi- 
nary at St. Louis, was chosen, and a 
professorship supported by the Norwe- 
gian Synod created there. Thus were 
formed the bonds of close fellowship 
which have ever after existed between 
the Norwegian Synod and that of the 
German Missouri Synod. Rev. Ottesen 
remained in Manitowoc until 1860 when 
he accepted a call to the congregations 
in Koshkonong, Dane Co., Wis., where 
he has ever afterward resided. In 
addition to his pastoral duties he now, 
together with the Rev. H. A. Preus, 
assumed the editorship of Evangelisk 
Luthersk Maanedstidende a religious 
monthly devoted to the interests of the 
Norwegian Synod. This he continued 
for seven years when the editorial 
department was transferred to the 
faculty of Luther College, Decorah, 
Iowa. The Synod was, however, soon 
to call upon him to assume new duties. 
When the Luther Seminary at Madison, 



572 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



Wis., was erected, Rev. Ottesen was 
called to become its president and take 
a professorship, but declined. Again, 
in the same year, when the Synod was 
divided into districts, he was elected 
president of the eastern district but 
could not be persuaded to accept. 
Later he served as a member of the 
board of visitors for his district for a 
number of years. 

Although having borne for more than 
a generation the burden of unremitting 
labor and physical infirmity. Rev. 
Ottesen still continues to discharge his 
duties as pastor to his large congrega- 
tions, besides rendering active service 
to the church body, which he helped to 
found in the days of his youth. With 
his classical training, keen reasoning 
powers, ability as writer and counselor, 
and above all, his ardent devotion to 
the truths embodied in the confession 
of the Lutheran church, he stands, 
and always has stood, a representative 
man among his brethren, honored and 
revered as one of the fathers of the 
Norwegian Lutheran Church of America. 

Though the life and work of Rev. 
Ottesen have not attracted the attention 
of the world, having been carried out 



in that obscurity which necessarily 
surrounds one, no matter how gifted, 
who gives himself up to the welfare of 
any small community of a foreign 
tongue in this country, it has none the 
less been one of a heroism and self- 
denial which deserves a wide mention. 
To men who like he have made it the one 
aim and purpose of life to carry the truths 
of eternity to their fellow beings, our 
country owes its noblest achievements 
of true progress and civilization, and 
their countrymen a lasting debt of 
gratitude. 

Rev. Ottesen's happy family life, where 
his charm of personality and originality 
and his quick wit have delighted so 
many, has been saddened through the 
death of four of the six children born 
him. Three died in their infancy, and 
one daughter, Didrikke, as the wife of 
H. G. Stub, professor of theology at 
Luther Seminary, whom she left two 
sons. Only two of his children are 
living, one son. Otto Christian, now a 
clergyman at Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and 
one daughter, Hanna Cathinka . A dearly 
beloved adopted son, Olof Mandt, died 
after a short but promising life as a 
minister in Baltimore, Md. — J K. 




REV. F. Y. N. PAINTER, A.M. 



Stroll up the shady walk beneath the 
graceful trees of the college campus at 
Salem, Yirginia, and you may meet a 
youthful-looking man, slight of build 
and rather below the medium height, 
who will greet you with a pleasing 
smile and friendly salutation. His hair 
and beard are light, to match the clear 
Saxon eyes that beam through the gold- 
rimmed spectacles with kindly greeting, 
though at times they can strike down 



through your own and make you feel 
that they almost read your thoughts. 
His face is refined, thoughtful, and full 
of expression; his dress is plainly neat; 
his manner courteous and affable. 
There is something about the man that 
suggests the student, and if you guess 
well enough to ask a passing student 
which one of the professors that is, 
he will say, "That is Professor Painter, 
who fills the chair of Modern Languages 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



573 




EEV. F. V. N. PAINTER, A.M. 



and Literature in Roanoke College." 
He has established his claim to liter- 
ary recognition chiefly through his 
"History of Education," published by 
the Appletons, and a recent work known 
as "Luther on Education." 

Born April 12, 1852, in Hampshire 
county, Virginia, in ancestry he was 
peculiarly fortunate. A union of the 
industry, integrity, and sound judgment 
for which his paternal German fore- 
fathers were, noted, with the delicacy of 
feeling and keenness of intellectual pene- 
tration that distinguished his mother's 
family, the Wilsons, such a union was 
most favorable for the production of a 
firm, well-rounded character. To these 
hereditary advantages, full scope for 
development was given by natural 
environments. The inspiring mountain 
scenery of his boyhood's home in Pres- 
ton county. West Virginia, fostered in 
the molding character a spirit of freedom 
and of independence; whilst the earnest 
Christian piety of the early home lent 
strength, in after years, to resist the 
manifold temptations of young manhood. 



A natural love for literature brought 
intense satisfaction in the eager perusal 
of whatever books could be found — 
works of fiction, history, travel, phil- 
osophy and theology. 

After having attended the schools of 
his native village, where he always held 
first rank, the young man was at various 
times salesman in stores, and at inter- 
vals devoted about three years to the 
glove-making business in his father's 
factory. But the old love for letters 
caused a refusal of advantageous busi- 
ness offers, and in the fall of 1870 we 
find him matriculated at Roanoke 
College. In his studies, methodical 
and earnest labor brought its rewards, 
for during the last six months of the 
freshman year an average monthly 
grade of one hundred clearly foreshad- 
owed the first honor of his class — which 
was bestowed upon graduation in 1874, 
together with the gold medal awarded 
for proficiency in metaphysical studies. 

The same year he returned to his 
home in Aurora, West Virginia, and by 
the aid of an appropriation from the 



574 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Peabody fund, established a graded 
school, introducing methods recommend- 
ed by the best educational authorities. 
The school was popular from the start, 
and attracted a large patronage from a 
distance; its success is still a pleasant 
tradition in the community. In 1875, 
having declined the nomination for the 
office of county superintendent of 
schools, he returned to Salem and 
entered the Lutheran theological semin- 
ary, graduating after a three years' 
course. During the last year at the 
seminary he served as pastor in an 
adjoining county, by an agreement 
requiring two days of the week to be 
spent in the saddle. Notwithstanding 
the unfavorable circumstances, his 
church grew in numbers and spirituality. 

Having accepted a call in the fall of 
1878 to serve his Alma Mater as principal 
of the Boy's School and instructor in 
Modern Languages, he assiduously de- 
voted the next several years to educa- 
tional study, — enlarging his attainments 
especially in French and German, 
chiefly by a perusal of their classic lit- 
erature. The College granted a leave 
of absence during the summer months, 
and this opportunity was improved by 
securing the tutorship of native French 
and German teachers in New York City 
and Amherst, Mass., succeeded by some 
months of study at Paris and at Bonn. 
The immediate literary results of this 
foreign trip were a pamphlet consisting 
of a series of letters that gave his obser- 
vations while abroad; and a sketch of 
the Lutheran Church in France, pub- 
lished in the Lutheran Quarterly. 

Upon returning to his college in the 
fall of 1882, he was made Professor of 
Modern Languages, and has since given 
much time and energy to the develop- 
ment of his department, which is now 
one of the most efficient in the South. 
Its chief advantages are an exten- 



sive field of study and exceptional 
thoroughness. 

It was during his college course that 
Professor Painter became convinced of 
an unfortunate gap existing between the 
wants of j)ractical life and the arrange- 
ment of the average curriculum — a con- 
viction firmly established by subsequent 
study and experience. In 1883, a few 
weeks before the famous address of 
Charles Francis Adams at Harvard, he 
published a pamphlet entitled "The 
Modern versus the Ancient Lan- 
guages," in which he contended that 
greater prominence should be given 
French and German in our colleges. 
The discussion of the language question 
became general in circles of higher edu- 
cation, and in this discussion Professor 
Painter took a prominent part. In 1884 
he read before the Modern Language 
Association in New York, a paper advo- 
cating a "modern classical course" in 
American colleges, to be co-ordinate 
with the ancient classical course. The 
association formally approved the plan; 
which, although at the time regarded 
by some as radical, has since been 
adopted in many institutions. Two years 
later, he was again invited to address 
the association in Baltimore, and great 
applause was accorded his paper on 
''Eecent Educational Tendencies in their 
Relation to Language Teaching." 

In 1886, the "History of Education" 
appeared in the "International Educa- 
tional Series," edited by Dr. W. T. 
Harris. This book embodies the result 
of four years' study of the subject, and 
is pronounced the best popular treatise 
of its kind in America. Having already 
passed through a large number of edi- 
tions, it still retains its popularity. 

Another educational work, which 
appeared the present year, is "Luther 
on Education," comprising excellent 
translations of Luther's principal writ- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



575 



ings on the subject, as well as a number 
of valuable chapters added by the trans- 
lator. It has been received with great 
favor. 

Professor Painter has in preparation 
a work on English literature, written on 
a new plan, and designed to facilitate 
the teaching of that difficult branch of 
study in high schools and colleges. It 
will probably appear the coming year. 
In addition to these more serious liter- 
ary efforts, he is a frequent contributor 
to periodical literature. A study en- 
titled "Chastened and Sanctified," pub- 
lished in The Independent in 1887, re- 
ceived high praise. His style is remark- 
ably perspicuous and facile. 

He is a warm friend of popular edu- 
cation, having conducted for several 
years summer institutes in Virginia and 
West Virginia, for which work he is 
especially fitted, because of wide ex- 
perience and extensive reading, covering 
the whole field of educational science. 
Through his efforts was organized, in 
1884, the Virginia Teachers' Reading 
Association, of which he was elected 
president for several consecutive years. 
The association was a success from 
the start. With a large membership 
and an excellent course of study, it ex- 
erted no small influence upon the edu- 
cational progress of the state. 

In theology he is tolerant, attaching 
more importance to fundamental and 
practical truths than to speculative or 
polemical questions, and desiring Chris- 
tian unity and concord. "I would rather 
be a martyr for love," he says in the 
words of Baxter, "than for any other 
article of the Christian creed." His 
sermons are highly practical, indicative 



of careful study and an intimate ac- 
quaintance with Biblical literature. In 
preaching, his style is simple, easy, and 
earnest, at times becoming quite animat- 
ed, as peculiar beauties of the sacred 
Word reveal themselves to his devotional 
and finely poetic nature. 

As was the case with Froebel, he is 
at home in the class-room; and he makes 
his pupils feel at home. One cannot 
help being stimulated to effort by the 
heartiness and deep interest with which 
he leads his learners into unexplored 
realms of knowledge. Possessing as 
he does a perfect candor and the sound- 
est of practical views, his students love 
to inquire of him about questions of 
interest that may arise, and the infor- 
mation is imparted so pleasingly, and 
often with such captivating humor, that 
to spend an hour in his class-room is a 
pleasure. 

Within a ten minutes' walk of the 
college buildings is the neat and home- 
like cottage where, with his family of 
six, he resides in great enjoyment of 
his domestic surroundings. "The man 
that does not make much of home life," 
he says, "commits a great mistake." 
Having discovered the emptiness of 
popular applause, which is valueless 
unless based on corresponding merit, 
he believes that high positions bring 
with them multiplied cares and respons- 
ibilities. With the pleasant companion- 
ship of a congenial helpmate and loving 
children, this friend of ours is content 
to pursue his quiet, busy life, striving 
by diligent application and a faithful 
discharge of duty to make himself the 
best that God will let him be. 

J. A. B. S. 




576 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. W. A. PASSAVANT, Sr., D.D. 



Eev. William Alfred Passavant, D. D., 
was born at Zelienople, Butler Co., Pa., 
Oct. 9, 1821. He was graduated at Jef- 
ferson College, Pa., in 1840, and at the 
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Pitts- 
burg, Pa., in 1842. In the latter year 
he was ordained to the ministry, and he 
held pastorates in Baltimore, Md., in 
1842-4, and Pittsburg, Pa., in 1844-55. 
Since then his time has been occupied 
with editorial duties, but chiefly with 
work of philanthropy. He has been 
instrumental in the establishment of 
hospitals at Pittsburg, Pa., Milwaukee, 
Wis., Chicago and Jacksonville, 111., and 
orphanages at Eochester, Pa., Zelien- 
ople, Pa., and Mt. Vernon, New York. 
The hospitals are under his special su- 
pervision. He was the first to introduce 
the order of deaconesses in any hospital 
in this country in 1849, when he secured 
the services of four deaconesses from 
Kaiserswerth, Germany. He was a 
leader of the movement that resulted in 
the establishment of Thiel College, 
Greenville, Pa., in 1870, and has since 
then been one of its trustees. Among 
the congregations which he has founded 
is one at Eochester, Pa , one at Baden, 
and one at Crow's Eun. Few have trav- 
eled more in the interest of our Luth- 
eran church and her various works than 
has Dr. Passavant. His extensive ac- 
quaintance with pastors and people in 
all the branches of the American Luth- 
eran church, his general fame, and will- 
ingness to lend his assistance in the 
labor of love, his superior fitness, and 
fervent devotion to his Master's cause, 
have truly rendered him a man abund- 
ant in labors. He is virtually the founder 
of the "Pittsburg Synod," and was 
among the leaders in the organization 
of the "General Council." He has at 



various times been president of the 
Pittsburg- Synod. In 1870 he was elected 
president of the Thiel College Board, in 
which capacity he has served much of 
the time since. As an editor the Doctor 
is known for his ability to gather and 
digest news, his breadth of views, and 
his extensive acquaintance with all the 
branches of the Church. He believes 
in a faith that works, and he is known 
for his hatred of shams. As a conser- 
vative Lutheran and a loyal member of 
the "General Council" he is an opponent 
of "New Measurism" and General Synod 
"Eevivalism." 

Dr. Passavant has published a large 
number of sermons, addresses and re- 
ports. In 1842-44 he published the 
first Lutheran Almanac, which had an 
English circulation of 19,000, and a 
German circulation of 11,000. He was 
the founder of the Missionary in 
Pittsburg, Pa., in 1840, and its editor 
until it was merged, in 1861, into the 
Lutheran and Missionary in Philadelphia, 
and then for a number of years he was 
one of the editors of the combined 
periodical. In 1880 he founded the 
Workman, a bi-weekly in Pittsburg, Pa., 
of which, except two years, he has been 
editor ever since. While we much re- 
gret that we have been unable to secure 
a fuller sketch of this venerable father 
in our beloved Church, we beg permis- 
sion to quote from the Workman the fol- 
lowing page from his personal history, 
written by himself, which cannot fail to 
interest and profit our readers: 

OUR FIRST CHURCH WORK AND WHAT 
CAME FROM IT. 

The influence of the Christian press 
is only imperfectly recognized among 
us. By many it is not appreciated, and 




Rev. W. a. Passavant, Se., D. D. 

Page 576. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



577 



few sufficiently regard its mighty power 
for good. Most of our pastors are sat- 
isfied to receive a clinrch paper for 
themselves, and think it beneath their 
calling to exert themselves to introduce 
it among their people. In this way our 
church periodicals have at best a dying 
life. Their usefulness would be increased 
ten fold, if each one would conscienti- 
ously do what he could. A systematic 
effort would place a copy of some church 
journal in every family in their charge. 
The result would be an intelligent mem- 
bership, a lively interest in all church 
work, and a personal co-operation in 
everything pertaining to the kingdom 
of God. The results would be as sur- 
l^rising as they would be delightful. 
The church would become a working 
organization full of all the activities of 
Christian life. As an illustration, we 
give a few reminiscences concerning 
our first labors in circulating a religious 
paper in a long-neglected field. 

In May, 1837 — upwards of fifty years 
ago — we returned to Jefferson College, 
Cannon sburg. Pa., after having been 
confirmed in St. Paul's Church, at Zelien- 
ople, on Palm Sunday. Out of 250 
students, with a single exception, we 
were the only one of Lutheran parent- 
age. The Eev. Dr. Muhlenberg, now 
professor in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, had graduated in the class of 1836, 
and the feeling of isolation was at 
times most oppressive. The love of 
the Church of our mother, next to the 
love of Christ, became our all-absorb- 
ing passion. But what could we, an 
obscure lad of sixteen, do for the cher- 
ished church, whose holy influences had 
surrounded us from childhood ! Only 
two German families lived in the village, 
and the rest were Americans who had 
their own church connections. In each 
of these we secured a subscriber to a 
German paper, a third person, working 
73 



as a journeyman in a shop in the village, 
was likewise induced to subscribe, and 
in due time he became a useful minister 
of Christ. It was then we recalled the 
fact that the town of Washington, seven 
miles distant, contained a few Germans 
likewise. Thither we resolved to go and 
endeavor to do the same work. 

The vacation at Christmas soon afford- 
ed the time, and Saturday was selected 
as the time of starting. We recall the 
mingled emotions of courage and diffi- 
dence with which we began our journey. 
The snow came down in heavy flakes, 
as we trudged our way over the turnpike. 
Our overcoat soon became a mass of 
heavy snow, but hope made the heart 
warm, and we at last reached our desti- 
nation. Where we began and ended, 
we cannot now recall. Neither can we 
remember how we discovered the few 
German families in the town. But we 
met with unexpected favor, and were 
rewarded with the names of seven sub- 
scribers, six of whom paid in advance. 
The paper was the Kirchenzeitung, which 
had appeared a few months before, and 
was edited by the Eev. F. Schmidt, one 
of the professors in Lafayette Collefi:e, 
Easton, Pa. In the absence of argu- 
ments, we read extracts from letters in 
its pages written by various Western 
missionaries. Among these were the 
communications of Eev. Pastor Schmid, 
of Ann Arbor, Mich.; the Eev. Pastor 
Cronenwett, from Northwestern Ohio, 
and Eev. J. Nuelson, from Elkhart, Ind. 
Our German was broken and imperfect, 
but the fire of holy love in these mis- 
sionary reports conquered all. Late at 

night, we reached our room in C , 

thanking God and taking courage from 
our first experience in church-work. It 
was indeed but "a little one," but it was 
all that, in our humble way, could be 
done to encourage the editor in his im- 
portant work. 



578 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Many years afterwards, the Eev. S. 
K. Brobst, now with God, but then 
wielding an extensive influence as editor 
of the Zeitsehrift at Allentown, Pa., took 
us aside and narrated this interesting 
fact in his eventful life. It seems, we 
had called at a tin shop in Washington, 
which was carried on by a relation with 
whom he was living as apprentice boy. 
As we entered the store and stated our 
mission, he called his cousin, with whom 
we pled, in order to secure a subscription. 
We, however, failed to interest him, and 
went away discouraged because of our 
poor success. The paper, however, 
which we left, fell into the hands of the 
thoughtful lad. It awakened in him the 
desire to became a minister, and after 
we left he became a subscriber. In a 
short time, he began his studies at 
Washington and continued at Jefferson 
College. The thought of a religious 
paper for the young came from reading 
the paper for adults. A few years after, 
he began the publication of the Yugend 
Freund, the first German religious paper 
for the young in America! From that 
time to this, its publication has been 
continued, and, "he being dead yet 
speaketh," in thousands of Sunday- 
schools and families over the land. 

What that one humble lad succeeded 
in accomplishing for Christ and the 
Church, notwithstanding his imperfect 



advantages, eternity alone can reveal. 
He preached and wrote, and published 
and toiled until his frail body found 
rest in the grave. He worked as few 
did, for Christian nurture, Christian 
education, and Christian charity. His 
influence in the establishment of Muhlen- 
berg College and the seminary in Phila- 
delphia is gratefully appreciated. His 
paper, tracts, almanacs and books have 
gone forth over the whole land — and it 
may be said of all of them, that they 
have accomplished great good. He 
rests from his labors, but his works do 
follow him. 

In the mention of this incident in the 
life of our departed brother, our readers 
will overlook all personal allusions. We 
refer to them mainly to illustrate the 
power of the religious press for good, 
and to encourage pastors, students, and 
church members to do what they can to 
aid in the circalation of church papers. 
Even our failure was a remarkable suc- 
cess. Of the results in those families 
where we succeeded in introducing a 
Christian paper, we know nothing. But 
where we failed, God overruled all to 
the praise of His name and the welfare 
of many. The lessons of the whole is: 
Do what you can, even in the most 
discouraging field, and God will take 
care of his own work. 



T^K 



EEY. W. A. PASSAVANT, Je. 



Twins came to the home of Rev. Wm. 
A. and Eliza Passavant, of Pittsburg, 
Pa., on Jan. 23, 1857. Both are alive, 
one being named William Alfred, after 
his father. At four years of age a police- 
man brought him home with a hymn 
book under his arm. He was going to 



Baden (a mission point in charge of his 
father) and had got lost. This was a 
favorable omen, it was thought. At 
twelve he was sent to Thiel Hall, 
Phillipsburg, Pa., a school which Dr. 
Passavant had established. With two 
brothers he remained here three years 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



579 



in charge of an aunt, and after a year at 
the Western University he entered 
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, as a 
freshman. In 1875 he graduated with 
second honor in the class. A year at 
home devoted to reading and private 
teaching was followed by three years in 
the Lutheran Theological Seminary, 
Philadelphia. Declining an invitation 
to remain in that city as pastor, the call 
to Baden parish was accepted. 

In 1881 The Workman was founded by 
father and son, the firm name being W. 
A. Passavant, Jr., & Co. In parish work 
and the business of his church paper 
six years were spent. On his return 
from a year's stay in Europe, during 



which a series of editorial letters were 
published from his pen, he purchased 
the paper and published it a year as an 
eight-page weekly, being both editor 
and owner. In the meantime accepting 
a call to Christ Church, Pittsburg, he 
served that congregation, and at the 
same time built a church for a mission 
he had established at Phillipsburg, Pa. 
On July 1, 1889, a call from the English 
Home Mission Committee of the General 
Council was urged and accepted, and he 
became the Superintendent of Missions 
for that committee. Church and paper 
were given up and he devotes his] entire 
time to this work. 




REV. O. PAULSON. 



Rev. Paulson, of the United Norwegian 
Lutheran Church in America, was born 
on the "gaard" Woolberg, in the parish 
of Grue, Solor, Norway, April 26, 1832. 
His parents were Paul Olson, of Nor- 
wegian parentage, and Anna, born Nils- 
son, of Swedish parentage. Fifteen 
years old he was confirmed in the fall of 
1847 by Pastor Soren Dahl in the Grue 



church. In the spring of 1850 he ac- 
companied his parents to America, this 
being the first family that had emigrated 
to America from Solor. The first two 
years they lived in Muskego, Wis., and 
then for a while near Decorah, la. In 
the spring of 1854 they moved to Carver 
county, Minn., which at that time was a 
territory and very sparsely settled. Here 



580 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



he took 160 acres of land and went to 
farming. 

In the fall of 1857 he was married to 
Miss Inger O. Loberg, by the Rev. P. 
A. Cederstam, of the Swedish Augustana 
Synod. 

During Christmas the same year a 
colporteur by the name of Peter Carlson, 
employed by the American Tract Soci- 
ety, visited the neighborhood, and by 
means of his powerful preaching a con- 
siderable spiritual awakening occurred 
in the settlement. Among those who 
were brought to a knowledge of the 
grace of God in Christ Jesus was also 
Mr. Paulson. 

Evangelical Lutheran ministers were 
scarce in those days, and when Mr. 
Carlson, after a month's labor, left the 
place to fit himself for the gospel minis- 
try at the theological seminary in Chi- 
cago, having already received a call from 
the Carver congregation, the people 
found themselves without a spiritual 
leader. It was evident to Mr. Paulson 
and his friend, Rev. C. A. Hedengran, 
of the Swedish Augustana Synod, that 
if the people should long remain with- 
out a leader and without religious gath- 
erings it would prove detrimental to 
their spiritual condition. Mr. Heden- 
srran, who was an older Christian than 
Paulson, then undertook to gather the 
people as often as possible, supplying 
to them, as well as he could, the place 
of a pastor, and in his absence Mr. 
Paulson led the meetings by reading 
good selections and sermons from the 
Lutheran fathers. 

When Mr. Carlson was ordained, 
Paulson was appointed colporteur, which 
position he occupied for a couple years, 
traveling principally in Minnesota, dis- 
tributing tracts, books and bibles, and 
preaching the Word whenever called 
upon to do so. In the summer of 1860 he 
was present as delegate from the Carver 



congregation at the important meeting 
at Jefferson Prairie, Wis., when the 
Scandinavian Augustana Synod was or- 
ganized. In the winter of 1861 he en- 
tered the theological seminary of this 
Synod, then located at Chicago, and pre- 
sided over by the Rev. Prof. L. P. 
Esbjorn. In the meanwhile the war 
broke out and Mr. Paulson felt it to be 
his duty to lay aside his books and 
shoulder the musket in defense of his 
adopted country. He became a member 
of Co. H, 9th Reg. Minn. Vols. In this 
company he served two years in the ca- 
pacity of second lieutenant, when he 
resigned his position and, broken down 
in health, returned to his farm in Carver 
county, Minn. 

His desire to devote the remainder of 
his time and talents to the service of 
God and the church in the capacity of 
a pastor became so strong, however, that 
in 1866 he sold all he had and again en- 
tered the seminary, which had now been 
removed to Paxton, 111., with Rev. Prof. 
T. N. Hasselquist, D. D,, as President, 
Prof. Esbjorn having returned to Sweden. 
With exemplary diligence Mr. Paulson 
prosecuted his studies for two years and 
was graduated in 1868, when he received 
a call from a congregation in Minne- 
apolis and was ordained by Prof. T. M. 
Hasselquist, President of the Scandi- 
navian Augustana Synod, at its meeting 
in Carver. The first year of his pastor- 
ate at Minneapolis he lived at Carver 
and served as instructor, together with 
Rev. And. Jackson, at the St. Ansgar 
Academy. In the summer of 1869 he 
moved to Minneapolis, and for about 
two years he was the only settled Scan- 
dinavian Lutheran pastor there. In the 
fall of 1870 he participated in the or- 
ganization of the Norwegian Danish 
Conference at the meeting held in St. 
Ansgar, la. At the memorable meeting 
held at Madison, Wis., some time later. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



581 



for the purpose of eflPecting a satisfactory 
settlement between the brethren in the 
Norwegian Augustana Synod and the 
newly organized Conference, he acted 
as chairman. At this meeting a com- 
mittee of three was appointed by the 
Conference to find a suitable location 
for a theological seminary. Rev. Prof. 
A. Weenaas was elected for Wisconsin, 
Rev. C. L. Clausen for Iowa, and Rev. 
O. Paulson for Minnesota. 

With the assistance of supreme judge 
Vanderbury, Rev. Paulson, upon his 
return to Minneapolis, called a meeting 
of a number of the leading men in the 
city, at which he presented the matter 
concerning the advisability of locating 
the seminary there. The members of 
the meeting heartily seconded the idea, 
and made the generv>us promise of do- 
nating the site, and liberal sums of 
money to the institution, in case it 
should be located at Minneapolis. Six 
lots were pledged at this meeting, which 
today constitutes the grounds upon 
which the Seminary and the old pro- 
fessor's residence are built. Rev. Paul- 
son immediately reported the matter to 
the other members of the committee, to 
whom the Minneapolis offer seemed so 
generous, and the location so favorable, 
that the location of the institution at 
that place seemed almost to be settled. 
In the summer of 1871 the "Conference" 
held its first annual meeting in the 
Trinity church, Minneapolis, when it 
was decided to locate the seminary there, 
provided the city would furnish free 
site, and a building to cost at least 
$4,000, to which the Minneapolis 
delegation, together with the pastor 
agreed. The following fall the founda- 



tion of the seminary was laid. Rev. 
Paulson, who was chairman of the build- 
ing committee, solicited the money, and 
had the building ready for occupation 
in the fall of 1872, the cost of which 
amounted to |6,000, the "Conference" 
assuming the extra $2,000. The semi- 
nary was dedicated with impressive 
and appropriate ceremonies the same 
fall. 

After a busy pastorate of six years 
at Minneapolis, Rev. Paulson removed, 
1874, to Wilmar, Minnesota, having re- 
ceived and accepted calls from four 
small congregations there, none of which 
had a church. During his eleven years 
pastorate in Wilmar, he organized three 
new congregations and built five 
churches. In the fall of 1885 he ac- 
cepted calls of Blanchardville, Argyle, 
Adams, York and Primrose congrega- 
tions in Wisconsin, which he at this 
writing continues to serve. While at 
Minneapolis he organized St. Olaf's 
congregation in Burnett Co., Wis.; Du- 
luth, Norwegian Lutheran congregation; 
the Norwegian congregation in St. Paul; 
Soby congregation, Morrison Co., Min- 
nesota; Grien Carry congregation, near 
Anoka, Minnesota; and a few other 
small congregations in Sherburn Co., 
Minnesota. 

Rev. Paulson has had nine children, 
seven of whom are living. 

He has repeatedly been elected vice- 
president of the "Conference," and was 
one of its district presidents from its 
organization to 1890, when it united 
with the "United Norwegian Lutheran 
Church in America." Since this union 
he has served as president of the Mad- 
ison district. 




582 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




KEY. F. W. E. PESCHAU, A.M. 



"Prominent Living North Caro- 
linians," is the title of a book of over 
three hundred pages, published by J. 
Dowd, Esq., in Raleigh, N. C, in 1888, 
and from its pages, 197-199, we present 
with some changes and additions the 
following sketch of Pastor Peschau. 

He was born in Clausthal-Zellerfeld* 
on the Hartz mountains, in the kingdom 
of Hanover, where Muhlenberg, the 
patriarch of American Lutheranism, 
went to school and taught school. He 
is the only son of Henry and Wilhel- 



* The Peschau family has for about one hundred and 
fifty years been located in Clausthal, Kingdom of Han- 
over, Germany, though two branches thereof migrated 
from there. Rev. F. W. E. Peschau is not the first 
Lutheran Pastor in the family, for long before he was 
born Rev. George Ludwig Peschau was laboring as 
pastor of the Lutheran Church at Altenbroch, Hanover, 
a town of two or three thousand inhabitants near the 
city of Bremen. Here old Pastor Peschau preached for 
the long period of forty-five years. This was the only 
chnrch he ever served. He studied at the University of 
Gottingen, and was ordained by the Ministerium of 
Hanover. He was a noble and faithful man of God. 
and died at his post of duty, after forty-five years of 
faithful work, in the eightieth year of his age, at Alten- 
broch, where he was also buried- One of his sons, the 
Hon. Edward Peschau, German Imperial ('onsul, resides 
at Wilmington, N. C, and is a member of the church 
served by the subject of this sketch. 



mina Peschau. In 1853, his parents 
came to this country, settling first in 
Baltimore, but subsequently in Wheel- 
ing, W. Va., where the aged father 
Henry Peschau still lives. 

He spent six years in the College and 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 
Pa. His first charge was at Nebraska 
City, Neb., fifty miles south of Lincoln. 
His second field of labor was Nashville, 
Tenn., and his present field at Wilming- 
ton is his third pastorate. Here he has 
been nearly nine years. 

On June 3d, 1873, Pastor Peschau 
married Miss Clara J. Myers, daughter 
of Hon. A. K. Myers, of York Springs, 
Pa., now a capitalist in London, Ohio. 

As an educator he has also had con- 
siderable experience. For three years 
he was Superintendent of German in 
the public schools of the city of Evans- 
ville, Ind., and Professor of German in 
the High School. At Nebraska City, 
Neb., he was Superintendent of the 
city public schools two years, and also 
Professor of German in an Episcopal 
college located there. At Nashville, 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



583 



Tenn., he was Professor of German in 
Dr. Ward's Female Seminary, the larg- 
est in the South and the second largest 
in the United States. He was also 
Professor of German in Vanderbilt 
University, but these extra labors, 
coupled with his pastoral duties, were 
too much for his system, and he broke 
down, with an attack of typhoid fever in 
1881, which nearly ended his life. Since 
living in Wilmington he has taught only 
private classes and delivered lectures on 
educational subjects in North Carolina 
and Tennessee. Sermons, sketches of 
sermons, articles, letters, and poems 
from his pen have appeared in the Ger- 
man and English press of this country. 
He has been one of the editors of the 
Lutheran Visitor for over eight years, 
and was the editor of The Southern Illus- 
trated Magazine at Nashville . He preaches 
in German and English with equal 
fluency, ease, and accuracy, with or with- 
out manuscript, and has so far mastered 
the Danish language as to be able to 
hold services in that language, for the 
sailors and officers of the Scandinavian 
ships that come to Wilmington. 

Coupled with these talents of linguis- 
tic attainments, he has a musical educa- 
tion and has published a number of 
songs, the words and music of which 
were his own composition, notably 
among these is the "Ode to Jackson," 
sung at the unveiling of the equestrian 
statue of Andrew Jackson, seventh Pres- 
ident of the United States, at Nashville, 
in 1880, which was published in the 
extra edition of 180,000 copies of the 
Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., at the 
time. He has some new songs in press 
now. More than two-thirds of the time 
of his belonging to Synods he has been 
officer. He was secretary of the Neb- 
raska Synod, and also of the first great 
Missionary Convention held in Omaha 
in 1877. He was secretary of the Mid- 



dle Tennessee Synod, and in the North 
Carolina Synod he has just completed 
his fourth term as president, having 
been elected four years consecutively, a 
thing that has never happened before in 
this oldest of Southern Synods. He 
was the last president of the Southern 
General Synod and became the first 
president of the United Synod by 
removal of Dr. Gilbert. In 1883 he was 
unanimously elected president ol North 
Carolina College, but declined this dis- 
tinguished honor. He has thus shown 
his administrative talents as President 
of the North Carolina Synod, and of the 
General Synod, South, and of the United 
Synod, and no one in the Lutheran 
Church, South, is more widely known 
or has received more complimentary 
notice from the press. 

Full of energy and push, and work- 
ing faithfully at his post, under God's 
blessing he has succeeded in doing a 
good work, in every position he has 
occupied. His congregation at Wil- 
mington a few years ago, unanimously 
and enthusiastically adopted a resolution, 
requesting him to remain its pastor dur- 
ing the days of his natural life.f 

Dr. Bernheim, his predecessor, writing 
to Pastor Peschau, says: "I see from 
various reports that you are doing a 
good work in Wilmington. Your con- 
gregation is certainly advancing under 
your administration, and I say this 
sincerely, and not as a mere compliment, 
the work speaks for itself." 

The Lutheran Home says, of him: "We 
are glad that we have such a worker in 
so important a field of labor and that 

t He is an honorary member of the IVnnessee (State) 
Historical Society, the finest in the South, also honorary 
member of German His*ori?al Society of Maryland, < 'or- 
responding Secretary of Wilmington Historical and 
Scientific; Society, and honorary member of a number of 
Literary Societies of different institutions. 

In 1889 he was one of the commissioners of No-th 
Carolina to Centennial Celebration in New York City, 
having been duly honored by His Excellency Governor 
Fowle, 



584 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



both the people inside and outside of 
our Church speak well of him aud that 
even his predecessor, who knows all the 
difficulties of so trying a field, where 
two languages are used, can bear such 
testimony and that the work done proves 
the correctness of all." 

Those who thus bear the banuer of 
the cross successfully are worthy of all 
honor. We sometimes overlook the 
esteem due them — due not to pamper 
pride, but to ''give honor to whom honor 
is due." No church in the world has 
paid so much attention to education as 
the Lutheran. Both in this country 
and in Europe does she stand prominent 
as an educator. We offer no apology, 
therefore, for this extended biography 
of one to whom God has given superior 
talents and the energy to use them. 

HIS publications: 

Songs. — Words and music his own. 
Ode to General Andrew Jackson; 



Ode to Mrs. Ex-Pres. Polk; God bless 
our Noble Firemen; There is No Home 
but Heaven; The Conquered Banner 
(German); The Orphan's Plea. 

Tracts. — On the Lutheran Church, 
Her Name, etc. 

Sermons. — Baccalaureate Lutherville; 
Power of the Love of Christ; Joshua's 
Choice. 

Sketch of Mrs. Ex-Pres. Polk and a 
small book of poems. He is now trans- 
lating for publication the first 25 years 
minutes of the old North Carolina Synod 
from the German; Baccalaureate Sermon, 
Marion, Ya., Female College; Sermon 
on the return of Christ; The True Choice; 
The Open Door; and for five years he 
furnished German Gleanings for the 
Lutheran Observer 

His two lectures "The Cemetery of 
the Sea," and "Foreigners" have been 
delivered before thousands upon thou- 
sands and have made him known far 
and near. 




KEY. GUSTAYUS PETEES. 



Eev. Gustavus Peters was born in 
Sweden, on the 4th of January, 1832. 
His parents were Peter Emanuel An- 
derson and Eva, born Jacobson. The 
day after his birth he was baptized and 
received the name Gustaf. While in 
Sweden he wrote his name Gustaf Peter- 
son; but when he came to America 
he was advised to change it to Gustavus 
Peters. From 1844 to 1848 he served 
as apprentice boy. He was confirmed 
Pentecost Day, 1847. In 1855 he gradu- 
ated from Kalmar Teachers' Institute. 
In 1857 and 1858 he attended a mission 
school, conducted by Fjelstedt and Ahl- 
berg, whereupon he became assistant 
teacher at Ahlberg's colporteur school, 
which position he held for one year. 



Having received repeated invitations to 
come to America, he left Kalmar, in 
company with A. W. Dahlsten, July 
27th, 1859, arriving at New York the 
17th o£ August, and at Chicago on the 
24th, where he met his friend, Eev. E. 
Carlsson. 

On the 8th of September, the Synod 
of Northern Illinois convened at Chicago, 
and on the 12th, Mr. Peters was licensed 
to preach, while P. Carlson, C. P. Boren 
and P. Beckman, were ordained to the 
ministry. After the services, Mr. Peters 
remarked to his friend, Eev. E. Carlson, 
that he regretted very much not having 
understood the sermon; to which Eev. 
Carlson replied that there was no cause 
for regret, as the whole was a most mis- 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES, 



585 




EEY. GUSTAVUS PETERS. 



erable effort, the preacher having stated, 
among other silly things, that a preach- 
er ought never to eat more than twelve 
mouth fulls at the time. Mr. Peters 
took active part in the meeting of Nor- 
wegians and Swedes, held four miles 
south of Clinton, Rock County, Wis., 
popularly known as Jefferson Prairie, 
June 5th, 1860, at which the organiza- 
tion of the Scandinavian Evangelical 
Lutheran Augustan a Synod was ef- 
fected. Eight candidates for the min- 
istry were ordained at this meeting on 
the 8t.h of June, by the Rev. T. N. 
Hasselquist, among whom was also Mr, 
Peters. After his ordination he ac- 
cepted a call from the Swedish congre- 
gation at Moline, 111., as the successor 
of Rev. O. C. T. Andren. In the latter 
part of August, 1861, he married Miss 
Ida Hellena Strom, of Christdala, Swe- 
den, who died May 18th, 1863, leaving 
him with a ten month old infant daugh- 
ter. Since the death of his wife he was 



unable to thrive in Moline, and on the 
lOfch Sunday after Trinity he resigned 
his charge. During the same week in 
which his resignation from the Moline 
congregation took place, he received a 
call from the Swedish Lutheran congre- 
gation in Rockford, 111., which he ac- 
cepted, beginning his labors there New 
Tears, 1864. For twenty-two and a half 
years Rev. Peters labored with remark- 
able success in this charge, from which 
he resigned in 1885, remaining with the 
congregation, however, until the latter 
part of June, 1886. He then labored 
for a year and a half at Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, after which he moved to York, 
in the same state, where he still remains. 
On the 8th of October, 1864, he was 
married again, the result of this mar- 
riage being eight children, of whom 
three sons and one daughter are living. 
His daughter after the first marriage 
died June 22d, 1864. 



74 



586 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REV. BERNHARD PICK, Ph.D. 



Rev. Bernhard Pick, Pli.D., was born 
at Kempen, Prussia, Dec. 19, 1842; 
educated at Breslau and Berlin, gradu- 
ated at Union Theological Seminary, 
New York City, 1868 ; became pastor in 
the Presbyterian church, New York, 
1868; North Buffalo, N. Y., 1869; Syra- 
cuse, N. Y., 1870; Rochester, N. Y., 
1874; Allegheny, Pa., 1881. He became 
member of the German Oriental Society 
of Halle-Leipzig, 1877 ; of the Society 
of Biblical Literature and Exegesis (U. 
S. A.), 1881, and of the Victoria Insti- 
tute (or Philosophical Society of Great 
Britain), in 1889. In 1884 he left the 
Presbyterian church and was re- 
ceived as a member of the Lutheran 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania. He con- 
tributed for sixteen years to McClin- 
tock & Strong's Cyclopedia of Biblical, 
Theological and Ecclesiastical Litera- 
ture, especially in the department of 
Biblical and Post Biblical Talmudic and 
Jewish Literature. A specialty of his 
contributions are the articles on the 



modern versions of the Bible, which are 
not found in any other Cyclopedia, and 
which betray a vast amount of research 
and reading. Contributed also to Schaff- 
Herzog's Encyclopaeda ; translated 
Delitzsch's Jewish Artisan Life in the 
Time of Jesus; is author of Luther as a 
Hymnist, Juedisches Volksleben zur 
Zeit Jesu; Luther's "Ein Feste Burg" in 
nineteen languages (second edition in 
twenty-one languages), Index to Lange's 
Commentary on the Old Testament, Dr. 
Martin Luther's Geistliche Lieder nach 
den Originaltexten nebst Einleitung und 
geschichtlichen Bemerkungen zu ein- 
zelnen Liedern; historical sketch of the 
Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem; 
The Talmud — What it is; Apocryphal 
Life of Jesus; A Comprehensive Gen- 
eral Idex to the Ante-Nicene Fathers; 
Huelfsbuchlein zum Religions-Unter- 
richt in Schule und Haus nach Luther's 
Katcehismus, and numerous other 
articles. 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



587 




REY. PROF. A. PHILLIPPI, A.M. 



Rev. Prof. A. Phillippi, A. M., was born 
of pious Lutheran parents in Wythe coun- 
ty, Ya., July 25, 1833. He was baptized in 
infancy and confirmed at the age of fif- 
teen . He entered Roanoke College in 1852 
and graduated from that institution in 
1857 . After devoting several years to the 
study of theology, he was called from 
the Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg to the newly organized mission 
church at Charlotte, N. C. Here he 
labored about a year and a half, during 
which time St. Mark's congregation was 
fully organized and secured its first 
church property. 

In October, 1860, Mr. Phillippi re- 
turned to Yirginia and was united in 
marriage to Miss Cyntha M. Brown, of 
Wythe county. 

Abut the same time he resigned the 
mission in Charlotte and accepted a 
similar work in the city of Lynchburg, 
Ya. He entered this field in Novem- 
ber, 1860, but the sectional strife and 
war excitement soon became so great 



that the aid promised by friends in the 
North was withdrawn, and the work so 
hopely begun had to be discontinued. 
In the spring of 1861 he entered the 
Confederate service as lieutenant in the 
29th Ya. Regiment, with the under- 
standing that he should devote himself 
mostly to the religious interests of the 
troops. In this capacity he served in 
Southwest Yirginia, Tennessee and 
Kentucky until after the retreat of Gen. 
Bragg from Kentucky in 1862. The 
regiment was then returned to Yirginia 
and attached to Gen. Pickett's Division, 
where it remained until the close of the 
war. In the meantime Mr. Phillippi 
accepted a regular chaplain's commis- 
sion in his regiment, with a passport to 
labor in any part of Gen. Lee's army 
that he might select. To the camp, to 
the line of battle, and to the field hos- 
pital his time and efforts were given 
without interruption until the army of 
Northern Yirginia was disbanded, at 
which time his chaplain's commission 



588 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



was the oldest in Lee's army. Under 
his ministry and care that most remark- 
able religious awakening in Gen Pickett's 
Division occurred just before the march 
to Gettysburg, in which hundreds, per- 
haps thousands, of brave men gave them- 
selves to the blessed Saviour. 

In the fall, after the close of the war, 
by the earnest solicitation of Rev. D. 
F. Bittle, D.D., President of Roanoke 
College, Mr. Phillippi spent several 
months in the north with a view of 
securing means to relieve Roanoke 
College of its most pressing financial 
embarrassment. In the spring of 1866 he 
accepted a call to St. John's Lutheran 
Church, near Wytheville, Va. The 
congregation being small could not give 
their pastor a full support. This made 
it necessary for him to engage in school 
teaching. The public school system 
having been inaugurated in Virginia, he 
was appointed to organize the graded 
school in Wytheville, Ya., to which call- 
ing he gave four years of time and labor, 
and retired from it with a view of 
giving all his time to the extension and 
development of the Lutheran Church 
in and around Wytheville. With this 
object in view, he, without any mission 
or church extension aid, while still 
pastor of St. John's church, opened 
three missions, one in Wytheville and 
two in the country. The work of plant- 
ing and reaping was slow and difiicult, 
but some progress has been made. Each 
of these missions now has a good church 
and well organized congregation and 
Sunday School. The congregation in 
Wytheville owns one of the most beauti- 
ful churches in all that section of 
country. It cost about $12,000. The 
St. John's church has its own pastor, 
while the three new organizations still 
remain in charge of Mr. Phillippi. 
About the same time these missions 



were organized Mr. Phillippi opened a 
private school, now Trinity Female Col- 
lege, in Wytheville. This enterprise 
met with encouragment, and soon en- 
rolled over a hundred pupils. Prof. G. 
M. Huffard, who so faithfully and effi- 
ciently worked in this school, retired 
from it in 1886 for the purpose of es- 
tablishing a male academy. Some 
changes were then made in the plan of 
the school. It is now purely a young 
ladies' boarding school, limited to about 
thirty-five pupils. Since its organiza- 
tion about one thousand pupils have 
been matriculated, of whom nearly one 
hundred completed the entire course of 
study required for graduation. The 
especial object for which the institution 
was organized was to give our Lutheran 
girls, in connection with a thorough 
(ducation, correct ideas of historic 
Lutheranism. 

During the whole of his ministerial 
and educational work, Mr. Phillippi 
has made it an especial object to seek 
out, encourage and did, out of his own 
private means, help worthy young men to 
enter the Lutheran ministry. On these 
efforts God bestowed his blessing, since 
some nine or ten of our most conserva- 
tive and efficient pastors are his spiritual 
sons. 

In his early ministry Mr. Phillippi 
began the close and careful study of the 
confessions and cultus of the Lutheran 
church. These he most heartly approves, 
and conforms to them in his teaching 
and practice averse to strange and 
doubtful methods. 

During his whole ministry, whenever 
circumstances or the defense of truth 
required it, he never, regardless of 
sneers and unpopularity, hesitated to 
defend by word and pen with firmness 
the church of the reformation. And now 
after years of devotion to his conviction 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



589 



and love of truth as held and conferred 
by the reformers, he has the satisfaction 
of seeing his Synod, once the most lati- 



tudinarian, one of the most church- 
ly and conservative in the United 
Synod. 




EEY. PEOF. F. A. O. PIEPEK, A.M. 



Prof. Pieper was born in Pommerania, 
Germany, June 27, 1852. He received 
his classical education in the Dom- 
Gymnasium at Colberg, Germany, and 
in the Northwestern University at 
Watertown, Wis., whence he graduated 
in 1872. His theological education he 
received in the Concordia Theological 
Seminary at St. Louis, Mo., from which 
he was graduated in 1875. For about 
three years he served congregations at 
Centerville and Manitowoc, Wis., when 
he was called, in 1878, by the Missouri 
Synod as professor of theology at Cou- 
cordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis. 
In 1887 he was elected by the synod of 
delegates to succeed the late Dr. C. F. 



W. Walther in the presidency of Con- 
cordia Seminary, which position he still 
holds. At present he teaches Dogmatic 
and Pastoral Theology. In connection 
with the other members of the faculty 
he is the editor of the Lehre und Wehre, 
Lutheraner, and the Homiletisches Magazin. 
Prof. Pieper is the author of "Grund- 
bekenntniss der ev. luth. Kirche" (St. 
Louis, 1880); containing a historical 
introduction and short explanatory re-, 
marks to the Augsburg Confession., 
Articles on theological subjects by Prof., 
Pieper have appeared in the last ten 
volumes of Lehre und Wehre, mainly on 
the doctrine of Conversion, Justification, 
and Predestination. 



590 



AMEBIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. PEOF. JAMES PITCHEE, A.M. 



Eev. Prof. James Pitcher, A. M., the 
subject of this sketch, was born on the 
mountains of the Helderbergs, near the 
village of Knox, Albany Co., N. Y., 
Oct. 11th, 1845. An accident deprived 
him of his father in early infancy. His 
mother gave him into the care and home 
of her father, and thus the early youth 
of young Pitcher was spent with his 
maternal grandparents. The writer still 
recalls pleasant memories of visits made 
and vacations spent twenty-five years 
ago, roaming with James Pitcher and 
his grandfather over the Helderbergs 
and climbing the Indian Ladder, and 
examining the caves, crags and peaks 
of the jagged rocks of that long range 
of broken hills; in the evening listening 
to the tales of "long ago" as grand- 
father and grandmother have opened the 
store of ancient local folk-lore. Ah! 
those vacation days, we never will for- 
get! James Pitcher grew up amid rural 
scenes and learned to plough and hoe 
and do all manner of farm work and 



chores, as it fell to his lot. He then ac- 
quired and developed those habits of 
steady, patient and persistent will that 
have distinguished him later as the 
scholar and teacher of youth. Never 
content with what is and as it is, but 
studiously seeking newer and better 
methods and results. Among the birds 
songs and warbling m©untain streams 
and cascades, falling, dashing hither 
and thither, a poetic vain set to musical 
talent, early developed in young James, 
and those who knew him best recog- 
nized that beneath the prosaic everyday 
life of the Professor, there flows a 
poetic fancy along well measured har- 
monic lines. James Pitcher from a 
child was modest to a fault and is still 
inclined to underrate his talent and 
ability; yet, on occasions he rouses up 
mightly and stands firm as a rock and 
fears no foeman in fair argument and 
free debate. He sometimes writes poe- 
try and composes music, and he mounts 
and rides Pegasus well in pace and gait, 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



591 



original and all his own. His sermons 
and addresses are always original, and 
unlike other men. He makes all his 
shoes over his own last. 

As teacher he is very successful, and 
as principal and responsible head of an 
Institution of learning, guiding, guard- 
ing, inspiring, shaping and conducting 
its business affairs, he has few equals. 
The writer has often differed from the 
opinions and methods of Prof. Pitcher, 
but he has never doubted his perfect 
sincerity. After an intimate acquaint- 
ance of more than a quarter of a century 
the writer with perfect and cordial 
frankness can say of him "Behold an 
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" 
James Pitcher received his first educa- 
tional lessons in the district school near 
grandfather's farm. Later he attended 
the Knox Academy in an adjoining 
village, and then alternately taught 
school to gain funds for future use in 
getting an education for himself, and 
under great disadvantages he persevered, 
sometime working at common labor on 
the farm, then teaching district school, 
then singing school and again attending 
school, till at last at the age of nineteen 
years we saw him at Hartwick Seminary 
a coy, shy country lad entering his 
educational career in earnest in prepa- 
ration for the office of the holy ministry. 
He at once took no mean rank in all his 
classes ; he knew something about every- 
thing; his previous industry and present 
application won him an enviable reputa- 
tion among "the boys." He stood high 
in the estimation of his teachers, espe- 
cialy in the private opinion of Kev. Dr. 
G. B. Miller of sainted memory, as the 
writer can testify from personal knowl- 
edge. James Pitcher united with the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Knox 
when fourteen years of age and was 
confirmed by Rev. Adam Crounse, who 
for forty years was pastor of tlie Guilder- 



land Church and preached also at 
Knox. James continued a faithful and 
consistent member of the church from 
his confirmation vows onward. He has 
ever been governed by principles rather 
then by mere subjective feeling. While 
a student at Hartwick and in need of 
money a little circumstance occurred 
that illustrates this point. A lottery 
company sent him a free ticket, and 
later informed him that his ticket had 
drawn about $200, and that this money 
would be paid to him in cash upon 
demand. What should a poverty stricken 
student do under such conditions ? Why 
of course, take the money and say it 
was a fortunate providence that sent 
him such a "windfall" just when most 
needed. Some might so reason, but not 
James Pitcher; he did not believe that 
Providence operated through lotteries, 
and he therefore positively declined to 
accept such money, and preferred to 
trust to honest toil and God's own way. 
As classmate of the writer we spent six 
years together under the invaluable 
tuition of Dr. Miller, and we were of 
the last class whom that great and good 
man prepared for the holy office — our 
class bore his remains to the grave. 
Prof. Pitcher closed Dr. Miller's eyes in 
death, and helped to bear him to his 
last resting place on earth. For several 
years Mr. Pitcher was assistant teacher 
in Hartwick Seminary. After his grad- 
uation he devoted two years to preaching 
for the Lutheran Church of Maryland, 
N. Y., and also taught the village school. 
He was then called to Hartwick Semin- 
ary as assistant principal to Rev. T. T. 
Titus, in 1872. 

Prof. Pitcher was promoted by the 
unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees 
to the office of principal of Hartwick 
Seminary, the oldest classical and theo- 
logical school of the Lutheran church 
in America. He is the eighth princi- 



592 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



pal of this institution, has served the 
longest term in that position, and Eev. 
Dr. L. Sternberg is the only surviver of 
his predecessors. Mr. Pitcher was a 
beneficiary student of the Hartwick 
Synod, and by that Synod he was li- 
censed in 1869 and ordained in 1871. His 
Synod has honored him and itself by 
three times electing him its secretary, 
three times its president and sending 
him three times as its delegate to the 
General Synod, and in all three posi- 
tions he reflected credit upon himself 
and honor upon his synod of which he 
continues still an influential member. 
Some years ago the degree of A. M. was 
conferred upon him by Union College. 
On May 23d, 1871, he was married to 
Miss Mary Piatt, of Maryland, N Y. 



This union has been blessed with two 
children, Clara and James Jr., two 
bright twinkling stars that illuminate 
the domestic heaven of a happy Chris- 
tian home. Rev. Mr. Pitcher has been 
successful in his work as a teacher, and 
Hartwick Seminary has not only held 
its own, but steadily advanced under his 
direction, and is to-day more solidly es- 
tablished, progressive and prosperous 
then ever in its history. 

Rev. Prof. James Pitcher is still a 
young man, just in the prime of life and 
a wide and bright future before him, 
and if the future may be judged by the 
past, then he has still much of ripened 
toil and fruitage in store for Hartwick 
Seminary and the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. 




REV. H. N. POHLMAN, D.D. 



The subject of this memoir was born 
in the city of Albany, on the 8th day 
of March, 1800, and departed this life 
in his native place, on the 20th day of 
January, 1874. 

Dr. Pohlman's ancestors were all 
German. He bore the traces of his 
origin in every lineament of his coun- 
tenance ; looked like those men who in 
the fatherland initiated the great Pro- 
testant Reformation of the sixteenth 
century. 

The boy grew up amidst the surround- 
ings of a happy Christian home, con- 
firming his baptismal vows early in life, 
and thus taking a decided stand with 
the disciples of our Lord. The in- 
fluence of his sister, Mrs. McClure, a 
most devoted and excellent Christian 
woman, his own earnest desire to do 



good, with some peculiar, circumstance 
connected with our Church at the time, 
induced him to devote his life to the 
gospel ministry. His pastor. Rev. F. 
G. Mayer, had been one of the active 
agents in securing the property of the 
Hartwick Seminary, in 1861. The sub- 
ject was one of much debate and no 
small excitement amongst the Lutherans 
of that day, ending in its present loca- 
tion, about seventy miles west of Albany. 
This was a great event in our infant 
church, struggling for existence. The 
Ijrofessor of the seminary was a fre- 
quent visitor at his father's house. The 
conversations there heard had a great 
influence, and induced our friend, 
whilst (Comparatively a lad, to place 
himself under the guidance of good 
old Dr. Hazelius, thus becoming the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



593 




REV. H. N. POHLMAN, D. D. 



first student in the first Lutheran Theo- 
logical Seminary in the L^nited States, 
and to his Alma Mater he clung through 
life. 

In August, 1820, he graduated before 
reaching his majority. According to 
the rules of the New York Ministerium, 
his license was not conferred until the 
following March, when the services took 
place in St. Peter's church, Rhinebeck, 
being conducted by Rev. Drs. Quitman 
and Wackerhagen. In the following 
month of May he was ordained in 
Christ's church. New York City, in com- 
pany with Rev, Dr. G. B. Miller. When 
licensed he had a call to two small 
churches in New Jersey, Saddle River 
and Ramapo, whither he immediately 
proceeded. But a larger and more im- 
portant position soon presented itself. 
Within a year he took charge of the 
churches in Hunterdon Co., N. J., over 
which he presided with great acceptance 
for twenty-one years. The pastorate 
was large, three churches, many miles 
76 



apart, isolated, much neglected, demand- 
ing all the energies of a young man 
robust in health, just commencing his 
ministerial career. He proved equal to 
the situation, and lived to see his labors 
productive of such religious develop- 
ment that each of these congregations 
was able to have its own pastor, and to 
give him a more liberal support than 
was originally received from the united 
pastorate. 

On September 7, 1824, he was married 
to Miss Susan Cassidy, with whom he 
lived in the very happiest intercourse 
for thirty-nine years. She was the 
mother of five children, two of whom 
preceded both parents to the better land. 

In the year 1843 he felt it to be his 
duty to leave the field in which he had 
been so very useful to take charge of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezei church 
in his native city. He had then arrived 
at the full maturity of his powers, with 
large experience and vigorous health. 
The affairs of his new charge were not 



594 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



in a promising condition. The building 
was small, and much of the element 
which once gave it strength had strayed 
off to^ other churches, whose pulpits 
were then occupied by an array of talent 
surpassed by that of few cities in the 
land. The prospect was far from hopeful. 
Things improved, but, with varying 
success, tlie most earnest efforts did not 
bring them up to the pastor's wishes or 
expectations. Having completed the 
labors of a quarter of a century with the 
weight of advancing years pressing up- 
on him, he retired from the pastoral 
office, but not to a life of inactivity. 
Preaching whenever an opportunity was 
presented, continually looking after the 
interests of the Synod, engaged more or 
less in all of our benevolent operations, 
retaining his physical and mental ac- 
tivity to the end, it may be said that he 
died with the harness on. 

The closing scene, though somewhat 
unexpected, was befitting one who had 
labored so long in the Lord's vineyard, 
and to whom rest would prove so wel- 
come. For several years he had made 
his home with a beloved daughter, Mrs. 
Patten, where, surrounded by every- 
thing to make life comfortable and 
happy, his children, his books, the soci- 
ety of congenial Christian friends, he 
might have anticipated a green old age 
had not a latent affection of the heart 
exhibited symptoms of a dangerous 
character, to which he was not insensible. 
In closing the synodical meeting at Red 
Hook in October, 1873, his mind was 
burdened with the thought that he 
would see the brethren no more in the 
flesh . In a farewell address he expressed 
this conviction in words the most touch- 
ing, whilst there was nothing in voice or 
manner to indicate that the end was 
near. He preached several times after- 
wards, and not until within a few weeks 
previous to his death were there indica- 



tions of failing strength. On the day 
preceding he had a severe spasm in the 
region of the heart, which yielded to 
remedial agencies, but within the next 
twenty-four hours, quietly sitting in his 
accustomed place, his head drooped up- 
on his breast and without a struggle he 
was asleep in Jesus. 

The Doctor was a man of fine physique, 
commanding voice, chaste and impres- 
sive delivery. As a writer he was correct 
and forcible. Few who have heard him 
in the pulpit will forget his dignified 
bearing or lose the impression that he 
possessed not only great earnestness but 
more than ordinary force of character. 
At all general church gatherings a 
prominent place was allotted to him, 
and his deliverances were heard with 
pleasure. He did not aspire to the 
reputation of an erudite scholar. The 
time when he entered public life, and 
an isolated country parish for twenty 
years, did not offer many of the literary 
advantages now enjoyed. Still he col- 
lected a large and valuable library, of 
which he was a diligent student. He 
was well read on all subjects connected 
with his profession, an able rhetorician, 
a correct and graceful writer, and al- 
ways ready and happy when called upon 
to make an impromptu address. As 
presiding officer of a deliberative body 
he had few equals. Prompt, decided, 
familiar with parliamentary rulings, he 
was always clear and courteous. All 
this, combined with the unbounded 
confidence reposed in his character, will 
make it not appear strange that he 
should have presided over the New 
York Ministerium for twenty-one years, 
and over the New York Synod from its 
organization to the time of his death, 
thus making him for twenty-seven years 
the presiding officer of the body with 
which he was connected, And it was 
but natural that he should have been 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



695 



chosen three times President of the 
General Synod, to every meeting of 
which, since 1836, he had been appointed 
delegate, failing in attendance but once. 
The merited title of Doctor of Divinity 
was conferred upon him by Pennsylvania 
College in 1843. 

Dr. Pohlman was an active supporter 



of our Foreign Mission work and was 
for some years chairman of the Executive 
Committee. 

There is a superb volume published 
by his daughter, Mrs. Patten, entitled 
"Memorial of the Rev. H. N. Pohlman, 
D.D."— Z)r. StrobeL 




REV. A. C. PREUS 



Rev. Preus was born in Norway in 1814, 
and graduated from the theological de- 
partment of the Christiania University 
in 1841. He became assistant pastor at 
Gjerpen in 1848, and came to America 
in 1850 where he served a Norwegian 
congregation at Koshkonong Prairie, 
Wis., until 1860. The next three years 
(1860-3) he served Our Saviour's church 
at Chicago, 111., whence he removed to 
Coon Prairie, Wis., having accepted a 
pastoral charge there, which he served 
until 1872, when he returned to Norway, 
his health having become seriously 
impaired. In Norway he was appointed 
pastor of the parishes known as Holt 
and Tvedestrand, and later he was pro- 
moted to the office of dean in the dean- 
ery of East Nedenas. While in America 
he was elected president at two of the 
meetings held preparatory to the or- 
ganization of the Norwegian Lutheran 
Synod, and after its organization had 
been completed he was successively re- 



elected its president until 1862. Be- 
sides his numerous duties as pastor and 
president of the Synod and Synodical 
Council, he traveled a great deal in 
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, preach- 
ing the gospel to his scattered country- 
men and organizing congregations. In 
Wisconsin alone he organized at least 
twenty congregations, many of which 
he served until they could get a settled 
pastor. It often happened that for sev- 
eral weeks at a time he was obliged to 
preach one and two times every day, be- 
sides traveling on foot or horseback 
from ten to twenty miles over roads 
which to-day would be called impassible. 
As a preacher he was plain and practi- 
cal, as a writer he possessed the ability 
of expressing his thoughts clearly and 
popularly. After having spent six years 
in his Master's service in the fatherland 
he died Pentecost Eve, 1878, at the a.i;e 
of sixty-four. 




596 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




KEY. HERMAN A. PREUS. 



Few have labored more indefatigably 
for the upbnilding of the Norwegian 
Lutheran Church in America upon the 
basis of God's word and the imperishable 
confessions of the Church of the Re- 
formation than the venerable old father 
in Christ, the Rev. Herman Amberg 
Preus. 

He was born in Christianssand, Nor- 
way, June 16, 1825. Twenty-three years 
old he graduated from the theological 
department of Christiania University in 
1848. In 1851 he was married to Miss 
Caroline Dorothea Margrethe Keyser, 
daughter of Professor in Theology Chris- 
tian Keyser, and his wife Agnes, born 
Carlsen; and in the same year he emi- 
grated to America where he had received 
and accepted a call from Spring Prairie 
and other congregations in Wisconsin. 
Bo far as we know, Rev. Preus has served 
this same charge since he came to 
America in 1851 a period of about forty 
years. For a number of years he edited 
Evangelisk Luthersk Kirketidende the official 
organ of the synod to which he belongs. 



In 1862 he was elected president of the 
"Synod for the Norwegian Ev. Luth. 
Church in America," which position he 
has now held for twenty-nine years, 
having been successively re-elected to 
preside over this, the largest of the 
Norwegian Lutheran bodies in America. 
In 1887 a division occurred in the 
synod owing to the deplorable predesti- 
nation conflict, and a cousiderable num- 
ber of pastors and congregations with- 
drew; but still this powerful body num- 
bers about 200 ministers, and over 600 
congregations w ith a communicant mem- 
bership of about 61,000. scattered over 
California, Colorado, North and South 
Dakota, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Massa- 
chusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Ne- 
braska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, 
Washington, and Wisconsin. The fol- 
lowing educational institutions are sup- 
ported by the synod: Luther Theolog- 
ical Seminary, Minneapolis, Minn.; 
Luther College, Decorah, la.; Lutheran 
Normal School, Sioux Falls, Dak.; 
]\iinnesota Lutheran Seminary and In- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



697 



stitute, Wilmar, Minn. ; Lutheran Aca- 
demy, Bode, la.; and Albert Lea High 
School, Albert Lea, Minn. 

At the synod's annual meeting in 
June, 1887, held at Stouglitonv Wis., an 
evening session was devoted to appro- 
priate services in commemoration of 
Rev. Preus's election to the presidency 
in 1862, it beiug the twenty-fifth anni- 
versary of his service in that capacity. 
As a token of the esteem and love in 
which he is held by the members of his 
synod the Rev. Prof. Laur Larsen, of 
Luther College, after an eloquent address 
bearing upon the significance of the 
pleasant occasion, presented him in the 
name of the synod with a beautiful and 
appropriately inscribed gold watch. . 

Rev. Preus is the father of five 
children. His oldest son Rev. Christian 
Keyser Preus, born in the fall of 1852, 
has for a number of years served as 
assistant pastor of his father's charge. 
His daughter, Sina, is the wife of Rev. 
J. Nordby, of Lee, Ills. His daughter, 
Agnes, was born in 1859; the son John 
Wilhelm, in 1861; and Paul Ludvig in 
1867. His wife died Sunday, September 
19, 1880, and was buried on the follow- 
ing Wednesday in the Spring Prairie 
Lutheran Cemetery. She was born 
July 2, 1829. 

The attachment and reverence with 
which Rev. Preus is and has been re- 
garded both by the people of his pas- 
toral charge aud the members of his 
entire s^nod, as also by a host of Luth- 
eran Brethren outside of his synod, 
and which eeems to have been growing 
stronger as he has advanced in years, 
haA^e proceeded from many sources. 
His noble and symmetrical physique, 
his fiue abilities, and varied acquisitions 
will always secure for him the high res- 
pect of every intelligent mind. In dis- 
position he combines gentleness with a 
cerfcaiii resoluteneas and iiiliexibilitv. 



characteristic of his nationality, which 
rarely fails to influence those who ap- 
proach him. He is strictly conscien- 
tious even in apparently minute matters, 
and as a pastor he has ever been rigid 
towards himself, full of sympathy for 
the poor, the sick, and the suffering, and 
totally forgetful of himself, when he 
heard the voice of duty. While no man 
could adhere more tenaciously than Rev. 
Preus to what he considers the undi- 
luted doctrines of the Lutheran Church 
and its venerable usages, he has uni- 
formly displayed, throughout all the 
doctrinal struggles which have agitated 
the Norwegian Lutheran church in this 
country, in which he generally took a 
leading part, the manner and the spirit 
of the gentleman and the Christian. We 
have ample reason to believe that in 
the hand of God he has been the hum- 
ble instrument to confirm the faith of 
many a wavering heart, and solved the 
perplexity of many a benighted mind, 
by his lucid exposition of Bible doc- 
trine. With all his uncompromising 
adherence to his religious convictions, 
he has won the confidence and good will 
even of his opponents, and althougli he 
may not always have convinced them, 
he seldom failed to secure their esteem. 
His contributions to the religious liter- 
ature have not been so numerous as 
might have been expected from a leader 
of his attainments and prominence; but 
the large amount of labor which has 
devolved upon him from time to time 
as president of Synod, jmstor, and vir- 
tual missionary, has left him little time 
for authorship, which would undoubted- 
ly otherwise have proved a pleasure to 
one in every way so well qualified for 
such work. He has, however, contri- 
buted largely to- several of the Nor- 
wegian church papers and has published! 
some small books and pamphlets cliiefl.y 
of a polomi(j:d cliarattcr. 



598 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




EEV. B. F. PRINCE, A.M. 



This sketch aims at a little more than 
a summary of leading facts in the un- 
finished life of a busy man. Its subjci-t 
is royal. Though not tinctured witj 
royalty, born amidst the environments 
of kings and queens, yet it wears a no- 
bility which bespeaks the princely 
possibilities of common people. In a 
republic like ours men are not born to 
greatness; they achieve it by the potent 
energies of a broad and useful manhood. 

"The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gowd for a' that. 

"A prince can make a belted knight, 

A marquis, duke and a' that; 
But an honest man's aboon his might; 

Guide faith, he mauna fa' that ! 
For a' that, and a' that, 

Their dignities and a' that. 
The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, 

Are higher rank than a' that." 

The angel of progress drove the first 
Adam Prince out of Virginia's Eden — 
the Shenandoah Valley — into Kentucky 
in the year 1805, thence to Champaign 
Gou>nty, O.^ in 1809^ wh-ere h-e entered 



land, upon which he labored until the 
angel of death called him hence. He 
was quite successful as a tiller of the 
soil. He was noted for his mechanical 
abilities in the manufacture of barrels, 
wooden locks, and farm implements. 
He and his wife were devoted members 
of the Lutheran church. 

His only son, William, the father of 
the subject of this sketch, was born in 
Kentucky in 1807. Though reared 
amidst the arduous toils and privations 
incident to pioneer life, he became a 
scholar in the more useful branches of 
knowledge. He was a captain under 
the military laws of Ohio. He excelled 
as a mechanic without having served an 
apprenticeship. His business talents 
were marked. He was an office-bearer 
in the Lutheran church, and died at 
forty, when his son was seven years old. 

In 1805 Christian Norman and wife, 
grand-parents on the mother's side, came 
from the Shenandoah Valley, Va., to 
0WTrt]7ai?:n connty. O., wlo-'^ro th^y cn^ 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



599 



tered land. At this time Indians were | 
found in large numbers throughout the 
county. Christian Norman was a wagon 
maker by trade, and preferred this to 
farming. He became the possessor of 
large tracts of land, which he liberally 
divided among his children at their 
marriage — a very wise thing to do, when 
children are worthy of the inheritance 
so early in life. He was noted for 
Christian hospitality, and made his 
home headquarters for Lutheran, Re- 
formed and Methodist preachers. He 
was a life-long member of the Lutheran 
church, and noted for his broad, frater- 
nal spirit manifested toward Christian 
people of every church with which he 
came in contact. 

Sarah Norman, Prof. Prince's mother, 
was born in 1808. She, a brother and 
sister were taken by their father eight 
or nine miles to receive the ordinance of 
baptism at the hands of a Methodist 
preacher, no Lutheran preacher having 
yet visited the county. It will be seen 
that their Lutheranism was of the broad 
and fraternal sort. This, in fact, is a 
religious characteristic of both families 
of ancestors. They came to Ohio not 
only to buy cheap lands, but to get 
away from slavery and its evil effects 
upon society. In these families the re- 
ligious, mechanical, and business ele- 
ments were unusually prominent. 

Benjamin F. Prince was born Dec. 
12, 1840, on the farm entered by his 
grandfather Prince, now owned by his 
brother. His early school days were 
spent in the traditional log school house. 
After the age of twelve years he did not 
average more than forty days' schooling 
in each year. His thirst for knowledge 
grew, and when out of school he studied 
at home. Prominent among his home 
studies were natural philosophy, physi- 
ology and history. 

At the tender age of seven he was 



called to look upon the cold form of his 
father. 

"Into each life some rain must fall." 

His training was in the hands and 
heart of a pious mother, who never 
ceased to call her son's attention to the 
subject of religion. Under the anxious 
tutelage of a true mother, the religious 
element was brought out and caused to 
temper and ennoble a strong love of 
knowledge. At the early age of twelve 
he became a subscriber to the Euangeli- 
cal Lutheran^ and when that paper went 
out of existence his name was transferred 
to the Observer — bright prophecy of a 
coming Christian manhood ! At this 
early age his youthful dream and aspi- 
ration was to become a college graduate. 
At length favorable circumstances per- 
mitted him to enter Wittenberg College 
in the fall of 1860. He commenced in 
the preparatory department and gradu- 
ated with one of the honors of his class 
in 1865. During his freshman year he 
was honored by the Excelsior Society in 
being elected essayist to represent his 
society in a public anniversary. In his 
sophomore year he was again elected 
essayist for the literary contest between 
the Excelsior and Philosophian Societies. 
In his senior year he was debater in 
another contest between those flouriph- 
ing societies. The educating influences 
of these societies had come to be a 
recognized power of the college in those 
days, as it has been ever since. 

In 1865 he commenced the study of 
theology. In April, 1866, he was ap- 
pointed tutor in Wittenberg, in which 
capacity he served with commendable 
success until 1869, when he was pro- 
moted to principal of the preparatory 
department and assistant professor of 
Greek. He was ordained to the minis- 
try in 1869. In 1874 he was appointed 
Professor of History and assistant in 
Greek. His labors, however, extended 



600 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



to instruction in botany, physiology and 
English literature. About this time his 
valuable services became recognized by 
all. In 1878 the board of directors 
elected him to the chair of Greek and 
History. After this, for several years, 
he taught the Latin of the regular 
course, and also the English literature. 
He also lectures considerably upon po- 
litical economy, LTnited States Constitu- 
tion, and constitutional development. 

As instructor and professor he has 
served the college longer than any other 
member of the present faculty. 

In 1874 Prof. Prince became chair- 
man of the Prudential Committee, which 
is elected by the board of college di- 
rectors. In this position, which he has 
held ever since, by annual election, his 
splendid business abilities have been 
called out to the advantage of the col- 
lege, whose material interests are largely 
in the hands of this committee. 

He was elected chairman of the build- 
ing committee in 1883, and to him was 
assigned the duties of superintendent of 
construction. In this taxing labor of 
two years he proved himself a master in 
giving his church valuable service in 
the erection of her best college building. 
He has served the college as librarian 
since 1876, and as collector of tuition 
since 1878. 

His usefulness has extended beyond 



the college. He has been a frequent 
contributor to The Lutheran Evangelist and 
Witfenberger, and has also prepared an 
article of considerable worth on Dr. H. 
H. Muhlenberg in "Lives of the Leaders 
of our Church Universal." He has also 
been a member of the city board of 
school examiners for nearly fifteen years, 
in which position he has been enabled 
to direct the teacher to college life. In 
1881, at the earnest solicitation of his 
friends, he permitted his name to be 
used as a candidate for city council, to 
which he has been elected three times. 
He has been elected president of this 
body. As a member of council he has 
been enabled to secure much needed 
improvements for the benefit of stU(Jents 
and college people generally. 

He has been prominent in Spring- 
field, O., and in the, county in Sabbath- 
school work, and also as office bearer in 
the First Lutheran church in the city. 

In 1869 he married Miss Ella Sander- 
son, the intelligent and accomplished 
daughter of Col. J. P. Sanderson, of the 
regular army. 

He is the father of four children, 
three daughters and one son. 

"He mofit lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts th«^ best; 
And he whose heartbeats quickly lives the longest ; 
Lives in one honr more than do sonae in years 
Where fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins." 

— [History Wittenberg College. 



7W 



REV. L. K. PROBST. 



Rev. L. K. Probst, Secretary of the 
Board of Missions has his headquarters 
at Knoxville, Tenn , where he has or- 
ganized a promising English church, 
from which point he is expected to look 
after adjacent points. He is a Pennsyl- 
vanian by birth, and is 32 years of age. 
He graduated at Gettysburg college, 



class '76, and at the Theological Semi- 
nary at that place in '79. He was pastor 
of Wentworth street church, Charles- 
ton, S, C, for seven years. Two years 
ago he was elected Secretary of Mis- 
sions, and in that position' has im- 
pressed the Church with his en- 
ergy and practical ability. He is a wel- 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



eoi 



come visitor at all tlie Synods, super- 
vises all the women's societies, directs 
the missions, raises the funds, and ad- 
vises in the disbursement of them. He 
has laid plans which are sure to issue 
in larger operations and an increase of 
the power of the Lutheran church in 
the South. 



Secretary Probst is a man of fine 
social qualities and a consecrated Chris- 
tian worker whose life has been marked 
by self-denial and devotion to the church 
of his first love. His father is Rev. J. 
F. Probst, one of our faithful patriarchs. 




REV. FREDERICK H. QUITMAN, D.D. 



Frederick Henry Quitman, a son of 
Stephen Henry and Anna Quitman, was 
born August 7, 1760, in the Duchy of 
Cleves, in Westphalia. His father was 
a man of some consideration, and held 
an important office under the Prussian 
Government. The son, at an early age, 
gave indications of much more than 
common intellect and great love of 
books; in consequence of which it was 
determined that he should have the ad- 
vantage of a liberal education. He was 
accordingly placed in a celebrated 
school at Halle, from which he was 
afterwards transferred to the Univer- 
sity of the same city. His immedi- 
ate family friends were not in favor of 
his entering the ministry; but his pre- 
dilections for that profession were too 
strong to be yielded, and he therefore 
pursued a course of theological study 
with the ministry in view. There were, 
at that time, in the University of Halle, 
many professors of distinguished name, 
sach as Knapp, Niemeyer, Semler, etc., 
and, under the advantages which he here 
enjoyed, he made rapid progress in the 
various branches in which his attention 
was directed. 

After completing his academic course 
with high honor, he was employed two 
years as a private tutor in the family of 
the Prince of Waldeck. He now became 
connected with the Lutheran Consistory 
76 



of the United Provinces, and was or- 
dained by that body, with a view to be- 
coming pastor of the Lutheran Congre- 
gation in the Island of Curacgoa. In 
due time he assumed that charge, and 
remained there, greatly respected, four- 
teen years. In the summer of 1795 he 
was induced, by reason of political con- 
vulsions, to convey his wife and children 
to New York, though he fully intended, 
after a short time, to return to Holland. 
After his arrival here, however, circum- 
stances occurred adverse to his return, 
and favorable to his continuance; and 
he soon determined to spend the residue 
of his life on this side the Atlantic. He 
was especially impressed with the idea 
that there was a much wider field of 
usefulness open to him here than in his 
own country, and that the demand for 
laborers was also proportionally greater. 
Accordingly, he became the pastor of 
the associated churches of Schoharie and 
Kobleskill. Here he remained till 1798, 
when he took charge of the^churches of 
Rhinebeck, Wurtemberg, Germantown 
and Livingston. In 1815 he relin- 
quished the charge of the two last of 
these churches, having prevailed upon 
them to call a minister for themselsres; 
and, in 1824, he gave up the church of 
Wurtenberg also, in consequence of his 
increasing infirmities. In 1828 his 
health had become so much im- 



602 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



paired he found it necessary to retire 
from all public labors. His mind grad- 
ually lost its vigor, until, at length, 
scarcely a trace remained of what he 
had been in his better days. He died 
June 26, 1832, in the seventy-second 
year of his age. 

Dr. Quitman was married at Curacoa, 
in the year 1784 to Ann Elizabeth 
Hauyck, daughter of a merchant of that 
island. She died in the year 1803. In 
1805 he was married a second time, to 
Mary, the widow of Frederick Meyer, 
of New York, — a lady who had been 
commended to him by his first wife on 
her death-bed, as likely to make a good 



mother to her young children. She 
survived him many years, and died at 
Clermont, April 11, 1849, nearly eighty- 
eight years of age. Dr. Quitman had 
seven children, all by the first marriage. 
One of his sons, General Quitman, has 
been distinguished in both military and 
civil life. 

Dr. Quitman's publications are: A 
Treatise on Magic, or the Intercourse 
between Spirits and Men; An Evangeli- 
cal Catechism, or a short Exposition of 
the Principal Doctrines and Precepts of 
the Christian Keligion; Three Sermons 
on the Keformation by Luther; and a 
Hymn Book. — Sprague. 



EEY. P. A. EASMUSSEN. 



Eev. P. A. Easmusseh was born at 
Stavanger, Norway, January 9, 1829, 
the youngest of ten children. Until the 
age of fifteen he enjoyed all the educa- 
tional advantages of his native town. 
When fifteen years old he moved to 
Bergen, where for six years he found 
employment in one of the largest busi- 
ness houses. The year 1850 found him 
on a vepsel bound for America. The first 
winter was spent in the neighborhood of 
Neenah, Wis. In the spring of 1851 he 
came to Lisbon, 111., where he was to 
find a home and lifework. At first he 
taught school; and at this time his few 
spare hours were devoted to the transla- 
tion from German into Norwegian of 
Johan Arendt's postil. In 1853 a call 
was extended to him by the people 
found about Lisbon, to become their 
pastor. To fit himself better for this 
work he studied one year at Ft. Wayne, 
Ind. Palm Sunday, 1854, Dr. W. Sihler 
and Prof. A. Craemer ordained him. In 
1859 he went to Norway for the purpose 
of inducing men fit for the ministry to 
come to this country. The result was 



that I. Fjeld and N. Amlund came. In 
1863 he became a member of the Nor- 
wegian Synod. In 1871 Synod elected 
him member of the Church-Council. 
Together with Prof. F. A. Schmidt he 
was sent in 1873 to Drammen, Norway, 
to represent the Synod at the annual 
convention of the Mission Society of 
Norway. In 1876 the Eastern District 
of Synod elected him president; but he 
did not accept the position. T\ hen Dr. 
F. A. Schmidt, in 1880, took up arms 
against the doctrines of predestination 
as taught by the "Missourians," he from 
the first sympathized with him, but 
gradually became a firm supporter. In 
1883 the Eastern District again made 
him president; and again he refused to 
accept. At Austin, Minn., 1886, he took 
an active part in the establishment of 
the private theological seminary at 
Northfield, Minn. In 1887 he separated 
from the Norwegian Synod. Since that 
time he has warmly and strongly advo- 
cated the union-cause consummated at 
Minneapolis, Minn., June 13, 1890. At 
this meeting he was made chairman of 




Rev. p. a. Rasmussen. 

Page 602. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



603 



the Committee on Missions. Eev. P. 
A. Easmussen is still in charge oi the 
congregation at Lisbon, 111., where he 
has worked in the capacity of pastor 
daring thirty-six consecutive years. He 



has three sons who are also Lutheran 
ministers, Eev. Gerhard E., at present 
located at Madison, Wis., Eev. Henry 
E., located at Lanesboro, Minn., and 
Eev. Wilhelm E., at Elgin, 111. 




EEV. J. B. EATH. 



Eev. J. B. Eath was born on Febru- 
ary 14, 1834; in Lower Saucon town- 
ship, Northampton County, Pa., of hum- 
ble and respectable parents. A devoted 
father gave him all the advantage of a 
common school education. At the age 
of seventeen years he was confirmed by 
the Eev. Joshua Yeager. After teach- 
ing school in the very districts and 
school-houses in which his older bro- 
ther, Eev. Wm. Eath, had taught before 
him, and influenced by his precept and 
example, he was finally led to study for 
the ministry in the Lutheran church. 
He entered the preparatory department 
of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, 
in 1853, and graduated from the same 
institution in 1858, with honor, being 
the Salutatorian of his class. He en- 
tered the theological seminary of the 
same place in the fall, and in 1860 ap- 
peared before the Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania, in session in St. Paul's church, 
Philadelphia, as a candidate for ordina- 
tion. After due examination he was 
received and ordained, Eev. G. F. Kro- 
tel, D.D., preaching the ordination ser- 
mon. He received his first call from 
York, Pa., but was led to decline this 
and to accept another call from Nazareth, 
his native county, where he labored 
with great acceptance from 1860 to 1865, 
when he received and accepted a call 
from Salem congregation, Bethlehem, 
Pa. In connection with this congrega- 



tion, he also served at d'flPerent times, 
the congregations of Dryland, Farmers- 
ville, South Easton, Altona, Freemans- 
burg and South Bethlehem. By his 
efforts and labors he succeeded in hav- 
ing one division after another effected 
in this charge, so that where, in 1865, 
there was but one charge and one pas- 
tor, in 1872 there were four charges and 
four resident pastors. In the mean- 
time he also succeeded in securing a 
division between the Lutheran and the 
Eeformed congregation of Salem church 
and confining his labors to the one con- 
gregation; this grew and prospered un- 
der his faithful administration to such 
an extent, that it became evident to him 
and to others, that the time had come 
for an exclusively English congregation 
in Bethlehem. Followed by some of 
the leading members of Salem congre- 
gation, he went out, organized Grace 
church, and erected one of the finest 
church edifices in town, a model after 
which many neighboring congregations 
have copied, and a lasting monument to 
his zeal and devotion. To this congre- 
gation he gave his last days and strength 
and succeeded in building up an active 
and influential congregation in the 
Lutheran church. Eepeatedly he re- 
ceived most flattering calls from older 
and larger English churches, but he in- 
variably refused them, believing that 
duty called him to remain with Grace 



604 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



church. Here he remained until the 
Lord called him away. Devoted as he 
was to his people, his people were 
equally devoted to him, and nothing 
short of the clear and unmistakable de- 
cree of Providence would have recon- 
ciled them to the separation that was 
finally brought about by the hand of 
disease and death. After many years 
of intimate acquaintance with the de- 
ceased brother, we can most heartly en- 
dorse the following estimate of his 
character, given in his obituary on the 
day of his funeral: "He was a man of 
unsullied private character and of good 
report in the community where he lived 
and labored. His piety was sincere, 
consistent and modest. He was firm 
and decided in his convictions, and the 
aim of his life was to adorn the doctrine 
of God our Savior in all things." 

As a preacher he was clear and 
logical, and possessed special powers 
to illustrate the truth of God's word. 
As a pastor he was faithful, sympa- 
thetic, and succeeded in winning and 
retaining the love and esteem of those to 
whom he ministered. Even those from 
whom duty compelled him to differ were 
constrained to honor and esteem him 
for his fidelity to his convictions. His 
Synod, recognizing his ability and worth. 



elected him twice to the office of English 
Secretary, and twice to that of Treasurer, 
which office he held almost to the close 
of his life, his increasing feebleness and 
the great importance of the trust com- 
mitted to him alone compelling him to 
resign his office. Synod also repeatedly 
elected him a Trustee of Muhlenberg 
College. Here he also temporarily 
served with great satisfaction as Professor 
of the German language and literature. 
In connection with Eevs. F. W. Weis- 
kotten and W. A. Schaeffer, he conducted 
the Church Messenger, a monthly publica- 
tion that was very generally circulated 
throughout the Church. 

He was married to C. Elizabeth Sellers 
of Nazareth, Pa., June 25, 1861. Died 
of consumption, August 6, 1885. His 
wife and three children survive him. 
On Monday August 10, a large concourse 
of friends and relatives, and many mem- 
bers of his former congregations, together 
with some seventy ministers, followed 
his remains to their last resting place in 
Union Cemetery, Bethlehem. Kev. J. 
D. Schindel conducted the services at 
the house and the officers of Synod at 
the grave and in church, Eev. G. F. 
Krotel, D. D., preaching the funeral 
sermon from 2 Tim. iv, 6-8. — C. J. C. 




EEV. WILLIAM EATH 



Eev. Wm. Eath was the son of Jacob 
Eath and wife Susanna (Boehm). He 
was born in Upper Saucon, Lehigh Co., 
Pa., near Friedensville, on Sept. 23, 
1826, was baptized in infancy and con- 
firmed by Eev. Joshua Yeager, then 
pastor of the Lutheran congregation of 
Friedensville. His early years were 
spent on the farm of his father, near 



Hellertown, Upper Saucon, not far dis- 
tant from the place where he died. He 
worked on the farm until the spring of 
1844, when he entered the blacksmith 
shop with the intention of learning the 
trade of his father, but soon a sad afflic- 
tion visited the family — his dear mother, 
who ever held a hallowed place in his 
memory, died on May 4, 1844, leaving 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



605 



nine children in the care of his father. 
He soon found that he had to change 
his plan of life, and in the winter of 
1845 he began to teach school and con- 
tinued until the fall of 1846, when he 
went to Philadelphia to serve as sales- 
man in a dry goods house on Third street. 
In this position he remained for one 
year. During his stay in Philadelphia 
he regularly attended the services of 
Dr. Mayer, pastor of St. John's Lutheran 
church, on Race street, and was also a 
teacher in his Sunday school. 

During the winter of 1847-8 he again 
taught school, having been very suc- 
cessful in teaching, and in the spring of 
1848 he went to Gettysburg to attend 
Pennsylvania College. He spent two 
years at Gettysburg, when his health 
failed and he had to relinquish his 
studies there and return home. In De- 
cember, 1850, he began his studies for 
the ministry in the home and under 
the instruction of Rev. Jeremiah Schin- 
del, living then in the parsonage of 
Jordan Lutheran church, in South 
Whitehall, Lehigh Co. During his stay 
here he applied himself with great dili- 
gence and sincerity. His preceptor 
entertained the highest regard for him 
and ever bore testimony to his unwearied 
application and his unfeigned devotion 
to the work of his Lord and Master. In 
June, 1852, he easily passed his exami- 
nation and was licensed by the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania, at its annual meeting held in 
Lancaster. 

After his reception into the Ministe- 
rium he remained a short time with 
Rev. Schindel, and then received and 
accepted a call from four congregations 
in Northampton county, formerly served 
by Rev. Mendsen, namely, Towamensing, 
Cherryville, Moorestown and Stone 
Church. His home he had in Cherry- 
ville, After serving his field for five 



years in May, 1857, he received a call to 
take charge of the congregations long 
served by Rev. Benjamin German, and 
more recently by Rev. Vogelbach. The 
charge consisted of four congregations, 
namely, Salisbury, Zionville, Blue 
Church and Appel's. During this time 
he also served St. Paul's Lutheran con- 
gregation at Catasauqua until 1861, 
when he was succeeded there by Rev. 
F. J. F. Schantz. In the fall of 1859 he 
became pastor of the Upper Saucon 
Lutheran congregation, near Freemans- 
burg, and served the same until 1870, 
when he was succeeded by Rev. C. J. 
Cooper. During 1858 to 1859 he served 
the Lutheran congregations at Mickley's 
and during 1861-2 the congregation at 
Cedar Creek. Hellertown congregation 
he organized and served until 1881, 
when he was succeeded by Rev. W. J. 
Bieber. He also organized and served 
St. John's of Emaus, and the Lutheran 
congregation in Solomon's church, 
Macungie. In the "fall of 1857 he re- 
ceived a call to the "Swamp charge," in 
Montgomery county, but felt in duty 
bound to decline the same. During the 
last three years of his ministry and up 
to his death he had pastoral charge of 
Salisbury and Zionsville, having re- 
signed Blue church and Appel's, where 
he was succeeded by the Rev. Elias 
Yehl. He preached his last sermon in 
Zionsville on Easter Sunday, April 21, 
1889. He was taken sick shortly after 
this and was not again able to gratify 
his longing to preach once more in 
Salisbury. 

In the year 1882 he celebrated the 
twenty -fifth anniversary in the four con- 
gregations forming the original charge. 
Very interesting services were held in 
these different churches and many tokens 
of high regard and evidences of devotion 
to him were presented. It brought 
great comfort and encouragement to the 



608 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



faithful pastor's heart. His records show 
that during his ministry of thirty-seven 
years he baptized 3718, married 1031, 
and buried 1466. 

Besides the work in his own congre- 
gations he did a great amount of work 
for Synod, Conference and the church 
institutions. He was intimately con- 
nected and identified with the welfare 
of Muhlenberg College. He was a trus- 
tee in its board from the very beginning, 
and was relieved two years ago at his 
own request. He served as president of 
the board from 1876 to 1886 and was 
the father of the present amended 
charter of the college. 

He was president of the Second Dis- 
trict Conference from 1871 to 1877 and 
from 1883 to 1886. Some of the most 
trying ordeals through which this con- 
ference has been compelled to pass took 
place during his time of service. Many 
sleepless nights and restless days were 
given by him in the discharge of his 
duties. Many times had he to appear 
at the Court of Justice to give testimony 
in the interest of Conference. In the 
Synod he was not less useful and active. 
He served on many important commit- 
tees, and rendered much important 
service to the Church. For a long time 
he served with the late lamented Dr. B. 
M. Schmucker on the committee to revise 
the Constitution of the Ministerium. 

Rev. Mr. Rath was a man of more 
than ordinary ability. Being more or 
less of a timid, reticent disposition, his 
real worth and ability were not so well 
known. In the inner circle of his more 
intimate friends he was himself and his 
real merits there came to the surface. 
He was well versed and grounded in 
the history and theology of his church, 
and was a very decided, confessional 
type of Lutheranism. He had no re- 
spect for mere sentimentalism. There 
was with him no compromise of the 



truth for the sake of mere policy or 
social considerations. As a preacher he 
was clear, thoroughly evangelical and 
eminently practical. He was firm and 
steadfast in his convictions, resolute and 
determined in purpose and conscientious 
in every particular. In his habits he 
was economical and punctual and in his 
intercourse with others he was polite 
and gentlemanly. He commanded re- 
spect from every one that had the 
pleasure of knowing and meeting him. 
He was fondly attached to his home and 
family. "There is no place like home," 
he would often say. His children were 
near and dear to him and he was much 
concerned in their temporal and spirit- 
ual welfare. He had the great satisfac- 
tion of having his only son as his 
assistant and successor. 

He was married Dec. 26, 1853, to 
Christiana Elizabeth Snyder, daughter 
of the late Jonas Snyder and wife Sarah 
(Flick). With unfaltering devotion 
she ministered to him during his long 
illness and received his parting words 
on his dying bed. Four children were 
born to them, viz.: Rev. Myron O., 
Laura Alma, Mary Elizabeth who de- 
parted this life in infancy, and Sarah 
Susanna. 

His sickness was general debility, re- 
sulting, in particular, from an attack of 
typhoid fever during the severe epidemic 
in Allentown of typhoid fever in 1886. 
During the meeting of the Second Con- 
ference, April, 1889, in Stroudsburg, the 
President of Conference was directed to 
convey to the sick brother the sincere 
sympathy and the prayers of the Confer- 
ence. This action was a sweet consola- 
tion to him and he returned, in his own 
writing, a feeling reply, which will be 
read at the next meeting of the Confer- 



ence, 



He died at his country residence, near 
Centre Valley, Tuesday forenoon, July 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



607 



2d, 1889, at eleven o'clock. He was sur- 
rounded during his final struggle by his 
wife and children, who comforted him 
in his dying hours and followed him to 



the dark valley, through which the good 
Lord Jesus alone could accompany him. 
The Lord is his shepherd, he shall not 
want. — Allentown Chronicle and News. 




REV. ABRAHAM RECK. 



Rev. Reck was one of the founders of 
the Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. He 
was born in Littlestown, York Co., Pa., 
Jan. 2, 1790, and died at Lancaster, 
Ohio, May 18, 1869, aged 75 years. He 
was licensed to preach in 1812, and 
accepted a call to Winchester in 1813. 
He did a large amount of missionary 
work in the earlier part of his ministry. 
In 1828 he took charge of the churches 
in the Middletown, Md., pastorate. 
Here he remained nine years and was 
greatly successful. In 1836 he removed 
to Indianapolis, where he continued his 



missionary labors and established nine 
Lutheran churches in the surrounding 
country. In 1841 he went to Cincinnati, 
where he organized a church amid 
unparalleled difficulties. In 1845 he 
pitched his tent in Germantown, Ohio, 
where he remained three years. We 
next find him in Tarleton, Ohio, and 
finally, 1852, in Lancaster, Ohio, where 
he died. For a more extended bio- 
graphical sketch see ' 'Fifty Years in the 
Lutheran Ministry", by Rev. J. G. 
Norris, D.D., LL.D. 




REV. KARL F. W. RECHENBERG. 



Rev. Karl Friederich Wilhelm Rechen- 
berg was born at Barnickow, Prussia, 
Feb. 10, 1817. Having finished a course 
at the seminary of the Berlin Mission 
Society (1835-1840), he emigrated to 
America, arriving at New York, Jan. 6, 
1 841. Upon the removal of Rev . Kempes 
to Boston, he took charge of St. John's 
Church at Syracuse, which he served 
for over fourteen years. In 1855 he 
became pastor of the first German Evan- 
gelical Lutheran congregation at Albany. 
In 1857 he was called to take charge of 
the congregation at Toronto, Canada, 
where he remained over twelve years, 
whereupon he labored about five years 



in Montreal. He was the president and 
one of the founders of the Canada 
Synod. For some time he edited the 
Canada Kirchenblatt, the official organ of 
the Synod. For a number of years he 
was chairman of the synodical mission 
committee, and devoted much of his time 
and interest to missionary work. In 
1875 he removed to Portchester, West- 
chester Co., N. Y., where he died Dec. 
12, 1877. In 1875 he joined the New 
York Ministerium. His wife was Anna 
Elizabeth, nee Scott, with whom he had 
thirteen children, of whom six survived 
him. 



608 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. HENEY EECK. 



Born in Adams County, Pa., Aug. 24, 
1829, and returning thither in 1881 to 
secure the change of climate and entire 
rest which it was hoped would restore 
his wasting frame, Eev. Henry Eeck, 
Professor of Mental Philosophy and of 
the English Language in Augustana 
College, Eock Island, was called to his 
heavenly home Oct. 27, 1881, at the age 
of 52 years, 2 months and 3 days. 

What busy, fruitful years ! After 
graduation at Pennsylvania College and 
the Gettysburg Theological Seminary, 
Prof. Eeck was ordained in 1855 by the 
Pittsburg Synod at Canton, O. His life 
was equally divided between the East 
and the West. For sixteen years he was 
actively engaged in missionary and pas- 
toral labors in South Pittsburg, iVlle- 
ghany City, and elsewhere. During this 
period he was associated w^ith Eev. Dr. 
Passavant in the care of the orphans' 
homes at Eochester, Pa., and Jackson- 
ville, 111. Trained in this practical 
school he responded to the call of the 
Swedish brethren in the West, and in 
1871 entered on twenty years of service 



in connection with Augustana College, 
then at Paxton, but subsequently re- 
moved to Eock Island. 

His colleague, Eev. Prof. Lyster, 
writes of him: "Blessed, until the last 
year, with a robust and vigorous consti- 
tion, and with great buoyancy of spirit, 
he carried to all his duties the ardor of 
hope and the power of a firm purpose 
and strong will. As a teacher he was 
conscientious and laborious. He was 
endowed with excellent organizing and 
administrative ability. Entrusted with 
the general superintendence of the ex- 
ternal and economic affairs of the insti- 
tution he was always prompt in his 
attention to all details." 

As this was the period of development 
his services to the institution were inval- 
uable, and found hearty recognition on 
the part of the Synod, which made gen- 
erous provision for the widow. 

His thorough identification with the 
Synod is evidenced by the fact that he 
acquired a sufficient mastery of Swedish 
to use it in conversation, and even in 
the pulpit. His devotion to the Lord's 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



609 



work is seen in the other fact that, over- 
burdened as he was by labors at Eock 
Island, he for some months weekly un- 
dertook the long journey to Chicago, in 
order to supply the vacant pulpit of the 
First English Lutheran Mission, now 
Holy Trinity. "His pulpit style was 
marked by simplicity and clearness. 



Warmth of feeling and earnestness of 
manner were qualities which belonged 
to all his pulpit efforts." 

His widow, Mrs. Anna R. Eeck, form- 
erly Miss Wehring, of Carroll Co., Md., 
conducted a young ladies' seminary in a 
building erected for her use by the 
Augustana Synod until her death. 



T^K 



EEV. J. B. REMENSNYDEE, D.D. 



Rev. Junius B. Remensnyder was 
born near Staunton, Ya., Feb. 24, 1842. 
His grandfather. Rev. G. H. R., a graduate 
of the University of Goettingen, came 
to this country in his youth, was one of 
the founders of the Yirginia Synod. 
His father, John Junius R., was a 
Lutheran minister, distinguished for his 
scholarly style as a writer. He is still 
living in Sunbury , Pa . Of a line of clergy- 
men, it was natural that Junius B. 
should select the clerical profession. 
While his father was pastor in Milton, 
Pa., he was sent to Pennsylvania College. 
Such has been his proficiency in mathe- 
matics that, though but in his sixteenth 
year, he was not required to recite in it 
during the freshman year. During his 
collegiate days he enjoyed a reputation 
as an orator and leader of the students. 
Having graduated in his twentieth year, 
he began the study of law. Carried only 
by patriotic fervor he enlisted in the 
army, and served for a year. He was 
engaged in the battles of Antietam, 
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. 
For his daring rescue of the regimental 
colors at Fredericksburg, he was thanked 
in a personal letter by the brigade 
commander. Returning, he abandoned 
the law for the ministry, and in 1865 
graduated at the Gettysburg Theological 
Seminary. He entered the seminary an 

77 



earnest partisan of the prevalent, reviv- 
alistic and non-liturgical Lutheranism, 
and at first sided emphatically with Dr. S. 
S. Schmucker. But the study of Kurtz's 
Church History opened his mind to the 
treasures of distinctive and churchly 
Lutheranism. He found that the Luth- 
eran church had an historical character, 
and that he was in sympathy with it as 
the finest ideal of the church of Christ. 
This standpoint once taken, has influ- 
enced his whole subsequent life. 

His first charge was in the General 
Synod, at Lewistown, Pa., from 1865-67. 
From 1867-74 he was pastor of St. 
Luke's at Philadelphia, in the General 
Council. Here on June 28, 1870, he 
was married to Miss Emma Louise 
Wagner. Two children, Ralph, 13 years 
old, and Mabel, 5 years, resulted from 
this union. From 1874 to 1880 he was 
pastor of the Lutheran Church at 
Savannah, Ga. Here his pastorate was 
notable through the erection of the 
largest and most beautiful edifice in the 
Southern Lutheran Church. While a 
delegate to the General Synod South at 
Staunton, he moved the appointment 
of the Committee to correspond with 
the Northern General Synod and Gen- 
eral Council which finally resulted in 
the adoption of the Common Service- 
He thus became the historical author 



610 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of that great enterprise. In 1881 lie 
was called to the pastorate of the church 
of St. James, New York City. Here, 
under his personal supervision and 
in accordance with his ideas, the con- 
gregation has erected perhaps the most 
tasteful and churchly Lutheran edifice 
in this country. It is in the very finest 
quarter of the metropolis, and will 
doubtless become a powerful factor in 
the American Lutheran Church. 

Dr. Eemensnyder received the doc- 
torate from Newberry College, South 
Carolina, in 1880. 

He is the author of a number of pam- 
phlets, chief among which is the Work 
and Personality of Luther, 1883. He 
has published the following octavo vol- 
umes: "Heavenward" pp 174, Philadel- 
phia, 1874; ''Doom Eternal, or the Bible 
and Church Doctrine of Everlasting 
Punishment," pp 407, New York, 1880, 
and in 1886, Philadelphia; ''The Six 
Days of Creation," an attempt to il- 
luminate the truth of the creation story, 
from the discoveries of science. He is 
a frequent contributor to the papers 
and reviews of his own church, and 
also writes occasionaly f or other religious 
publications as the Homiletie Review, 
Independent, etc. He is of the positive 
type, having decided convictions, and 
energy in advancing them. According- 



ly, he is frequently heard on the floor 
of controversy, both in the Synods and 
journals of the church. He is a con- 
spicuous advocate of the common ser- 
vice, holding it to be one of the most 
effective levers of the unity and pro- 
gress and influence of the Lutheran 
church. 

Dr Eemensnyder is by nature a fluent 
public speaker, and for years spoke 
without notes. With maturing ideas 
and culture, he chose the written style 
of sermonizing as that which could be 
made the most original, scholarly, terse 
and pointed, leaving all the speaker's 
personal force to be thrown into his 
delivery. While he uses the extem- 
poraneous method frequently, his pre- 
ference is for the former, as a rule. One 
entirely new sermon he makes it a rule 
to prepare every week. He preaches 
in the gown, and believes in a full but 
modest worship by the people, and in a 
union by the venerated forms of the 
liturgy, with the Christians of the past. 
While thus most decided in his love for 
Lutheran theology and cultus, he main- 
tains fraternal relations with other de- 
nominations and has a large circle of 
intimate personal friends among the 
leading non-Lutheran clergy of New 
York city. 




PROF. THEODOR S. EEIMESTAD. 



Prof. Theodor S. Eeimestad was born 
in a district called Jadern in the neigh- 
borhood of Stavanger, Norway, on the 
28th of April, 1858. His father being 
a Christian school-teacher, the son Theo- 
dor received a good education while yet 
very young. When twelve years old he 
entered Aanestad's high school, from 



which he was graduated two years later 
in 1872. Immediately after his gradua- 
tion from this high school, he emigrated 
to America with his parents. Here they 
settled in Ackley, Iowa, where Mr. 
Eeimestad entered the Ackley graded 
school, and later the English school at 
Aurelia, Iowa. In the fall of 1875 he 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



611 




PROF. THEODOE S. EEIMESTAD. 



entered the Augsburg seminary at Min- 
neapolis, Minn., from whence he was 
graduated with "baccalaureus artium" 
in the spring of 1880. Three years 
later he was graduated from the theolo- 
gical department of the Augsburg semi- 
nary and ordained to the holy office of 
the ministry. He served tl^ following 
congregations in Wisconsin: York, Ar- 



gyle, Adams, Primrose, and Blanchard- 
ville. In 1885 he was made professor 
in the college department of the Augs- 
burg seminary, which position he still 
occupies. In 1888 Prof. Reimestad re- 
ceived the unsolicited nomination for 
Lieutenant-Governor of the state of 
Minnesota, by one of the political 
parties. 



EEV. LAURITZ A. RHODIUS, A.M. 



Very meager accounts remain con- 
cerning this early American Lutheran 
Pioneer pastor. From "Almiudelig 
dansk Prastehistorie" by Eev. S. V. 
Viberg, Vol. Ill, p. 530, we learn that 
Pastor Lauritz Andersen Ehodius, M. A., 
served as pastor for the tobacco pro- 
ducing Islands in America iu 1656. He 
was a son of Alderman in Helsingor, 
Denmark, Mr. L. Christensen Ehode. 
He was graduated from Helsingor in 
1661, became Master of Arts, 1680, and 
was for a while assistant pastor at 



Frederiksborg. He was married [three 
times, first to Magdalene, born Hansen 
Schade, with whom he had a son and a 
daughter; and then to Ester, born 
Erdmann, with whom he had one son; 
and finally to Anna Maria, born Melhorn. 
His father is mentioned in "Kirkehis- 
toriske Samlinger," as an highly esteemed 
person and translator of religious works. 
Upon Rev. Ehodius' return to Denmark 
he was promoted to the position of 
Provost at Lolland. — Andersen's Hist. 



612 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REV. S. A. REPASS, D.D. 



Among the conservative theologians 
of the English portion of our church is 
the Rev. Dr. Repass, of Allentown. His 
life has been spent almost entirely in 
the South, and in the south-western part 
of Virginia. Born Nov. 25, 1838, in 
Wythe Co.', Va., his parents being Rufus 
and Sally Repass, he was confirmed at 
eighteen and next entered the Prepara- 
tory Department of Roanoke College, 
Salem, Va. * Near the close of his junior 
year, in the spring of 1863, he enlisted 
in the Confederate army and was present 
at the battles of the army of Northern 
Virginia. At Gettysburg, he command- 
ed a company in Pickett's Division, and 
was taken prisoner during the famous 
charge of his division, July 3, 1863. 
Twenty-one months he spent as a mili- 
tary prisoner on Johnson's Island, Lake 
Erie. 

A matured and experienced man, he 
resumed his interrupted college course 
and graduated in 1866. Then followed 
three years at the Philadelphia Seminary 



under its faculty, — the two Schaeffers, 
Mann, Krauth, and Krotel, — graduation 
and ordination by the Pennyslvania 
Sjmod. 

The pastorates he has filled are that 
of the College church at Salem, Va., 
1869-72; Stajinton, Va., one year 1884-5, 
and Allentown, Pa., St. John's (also 
attended by the college students) since 
July, 1885. During the Salem pastorate 
he organized St. Marks, Roanoke, and 
erected the earliest church building. 

The interval from 1873 to 1884 was 
spent as president of the theological 
seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran 
General Synod South, located at Salem, 
Va. Though the number of students 
was never at any one time very large, 
yet in the course of these years many 
candidates for the ministry received 
their theological impress from the judi- 
cious and dignified president. Dr. R , 
made Doctor of Divinity by the Hamp- 
ton-Sydney College, has been sought by 
numerous educational institutions, as 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



613 



Roanoke College, which chose him 
President, the revived theological semin- 
ary at Newberry, S. C, Thiel College, 
Agustana College, etc., a testimony to 
his skill and fame as an instructor. 

He served as secretary of the Synod 
of South-western Virginia. In 1871-2 
he was president of the General Synod 
South. He was a member of the Com- 
mittee on the Common Service, from the 
Church South. 

At the second Lutheran Diet in Phil- 
adelphia, 1873, he read a paper on "The 



Conservatism of the Lutheran Church 
in Doctrine and Cultus." Another on 
"The Fixed and the Variable in Luther- 
an ism" appears in the Lutheran Church 
Review, 1883. In October 1890, "Tlie 
Christian Ministry Considered in its 
Relation to 'The Apostolic Succession.' " 
His name also appears to other review 
articles and to editorials in The Church 
Messenger. 

In 1870 he was married to Miss Fannie 
E. Hancock, of Southwest Virginia. 




REV. PROF. LARS S. REQUE, A.M. 



Prof. Lars S. Reque was born on a 
farm in the town of Deerfield, Dane 
County, Wisconsin, on the 12th of Au- 
gust, 1848. His father was one of the 
early Norwegian pioneers of this coun- 
try, having emigrated from Voss in 
1845. Prof. Reque received his early 
training chiefly in the common school. 
He was also sent to private and paroch- 



ial schools, but owing to their itinerate 
character at that time, his attendance 
was necessarily irregular and limited. 
At fourteen he was sent to Decorah, 
Iowa, to enter Luther college, which 
had just been established at that place, 
and from which he was graduated after 
a six years' course in 1868. He spent 
another year at college as post-graduate 



614 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



giving his attention chiefly to the study 
of languages. In 1869 he entered the 
Concordia theological seminary at St. 
Louis, Mo. But having contracted a 
malignant eye disease, he was forced to 
discontinue his studies for some time, 
and the next three years were given 
partly to foreign travel, partly to teach- 
ing. Having noticed that law-books are 
uniformly printed in large, clear type, 
he finally decided to take up the study 
of law, and entered the law department 
of the Iowa State University, from 
which he received his diploma as LL. 
B., in 1874. He was admitted to the 
bar of Iowa, and spent some time in the 
office of Judge Willett, in Decorah. 
But fearing that his failing health 
should not be equal to the strain which 
the building up of a law practice would 
necessarily impose, he temporarily ac- 
cepted a teacher's position at St. Olaf's 
school, which was then being established 
at Northfield, Minn. The following year, 



1875, he was preparing to settle down 
as a lawyer in the then far west, but 
was prevailed upon to accept a call as 
regular professor at Luther college. 
This positton he has since held, his 
principal branches being English and 
Latin. In 1881 he obtained a year's 
leave of absence, spending the greater 
portion of that time in travel, visiting 
England, France and Italy. Upon his 
return in 1882, he was married to Miss 
Margarita Brandt, and is now the hap- 
py father of a family of four children. 
Owing to his legal education, he has al- 
ways taken a keen interest in the great 
political questions before the people, 
and being thoroughly convinced of the 
injustice of the present exorbitant pro- 
tective tariff, he allowed himself to be 
put forward as the chief standard bearer 
in his congressional district in the tariff- 
reform movement of 1888. He was de- 
feated with his party. 



EEY. M. EHODES, D. D. 



Dr. Ehodes was born of poor but 
Godly parents in Williamsburg, Blair 
Co., Pa., April 14, 1837, and was 
baptized in the Lutheran faith in infancy 
by the Eev. Jacob Martin. His early 
educational advan tages were very lim ited . 
His common school education was such 
as the times afforded. He selected the 
mercantile profession as his life pursuit. 
He was confirmed by Eev. J. A. Delo 
in the Lutheran church in North Wash- 
ington, Pa., When he was twenty-two 
years of age he felt that he must study 
for the ministry and immediately address- 
ed himself to the great undertaking. 
By night and by day, as he was driving 
to Pittsburg, 210 miles from his home, 



he studied his Latin and Greek, and 
recited privately on his return. Subse- 
quently he entered the Sunberry 
Academy, in which he continued until 
the breaking out of the war. By this 
time, by very hard work, much persist- 
ancy, and self-denial, he had gained a 
sufficient knowledge of Latin and Greek 
to be ready for the sophomore class in 
college; but he had no money and could 
therefore not go. The war broke the 
school up. He went then to the Mis- 
sionary Institute founded by Dr. 
Ben j amen Kurtz, and located at Selins- 
grove. Pa. After a year's study in the 
theological department, he was licensed 
to preach, his first charge being in 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



615 




Sunberry, Northumberland Co., Pa., 
where he remained five years. 

His second charge was at Lebanon, Pa., 
where he also remained five years. In 
December, 1871, he came to St. Louis, 
Mo., where he began a mission with 
thirty members, now a strong congrega- 
tion of about 500 members. 

Dr. Rhodes is an eminent leader in 
our church, and is highly esteemed by 
ministers and people of all evangelical 
denominations as an uncompromising 
defender of the faith. He has frequently 
appeared before the religious public as 
an author, and his productions have 
always received a hearty welcome. 

The following works, which are highly 
commended by the press, are from his 
pen: 



Life Thoughts for Young Men, Life 
Thoughts for Young Women, Expository 
Lectures on Phillipians, Recognition m 
Heaven, Words of Counsel to Young 
Christians — A Confirmation Address, 
My Duty to my Church, A Christian 
Home, The Crime of Suicide, The Grace 
of Giving, The True Glory of Young 
Men — A Lecture. 

Lenten Lectures on the Evidences. 
Delivered in St. George's Episcopal 
Church, St. Louis, Mo, by Rev. S. J. 
Nichols, D. D. ; Rev. W. V. Tudor, D. D. ; 
Rev. C. S. Masden, D.D.; Rev. W. G. 
Merrill; Rev. W. W. Boyd, D.D.; Rev. 
M. Rhodes, D. D.; Vital Questions; 
Throne of Grace. 




616 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. JAMES W. EICHAED, D.D. 



James William Eichard, Professor of 
Sacred Philology in Wittenberg The- 
ological Seminary, is a native of Fred- 
erick county, Ya. He was born near 
Winchester, Feb. 14, ]84:3. He was the 
oldest of a family of four children, two 
sons and two daughters. His father, 
Henry P. Eichard, who is still living at 
the old home near Winchester, was a 
native of the same county, and a farmer, 
as were his ancestors for several genera- 
tions preceding, who were all of pure 
German extraction. Dr. Richard's 
mother, who is also living, is the 
daughter of German parents by the 
name of Eosenberger. His great grand- 
father, who came to this country from 
Germany, about the middle of the last 
century, was a soldier in the Eevolution- 
ary war. 

Dr. Eichard's early training was such 
as is found in a Christian home. His 
early education was gotten at the com- 
mon district schools, which he attended 
about three months of each year in the 



winter, sharing all the experiences that 
were peculiar to Virginia country schools 
and school boys of that time. The 
intervening summers were spent among 
the healthy influences of a country 
home. In the fall of 1861, at the age 
of eighteen, he left home and went to 
Roanoke college, where he entered the 
freshman class, for which he had been 
prepared by private instruction received 
from his pastor, Eev. Jacob Summers, 
who lived quite near his home. He 
only remained at Eoanoke until the 
spring of 1862, and then returned home 
because of the war of the rebellion 
which was in progress at that time. 
He remained out of college about 
three years, part of which time was 
spent in teaching and the remain- 
der on the farm at his home, where 
he labored subject to the discourage- 
ments and disadvantages brought about 
by the armies which were actively 
operating in that part of the country 
during the whole period of the war, the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



617 



town of Winchester having changed 
hands, between the Union and Con- 
federate armies, eighty-fonr times during 
the Rebellion. In September of 1864 
he determined to go north where he 
could pursue his educational inclina- 
tions. Leaving home one Friday morn- 
ing he traveled all day on foot through 
the woods aud by-ways flanking the two 
armies, until he reached the Potomac 
river where he hired a man to ferry him 
over for twenty-five cents, in an old 
leaky boat. Having reached Hagers- 
town with nineteen dollars and seventy- 
five cents in his pocket, he was so for- 
tunate as to secure a school, and began 
teaching the following Monday morning 
a week after he left his home. During 
the winter of 1864-65, he taught school 
near Hagerstown, Md., and thereby 
secured the means which enabled him 
to go to Pennsylvania College in 1865, 
where he entered the Freshman class, 
which was then two-thirds advanced. 
He became a member of the Phrenakos- 
mian Literary Society which he, as 
orator, represented at its anniversary, 
1868. He graduated in 1868 with fourth 
honor. In the fall of the same year he 
entered the Gettysburg Theological Sem- 
inary, where he took the full three years 
course. During about half of which 
time (1869-70) he was tutor in the 
college in connection with his theolog- 
ical studies. In 1870 he received license 
to preach, and in 1871 was ordained a 
minister of the gospel, and became pastor 
of the Lutheran church at Empire, 111., 
where he remained laboring with marked 
success until 1873. June 19, 1872, he 
was married to Miss Matilda E. Tressler, 
daughter of the late Colonel John 
Tressler, of Loysville, Pa., founder of 
the Orphan's Home at that place. They 
had but one child, a daughter, who died 
at the age of eleven years. In 1873 he 
was elected to, and accepted, the chair 
78 



of Latin and History in Carthage Col- 
lege, Carthage, 111. In 1880, he became 
pastor of the college church, which grew 
rapidly under his pastoral care and 
preaching. Here he was brought directly 
before the people, and his ability as a 
preacher aud thinker became more 
widely known. As a professor in college 
he was always recognized as a most 
diligent student, and a man of clear 
insight and ability to impart knowledge 
to the mind of the student. 

In the fall of 1883, after having spent 
ten years as teacher in Carthage College, 
he was elected secretary of the Board 
of Church Extension of the General 
Synod Lutheran church. The same 
year he moved his family to York, Penn- 
sylvania. He served actively in this 
office for two years. In June, 1885, he 
was elected to the "Culler" chair of 
Sacred Philology in Wittenberg Theo- 
logical Seminary, which he accepted, 
and began his labor September, 1885. 
He delivered his inaugural address in 
the First Lutheran church at Spring- 
field, June, 1886. In June of the same 
year the degree. Doctor of Divinity, was 
conferred upon him by Pennsylvania 
college. Since his coming to Wittenberg, 
he has created a deep interest in the 
study of Sacred Philology. He is a 
thorough scholar, especiallyTin^this 
branch. His work in Wittenberg has 
been a decided success. He is loved 
and respected by not only the entire 
corps of instructors in the college, but 
especially by his students. He is rec- 
ognized by all as a thorough scholastic 
Dogmatist. In 1879 Dr. Richard acted 
as secretary of the General Synod, at 
Wooster, O. In 1886 he delivered an 
address before the Alumni of his Alma 
Mater; in 1873 he published a sermon on 
the ^'Burning of Chicago," which cre- 
ated considerable favorable comment by 
the press. He is a frequent contributor 



618 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



to the Lutheran Observer, Lutheran Quar- 
terly, Lutheran Missionary Journal, Andover 
Review, Lutheran Evangelist, Methodist Re- 



view, New York Independent, etc.— Hist, 
Wittenb. College. 




>:>*->:- ,'.^5^>'V 



KEY. MATTHIAS H. EICHAEDS, D.D. 



Rev Matthias Henry Richards, D. D., 
is of that family which the church de- 
lights to honor. He is a great-grandson 
of the patriarch H. M. Muhlenberg, 
and the son of a distinguished divine, 
the Rev. John Wm. Richards, D.D. 
He was born in Philadelphia dur- 
ing his father's pastorate of St. 
Michael's, Germantown. Having grad- 
uated from the Reading high school 
he entered Pennsylvania College, from 
which he was graduated with honors in 
1860. After a course in theology at the 
Gettysburg Seminary he was ordained 
by the Pennsylvania Ministerium. His 
life thenceforth was divided between the 
pulpit and the professor's chair. From 
1864 to 1868 he was pastor first of St. 
James' Evangelical Lutheran church, 



Greenwich, N. J., and then of Grace 
English Lutheran church, Phillipsburg, 
N. J., which he organized. Again dur- 
ing the collegiate years 1874-6 he was 
pastor at Indianapolis, Ind., and sub- 
sequently, in connection with his pro- 
fessorial duties, he filled the pulpit of 
Trinity church, Catasauqua. Frequent 
demands of this nature are made on him 
as he is one of the most thoughtful and 
suggestive preachers in our communion. 
In his sermons he makes much use of 
quaint and homely illustrations, and ex- 
hausts the figurative language of his 
text or the applications -of his illustra- 
tion without exhausting the hearer. 

These qualities appear in his class- 
room work. There he is unique. Called 
in 1868 to the chair of English Lan- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



619 



guage and Literature in Muhlenberg 
College, Allentown, Pa., then in its 
second year, he has filled that post, with 
the exception of the years 1874-6, to the 
present time, teaching in addition Latin 
and Moral and Mental Philosophy. 
Nature and education had qualified him 
for the task. Gifted with a mind as 
delicate and refined as his countenance 
and figure, he may be fitly called the 
Sydney Smith of our church, bril- 
liant in his ready wit and profoundly 
practical in his philosophy. He is a 
prince of talkers, dropping pearls and 
proverbs in the greatest profusion, and 
capable of extracting sermons from 
stones, and good from everything. He 
possesses, in a high degree, the power 
of fertilizing other minds. In the 
broadest sense of the term he is an 
educator. He is in demand as an after- 



dinner speaker. Occasionally, too, he 
indulges in poetry. 

Though he has published no books, 
he has written a vast deal for the press, 
as editor for a number of years of the 
English Sunday-school publications of 
the General Council, to-wit: the Church 
Lesson Leaves and the Helper, and as one 
of the editors of The Lutheran for seven 
years past. He has also contributed 
articles to the church reviews. He has 
been secretary of the public school board 
of Allentown. Pennsylvania College 
made him a Doctor of Divinity in 
June, 1889. 

He was married in June, 1866, to 
Sarah M., daughter of Hon. Moses 
McClean, of Gettysburg. His family 
consists of a son, Rev. John W. Rich- 
ards, first pastor of the English Lutheran 
church at Sayre, Pa., and four daughters. 




REV. JOHN W. RICHARDS, D.D. 



John W. Richards was born in Read- 
ing, Pa., on the 18th of April, 1803. 
He was a son of Matthias Richards, for 
many years an Associate Judge of the 
Courts in Berks County, and grandson 
of the Rev. Dr. Henry Melchoir Muh- 
lenberg, the apostle of Lutheranism on 
this Western Continent. He had the 
benefit of a thoroughly Christian educa- 
tion, and, in 1819, when in his sixteenth 
year, made a public profession of 
religion, uniting himself with Trinity 
Church, Reading, of which Dr. H. A. 
Muhlenberg was then pastor. His 
classical studies were pursued chiefly 
under the instruction of the Rev. Dr. 
John Grier, who was then principal of 
the academy in his native place. In 
1821, having completed his academical 



course, he commenced the study of 
theology, under the direction of his 
pastor, Dr. Muhlenberg, and remained 
with him till the autumn of 1821, when 
he applied to the Synod of Pennsylvania 
for license to preach the Gospel. He 
was, accordingly, solemnly set apart to 
the ministry, and he remained connected 
with this body, and highly respected 
and often honored by it, till the close 
of life. 

His first charge embraced the Church 
at New Holland, Lancaster County, and 
four other congregations in the vicinity. 
In the spring of 1831 he resigned this 
charge, and removed to the Trappe, 
Montgomery County, which had been 
the scene of his grandfather's early 
labors. In 1836 he received and 



620 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



accepted a call to German town, Pa., 
where he remained till the autumn of 
1845, when he became pastor of St. 
John's Church, Easton, Pa. Here, as 
in the places where he had been pre- 
viously settled, he preached in both the 
English and German languages, and 
his labors were attended with a manifest 
blessing. During his residence here he 
held the Professorship of the German 
Language and Literature in Lafayette 
College. His attachments at Easton 
had become very strong; but, being 
invited, in the spring of 1851, to take 
charge of Trinity Church, Reading, in 
which he had been brought up, then 
vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr. 
Miller, he felt impelled, by a strong 
sense of duty, to accept the invitation. 
It was on many accounts a difficult 
field; and it was the general opinion of 
his brethren that he possessed peculiar 
qualifications for occupying it to advan- 
tage. He was, accordingly, transferred 
to Reading, and he met the diffic^ulties 
which he had to encounter with so 
much prudence and kindness that he 
soon became the favorite of all classes. 
The church grew in spiritual prosperi- 
ty, and every thing seemed auspicious 
of a highly acceptable and successful 
ministry. 

But the bright hopes, which the com- 
mencement of his labors here awakened, 
were destined to be quickly blasted. 
He had suffered, at different periods, 



from an affection of the heart, though 
his general health had been so good 
that no serious consequences had been 
'apprehended. On the morning of his 
death he was as well as usual, and was 
called to attend the funeral of one of 
his flock. He suffered considerable 
• pain during the service, and as soon as 
jit had closed returned home. He was 
[assisted to his bed, and medical aid was 
(immediately called, but the physician 
arrived only to see him a corpse. He 
expired without a groan, within less 
than fifteen minutes after he had 
reached his house. He died on the 24th 
of January, 1854, in the fifty-first year 
of his age. Two funeral sermons were 
preached — one by Dr. Baker in the 
English language, and one by Dr. 
Demme, in the German language. 

He was honored with the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from Jefferson Col- 
lege, in 1852. 

He was married on the 21st of May, 
1835, to Andora, daughter of Henry 
Garber, of Montgomery County, Pa. 
Mrs. Richards survived him, the mother 
of four children. 

Dr. Richards published a sermon 
preached at the close of his ministry at 
Easton, in 1851, and a sermon preached 
on the Centenary Jubilee of the Evan- 
gelical church, at the Trappe, Pa. He 
also contributed occasionally to the 
pages of the Evangelical Review. — Sprague. 




REV. X. J. RICHARDSON. 



Rev. X. J. Richardson was born at 
Fredericksburg, Ya., June 17, 1821, and 

peacefully passed away from the toils and 
trials of earth, on Sabbath evening, 



September 22, 1889, age 68 years, 3 
months, and 15 days. 

It is a matter of regret that compara- 
tively few particulars in the early life of 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



621 



this brother beloved in the Lord can be 
recalled at this time. Of his boyhood 
and school days no information is now 
at hand. But there is a blessed com- 
pensation in the thought, that there was 
laid even then, no doubt, that foundation 
of religious experience which has left to 
the church a work impressed with his 
piety and faithfulness, and among the 
people where he lived and labored a 
memory that will long be held, as it 
justly should, in high esteem. The 
earliest event in his life that has been 
brought to knowledge of the writer is 
the removal of his parents to Augusta 
county, Va. 

Here as a young man he engaged in 
1846 in teaching school and studied 
theology privately, with a view of pre- 
paring himself for the gospel ministry, 
an office in which he displayed rich 
spiritual attainments, and the endow- 
ments of a mind trained under many 
disadvantages compared with these days, 
but thoroughly consecrated to the work 
of Christ. During the two years thus 
spent he had frequent opportunities for 
the exercise of his gifts in preaching for 
the pastor of Frieden's church, Rev. J. 
J. Sum an, and also for other ministers. 
The exemplary life. Christian deport- 
ment and full promise of future useful- 
ness manifested by the young student 
are thus recalled by Eev. P. Miller, of 
WardensvilJe, W. Ya., in a letter to the 
bereaved family of the deceased: "He 
was a frequent, welcome, visitor at our 
house. My parents and my wife's 
parents were warm friends of his, and 
my father said more than once, during 
those years, that the student and young 
preacher would become a success in the 
ministry." How well this prediction 
has been verified is attested by the work 
accomplished in all the pastorates served 
during his active ministry, which con- 
tinued almost to the close of his life. 



In May, 1848, he was licensed by the 
Virginia Synod at New Market to preach 
the gospel. He engaged forthwith in 
the work at Capon Springs, Hamp- 
shire Co., where, in a ministry of five 
years, his earnest and faithful labors 
were attended with great success. Be- 
ginning with one organization, a mem- 
bership of not over twenty, and receiving 
from the Missionary Society the nominal 
aid of sixty dollars, brother Bichardson 
took hold of the work in faith in the 
Lord, and when he left the charge, five 
churches with a membership of 116 
attested that he was "a workman that 
needeth not to be ashamed." 

In May, 1850, he was ordained in 
Hebron Church, Madison county, Ya. 
In this church memorial services were 
arranged for the first Sunday of this 
month — a fitting recognition at once of 
his ordination, his labors in "the field 
of his first faithful toils, his earnest 
prayers, his anxious tears and his joyful 
success," there and elsewhere. The 
following year he was elected Secretary 
of Synod, to which office he was re- 
elected the next two succeeding: years. 

In 1853 he was called to take charge 
of the Mt. Tabor pastorate in Augusta 
county. During his labors here, noth- 
ing special has come to the knowledge 
of the writer, except his election to the 
Presidency of the Synod, in which his 
official acts would seem to have been 
discharged in an acceptable and judici- 
ous manner, if we are to judge from his 
re-election the following year. 

After serving the charge seven years 
he removed, in 1860, to the large and 
laborious field of Lovettsville, where 
he spent thirteen years of his ministe- 
rial life. During this time two new 
churches were built and one repaired. 
Although his labors in preaching and 
in the pastoral office, incident to so 
large a charge, were no doubt sufficient 



622 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



of themselves to employ all liis time, 
without the additional labor of col- 
lecting most of the money needed for 
these improvements, yet so untiring 
and faithful was he in whatever he un- 
dertook, that "he succeeded in raising 
the church to a very high degree of 
prosperity." 

Removing from Lovettsville, he be- 
gan his labors September 1st, 1872, at 
Smithsburg, Md., consisting of four 
congregations, with a membership 
spread over an extensive territory. 
Here he labored amid many difficulties 
and with great self-denial, but with a 
determination to honor the Master, and 
such a degree of the Divine blessings 
attended the work that the charge hav- 
ing reached a total membership of 614, 
was on the 14th of August, 1880, 
amicably divided into two pastorates — 
Leitersburg and Beards constituting 
one, now served by the efficient Secre- 
tary of the Maryland Synod, under 
whose leadarship an excellent parson- 
age was built and the church exten- 
sively remodeled. The newly formed 
Smithsburg charge at once elected 
brother Richardson, and he was in- 
stalled as its pastor by Rev. C. L. Keedy 
and the writer, January 6th, 1881. After 
a few years, physical disabilities, which 
would have laid many others wholly 
aside, began to manifest themselves, and 
while they interfered at times with the 
regular discharge of his labors, yet with 
characteristic energy and determination 
he denied himself the rest so much 
needed. Hoping against hope and toil- 
ing until further toil became impossible, 
he finally resigned, June 30th, 1887, 
after a continuous service of fourteen 
years and ten months in this portion of 
the original charge. He continued to 
reside and go among the people whom 
he had so long and so faithfully served, 
but though preaching occasionally, his 



infimities only increased as time ad- 
vanced. He was confined to his bed for 
five weeks and he passed quietly to that 
land where the inhabitants shall never 
say "I am sick." 

Brother Richardson was married 
September 25, 1845, to Miss Mary Ann 
Shank, by Rev. S. Allenbaugh. From 
this union there were nine children, 
five sons and four daughters. Of the 
latter, two preceded the father to the 
eternal world. Of the sons, G. A. is 
engaged in the practice of medicine at 
Hyattsville, Md.; Jas. L. is engaged in 
business in Washington; P. M. is em- 
ployed in the Government service in 
Washington, D. C. ; W. Spener is reading 
medicine, and A. Frank has taken up 
the work laid down by the father, and 
is the active and popular pastor at 
Carmel, W. Ya. Of the daughters, 
Melissa A. is married to E. O. Hilde- 
brand, and living in Smithsburg, and 
Sudie M. remains with her widowed 
mother. 

Brother Richardson was a man of no 
ordinary character. As a Christian, his 
piety was not of a negative and formal 
type, but a life in the soul — a principle 
that governed his actions and appeared 
in all his labors. In his intercourse 
with his brethren he was always frank 
and cordial, willing even to make per- 
sonal sac-rifice to confer a favor. 

He was endowed with a clear mind 
and a sound judgment. A vigorous 
thinker, he was always prompt and sure 
in reaching conclusions. His attendance 
upon Synod and Conference was regarded 
by himself as a sacred duty. The con- 
ference of which he was so long a mem- 
ber had come to regard any discussion 
as incomplete without an expression of 
his views upon the subject under con- 
sideration. 

His preaching was plain and simple, 
but strictly logical and eminently in- 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



623 



structive. Whenever he delivered the 
Gospel message he produced the convic- 
tion that he preached not himself, but 
was filled with zeal for the glory of 
Christ and a sincere love for the souls 
of men. 

As a pastor he was diligent, faithful, 
and wise in the discharge of his official 
duties. He was ever a willing laborer 
in the Lord's vineyard, and the great 
regret of his closing days was his in- 
ability to engage actively in the work 
of ministry. More than once did he 
say to his successor, the writer of this 
tribute, "I never did anything in my 
life that was so hard to do, as doing 
nothing." "His influence," writes the 
brother previously referred to, ''was 
almost unlimited in the churches he 
served in this pastorate. And to this 
day his name is a household word in 
many families here. It is verily true 
of him that ''being dead he yet speaketh." 



Thus lived and died a man who was 
never honored with titles, but whose 
attainments, mental and spiritual, would 
no doubt have entitled him to receive 
them, and reflected credit upon any 
institution that would have conferred 
them. He has passed away, but his 
work abides. "The workman dies, but 
the work goes on." He has entered into 
rest and holds communion with holy and 
happy beings, and above all with that 
Saviour who was near to sustain him in 
his dying hour. May we be prepared 
to follow the Lord's will as he did, that 
when we are called hence it may be to 
receive the reward of true and faithful 
servants. Till then we would say — 

"Servant of God, well done; 

Rest from thy loved employ; 
The battle fought, the vict'ry won, 
Enter thy Master's joy." 

—[J. B. Keller. 



KEY. ALEXANDER RIOHTER, A.M. 



Rev. Alexander Richter, A.M., was 
born at Ohlau, Province of Silesia, 
kingdom of Prussia, Sept. 25, 1851. He 
went through a German Gymnasium, 
passed the regular state examination for 
admission to a university, and attended 
the university at Breslau, as student of 
theology. During that time he also 
served a year in the Prussian army, as 
required in that country. In 1874 he 
came to this country, entered the Luth- 
eran Theological Seminary at Phila- 
delphia in 1875, and took, in addition to 
his previous studies in the old country, 
the full course of three years in order to 
thoroughly acquaint himself with the 
language and customs of this country. 
He graduated in 1878 and became as- 



sistant of Rev. J. T. Yogelbach at St. 
Jacobus', Philadelphia, Pa., who had 
suffered a stroke of paralysis and was 
unable to discharge his pastoral duties. 
In the same year he married Rev. 
Vogelbach's youngest daughter Bertha. 
After Pastor Vogelbach's death he 
was elected pastor of St. Jacobus'. In 
1881 he took charge of Zion's church, 
Rochester, N. Y., where he remained 
until December, 1890, accepting a very 
flattering, urgent and unanimous call to 
St. Matthews' church of Hoboken, N. J. 
His congregation was very loath to let 
him go, for he had labored among them 
with manifest blessing and great success. 
Besides starting a mission which is 
about to become a separate and self-sus- 



624 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. ALEXANDEE KICHTEE, A.M. 



taining congregation, he was instru- 
mental in founding an institution, at 
that time called "The Lutheran Gro- 
seminary," but since then favorably and 
widely known as Wagner Memorial 
College, where boys of our congrega- 
tions are educated for the ministry in 
the German and English languages, 
preparatory to their entering the Theo- 
logical Seminary of Mount Airy, Phila- 
delphia. The college belongs now to 
the New York Ministerium, and Rev. 



Richter is president of its board. In 
June, 1890, he was elected President of 
the New York Ministerium for a term 
of three years, and is as such also Yice- 
President of the General Council. Since 
1888 he is chairman of the German 
Home Mission Committee of the General 
Council, of which he was a member 
before. For the last two years he was 
editor of Siloah, the paper issued by 
that committee in the interest of the 
German Home Mission. 




EEY. PETER RIZER. 



Rev. Peter Rizer was the son of Martin 
and Catherine (Bowers) Rizer, who re- 
moved from Yirginia to Cumberland, 
Md., where the subject of this sketch 
was born May 7, 1812. He was educated 
at the academy of his native city before 
attending the theological seminary in 



Gettysburg, Pa., from which he gradu- 
ated in 1832. 

Being early impressed with the idea 
that the 'Lord had need of him' he at 
once entered the ministry of the Luth- 
eran church, serving his first congrega- 
tion at Boonsboro, Md. Several years 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



625 



later he went into the missionary field, 
laboring extensively among the Indians 
of South Carolina and Georgia, traveling 
many miles on horse-back, through a 
country which, at that time, was noth- 
ing more than a wilderness. During 
this time he translated part of the Bible 
into the Indian dialect. 

Upon leaving this mission field he 
immediately accepted a call to Indiana, 
but before going to his new home in 
the "far-west," as it was in those days 
considered, he married Miss Margaret 
Peterson Rogers, a daughter of Col. 
John H. Rogers, of Baltimore, Md. 

After serving congregations in Cum- 
berland, Ind., Dayton, O., and Somerset, 
Pa,, he moved to Sunbury, Pa., where 
he was stationed when the war began, 
and was appointed Chaplain of the 
79th New York (Highland) Regiment 
of which Col. James Cameron had 
charge. He served this regiment some 
time, and was .ordered south with Gen. 
Sherman's expedition, and remained un- 
til contracting the Hiltonhead fever, 
and was compelled to resign his position. 
Recovering health he returned to church 



work, and after the war, labored in 
Oswego, N. Y., New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland. 

In 1875 his wife died, a blow from 
which he never recovered, after which 
he wedded himself more than ever to 
his books, although he was always a 
close student. He was a prominent 
linguist, and could speak six languages, 
being particularly fond of the Hebrew, 
in which tongue, besides German and 
English, he daily read the Bible. A 
fine scholar and an able fluent preacher, 
yet our brother's chief desire, his high- 
est ambition was to win souls to Christ, 
and to work with all earnestness for 
Him, who had "called him with a holy 
calling." 

Thus peacefully, after more than two 
years of great suflPering, he entered into 
"rest", at the residence of his daughter, 
in Montgomery Co., Md., August 25th, 
1886, aged 74 years. 

Lawrence Rizer, a Lutheran minister, 
who died a few years after entering the 
ministry, when only 30 years old, was a 
brother of Rev. Peter Rizer. 




REV. ANDREAS RONNEBERG. 



Rev. Andreas Ronneberg was born in 
Stavanger, Norway, Nov. 7, 1881. Near- 
ly twenty years were spent in Christiania, 
the capital of Norway, where he partly 
attended the university lectures, and 
partly labored as teacher in some of the 
higher schools. In 1874 he received a 
call from the Norwegian Lutheran 
churches in Muskego and North Cape, 
Wis., which he accepted, coming to 
79 



America in September, 1875. Im- 
mediately after his arrival he was or- 
dained by Rev. Koren and entered upon 
his duties as pastor of the said congre- 
gations, which he served for nine years. 
He then accepted a call to Black River 
Falls and Little Norse congregations, 
where he continued to labor until the 
day of his death, which occurred Wed- 
nesday evening, April 9, 1891. 



626 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. D. L. ROTH. 



In 'tlie name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ! Amen. 

In response to the request of the Eev. 
J. C. Jensson, I write the following au- 
tobiography. My father was Lewis 
Eoth, born in Northampton Co., Pa., 
October 17, 1813, and my mother, Lydia, 
nee Buchle. At [the time of my birth, 
Oct, 25, 1847, he was Burgess of the 
town of Prospect, Butler Co., Pa., and 
master blacksmith. 

My earliest recollection is that I car- 
ried a little foot stool from the house 
and tried to put it in the wagon, which 
was moving our household goods to the 
new building, wherein my father began 
the mercantile business. I was then 
three years old. I had the advantage 
of good Christian training. When I 
was fourteen, father bought the old 
home farm and we moved to it. There 
I had a good time until I was sixteen, 
when I was put to the boarding-school 
at Leechburg, Pa. I lived in the family 
of the Eev. L. M. Kuhns. My music 



teacher was Miss Mary Stewart, whose 
father was for many years editor of the 
Presbyterian Banner, Through a few 
words spoken by her, to me, when I was 
in an impressible mood, I was led to 
Christ. That marks a new era in my 
life. 

I was now confirmed Feb. 11, 1865, in 
Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church, 
Leechburg, and for a time all went well. 
But the impression laid hold upon me 
at this time that if I completed the col- 
lege course for which I was preparing I 
must become a minister of the gospel, 
and for this I was not ready. I was 
afraid of the responsibilities and refused 
to submit. I have since learned that I 
was not the first to say Nolo Episeopari. 
Four years I fought against God on this 
point. I gave up school, learned the 
carpenter trade, taught school, worked 
on the farm and enjoyed life immensely, 
only that my conscience would not let 
me rest. I had a great delight in mili- 
tary exercises; even now I cannot see a 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



627 



sword without an instinctive desire to 
grasp and wave it. I had endeavored to 
enlist in the civil war but was refused on 
account of my youth aud my father's 
protest. I ran away from home once to 
help capture Morgan, but as all the 
others returned when he was taken I 
came back too. I was employed as a 
clerk in a store in my native place, and 
as it was doing a good business and my 
father offered to settle me in it by pur- 
chasing a partnership for me, I consid- 
ered that my lot in life at last was fixed. 

But now the great question arose in 
its magnitude. I was a constant Bible 
student, readiug the Bible through each 
year during this period of my life. Tn 
the course of my reading I long before 
had come upon that passionate exclama- 
tion of St. Paul (1 Cor. 9:16): "Woe is 
unto me if I preach not the gospel." 
The thought itself had cost me four 
years of mental conflict and now that 
the decision must be made it came up 
with renewed intensity, but God helped 
me and I decided rightly. I refused 
the offer which was to settle me in mer- 
cantile life, and returned to my books. 
After that my conscience was at peace. 

I entered Thiel Hall. After its incor- 
poration I was the first matriculated 
student of Thiel College. Along with 
G. H. Gerberding and J. A. J. Zahn of 
blessed memory I went from Thiel at 
the conclusion of the Sophomore year 
and completed my course in Muhlenberg 
College, from whence I graduated in 
1873. In 1876 I finished my course in 
the Theological Seminary at Philadel- 
phia and went at once to Lunenburg, 
Nova Scotia, where I had spent the 
previous summer. I was united in 
marriage August 17, 1876, with Melina 
the fourth daughter of Jacob Wagner 
and Helena nee Heic, his wife. We 
have lived happily together and God 
has blessed our union with children to 



the complete, mystical, sacred number 
of seven. At Lunenburg I found things, 
owing to the change from the German 
to the English, in great disorder, but 
with God's help what I thought would 
be the work of my whole life was accom- 
plished in a few years. The congrega- 
tion grew from a scattered handful to 
over 700 members, and peace and order 
prevailed. While here, in 1881, I 
published a book on The Ten Command- 
ments entitled "Our Schoolmaster," 
which was quite successful. 

In 1884 a call came to me from Butler, 
the county seat of my native county, 
and feeling that another could carry on 
my work, that I had expatriated myself 
long enough, and with a natural desire 
to return to the friends of my youth and 
the home of my childhood, I accepted 
the call. I found the congregation in 
a pitiful condition. After an existence 
of forty years up to that time on the 
funds of Synod and only eighty com- 
municants left in active connection with 
the church. For two years I was almost 
hopeless; but God helped me and two 
years later, when I accepted the call to 
the mission in Albany, I had the satis- 
faction of seeing the congregation out 
of debt, its number grown to 250 and 
enthusiasm for the good work all along 
the line. 

July 13, 1889, I was elected paetor of 
the newly organized Church of the 
Eedeemer, Albany, N. Y., and in Decem- 
ber following was formally installed. 
I am now bringing out a book entitled 
"Acadia and the Acadians," embodying 
the history of the Nova Scotia churches. 
The enterprise is for the benefit of the 
mission in which I am laboring and 
gives fair promise of success. God 
helps the man who helps himself, and 
I mean to make this mission help itself 
by selling this book, and I think God 
and the Lutherans of the United States 



628 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



will help me. My one condition of 
surrender to God, when I made up my 
mind to be a preacher of the Gospel 
was that I should win many souls, and 
this is my aim and highest desire in 



life. I do not expect to change it until 
I be called home to Him whose I am 
and whom I serve. And in this desire 
I pray God to keep me steadfast and 
help me to the end. — Amen. 




EEY. H. W. EOTH, D.D. 



In any assembly of the church where 
Heary Warren Eoth sits, he is sure to 
be a conspicuous figure, both for the 
large head, crowned with a profusion of 
hair, and for the forceful remarks ac- 
companied with the flashing of the 
lustrous eye, and the entire action of 
the whole body. Dr. Eoth is of Ger- 
man and Moravian stock, being a de- 
scendant of Eev. John Eoth, for twenty- 
five years, from 1859, a missionary among 
the Indians in Pennsylvania and Ohio. 
Dr. Eoth's life has been spent chiefly in 
Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. He 
was born April 5th, 1838, at Prospect, 
Butler County, Pa. His parents were 
Lewis Eoth and Lydia, maiden name 
Buchle, or Beighley. He attended school 
at Bethlehem, Pa., in 1852 and '53, and 
taught public school near Prospect, 
during the winter of 1853-4, and 1854-5, 
and near Ironton, 1855-6. Having pre- 
viously taken a course at the Conno- 



quenesong Academy, Zelienople, Pa., he 
eutered the Freshman class, Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburg, Pa., in 1857, 
from which he graduated with honor in 
1861. In 1882 he was a member of the 
Alumni committee on Semi-centennial 
of his Alma Mater. Commissioned as 
catechist, he carried along the double 
task of building up Grace English Luth- 
eran Mission, Birmingham, Pittsburg, 
Pa., and studying theology in Western 
Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., 
taking a private course in dogmatic the- 
ology. He has been connected with 
but one synod, the Pittsburg Synod, by 
which he was ordained June 2, 1865, at 
Wheeling, West Virginia. He was chap- 
lain of Pittsburg Infirmary for several 
years. During 1867-9 he was secretary, 
and 1871-3 president of the Synod. He 
was also English secretary of the Eead- 
ing convention, 1866, and of the first 
three meetings of the General Council. 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



629 



In 1871 his ten years arduous work at 
Grace church ended. He left it April 
1st a self-sustaining charge, with a church 
and fine pastor's home. 

The strength of the man has been 
given to the cause of education. After 
serving for years on the synodical com- 
mittee on education, he was elected in 
1870, first professor in Thiel College, 
then located at Phillipsburg, Pa. In 
1871 he removed with the college to 
Greenville, Pa., serving as president of 
the institution from 1875 to 1887. To 
his diligence, self-sacrifice, and arduous 
labor is due the evolution of Thiel 
Academy into a full-blown college, with 
a graduating class of twenty-two in 1887. 
The Doctor's generalship was severely 
tasked during this painful period. Stu- 
dents had to be gathered from Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and Canada, which was 
successfully accomplished on many jour- 
neys, to and fro. Struggling youth had 
to be assisted from an over-burdened 
treasury, and the whole mass of young 
men and women to be moulded into 
forms of studiousness and Christianity. 
His loving care rescued and inspired 
many, who from their places in the min- 
isterial ranks, or in business positions 
have aided in all the work of the church. 
His retirement in 1887 was the signal 
for a great outburst of popular affec- 
tion. We quote the following from The 
Greenville Argus : 

REV. DE. ROTH HONORED. 

In view of the resignation of Eev. Dr. 
H. VV. Roth, President of the Thiel Col- 
lege, and the acceptance of the same by 
the Board of Trustees, and the conse- 
quent probable removal of the Doctor 
from our place, it was deemed proper 
that he should not be permitted to go 
without some public notice being taken 
of the event; accordingly a meeting of 
citizens was called, and when the even- 



ing came, the house was well filled by 
an intelligent audience composed of 
representative ladies and gentlemen of 
the town. In the audience, too, were 
quite a number of the leading members 
of the Lutheran General Council, in 
session in this place at the time. 

J. T. Blair, General Manager of the 
S. & A. R. R., presided, and in taking 
the chair made a few pertinent remarks. 
Rev. C. B. Wakefield, pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church, led in prayer. A 
F. Henlein, Esq., chairman of the com- 
mittee on resolutions, presented the fol- 
lowing, which were adopted. 

The citizens of the borough of Green- 
ville, assembled in the Opera House on 
the ninth day of September, A. D., 1887, 
to tender a public reception to H W. 
Roth, desirous of expressing their ap- 
preciation of the learning, high char- 
acter, and integrity of one of their num- 
ber, and their love and esteem for him, 
and their disappointment at the unex- 
pected termination of his official con- 
nection with Thiel College, to which in- 
stitution he has given the best part of 
his life and ability, have unanimously 
adopted the following resolutions: 

Resolved, 1. That in Dr. Roth his fel- 
low citizens and neighbors have always 
found a kind and generous friend, a wise 
counselor and an upright man, one 
whose public and private life have been 
a high example to the young men of the 
college and this community, and to whose 
efforts, largely, the present prosperity 
of the college is due. 

2. That in the performance of the ar- 
duous duties of his position as Presi- 
dent and preacher. Dr. Roth has filled 
the measure of duty, never refusing to 
f<acrifice his own interests to the welfare 
of the college, or turning a deaf ear to 
the calls of charity, at once performing 
well the duties of President, and by his 
kindly words and unassuming life and 



630 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Christian character preaching a prac- 
tical sermon every day of his life for 
all of us. 

3. That the citizens of the borough, 
having contributed considerable sums 
to the construction and support of Thiel 
College, and being interested for this 
and many other reasons in the continued 
prosperity of the institution, deeply de- 
plore the acceptance of the resignation 
of Dr. Eoth as president, and hope that 
the Board of Trustees may be able to 
find another man equal to him in char- 
acter, learning and integrity, and who 
may occupy the same position in the 
hearts of his neighbors that Dr. Eoth 
always has. 

4. That we extend to Dr. Roth our 
best wishes for continued success in 
whatever position he may occupy, with 
the hope that he may go forward in his 
work of doing good with renewed effort, 
encouraged by a firm belief in Him who 
doeth all things well. 

A. F. Henlein, 
J. E. Brittain, 
Beeiah Mossman. 
Brief remarks were then made by 
Rev. 8. H. Eisenberg, of the Reformed 
church, Rev. C. S. Tinker, of the Bap- 
tist church, Hon J. C. Brown, Wm. 
Achre, E. S. Templeton, Esq., and F. 
H. Keller, Esq. Rev. J. R. Brittain, D. 
D , of the U. P. church then took the 
platform and in an admirable presenta- 
tion speech, presented Dr. Roth with a 
valuable gold watch, accompanied by a 
list of the names of those who contri- 
buted towards purchasing it. 

When all this was over it was not 
difficult to imagine that Dr. Roth would 
find himself somewhat overwhelmed, 
and in a bad condition for a response; 
but with much feeling and abundant 
evidence that he appreciated the very 
kindly words that had been spoken of 
him, as well as the beautiful gift be- 



stowed upon him, he succeeded in mak- 
a brief, and very modest, but touching 
reply. 

The whole affair was quite a success, 
and nothing was said or done which 
ought to be offensive to any one. Dr. 
Roth made a strong appeal in behalf of 
Thiel College and of his successor, 
whoever he may be, and the sentiment 
was universal that the interests of Thiel 
College must always be kept in view and 
promoted by all honorable means. 

Several ladies of the Euterpean 
Society, favored the audience with some 
choice music. The Independent Band 
was also present and enlivened the 
proceedings by several of their choice 
pieces of music. 



June 15, 1876, he was married to 
Elizabeth T. Houston, of Indiana, Pa., 
and on June 17, 1884, he received from 
Westminster College, New Washington, 
Pa., the honorary title of D. D. 

During his college career Dr. Eoth 
acted as supply for several churches, 
such as Trinity, Greenville (which he 
nursed into self-support), Erie, Pa., 
Eochester, West Liberty, Butler Co., 
etc., and thus proved himself a worthy 
member of the great home-missionary 
synod of his love. The summers of 
1873 and 1874 he spent in Nova Scotia, 
preaching and encouraging our scattered 
people there, and securing for the 
synodical connection, and opening the 
way, for the present Nova Scotia Con- 
ference of the Pittsburg Synod. 

From the College he stepped, Jan. 1, 
1888, into an important field, taking 
charge of Wicker Park English Luth- 
eran Church, Chicago, 111., a field which, 
however, called for all his tact, energy, 
and address. In this position he still 
remains, devoting part of his time to 
the institutions founded by Dr. Passa- 
vant at Chicago, Jacksonville, 111., and 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



631 



Milwaukee, which he generally visits 
once or twice a month. He speaks of it 
as "a privilege and a blessing of his 
spiritual life to be associated with Dr. 
Passavant in the fields of Christian 
labor." Diverted from authorship by 
the pressure of official duties, Dr. Roth 
has given to the press numerous sermons, 
and baccalaureate discourses, and still 
charms a large circle of Workmen readers 
by the racy sketches of "H. ^Y. R." 
There must be a good deal of poetry in 
Dr. Roth, as much croj)s out in his 
speeches and letters. His f and of apt 



illustration is inexhaustible. Ever 
ready with the right word and the 
graceful thought, he is in great demand 
as a lecturer and an occasional speaker 
at dedications and the like. He is 
especially felicitous in his impromptus. 
On the graver themes of the everlasting 
gospel he discourses with vigor, unction 
and melting pathos, delighting to press 
home the joyous assurance of salvation 
through faith in the Crucified, and on 
impenetent ones the duty of instantane- 
ous and unreserved surrender to Christ. 




REY. T. B. ROTH. A.M. 



Rev. Theophilus B. Roth, A.M., pastor 
of the Church of the Redeemer, Utica, 
N. Y., was born at Prospect, Pa., 1853. 
He entered Thiel Hall in 1868 and 
graduated in 1874 in the first class of 
what is now Thiel College, taking the 
first honor. He was instructor in Latin 
at Thiel College 1874-76. Entered 
middle class Philadelphia Theological 
Seminary, 1876. While in seminary 
organized St. Peter's Church, Philadel- 



phia, and served it to close of seminary 
course in 1878. In the winter of 1878 
he was sent to organize the Lutheran 
church in Utica, N. Y., which congrega- 
tion he has served till the present time. 
Missions at Albany, Binghamton, Syra- 
cuse and elswhere in Central New York, 
organized and self-sustaining without 
Synodical aid, attest God's blessing on 
his work. 

In 1886, he began a parish paper 



632 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



known as the Utica Lutheran. In 1889 
it was merged with Our Church Work of 
Philadelphia, under the name of the 
Young Lutheran, under which title it has 
rolled up a subscription list at the rate 
of about 1300 new subscribers per month 
— a thing without a paralled in the his- 
tory of Lutheran publications in America . 
Its present circulation is over 35,000. 
The writer of this sketch regards the 
Young Lutheran as the most helpful paper 
for general parish circulation in the 
whole journalistic field. Every issue is 
brim full of useful facts and the tone is 
always bracing to weak nerves. The 
editor takes no stock in lukewarm 
Lutheranism and believes in a brilliant 
campaign. The younger generation of 
our German and Scandinavian com- 



municants who want a first-class English 
paper of a churchly type, can get the 
Young Lutheran at almost a nominal cost 
and will always find it worthy of a wide 
circulation. Pastor Roth hides his 
personality behind the work of Christ 
for which he is daily spending all his 
time, talents and strength. He is no 
uncertain runner and never fights as 
one that beateth the air; but strikes 
right at the work of our high calling in 
Christ as the leaders of Protestant re- 
form. As a successful Home Mission 
worker his record is an inspiration to 
the Church. He is a Lutheran of the 
confessional type, who respects litur- 
gical usages while giving due attention 
to spiritual ministrations. 




REV. DEWALDT ROTHACKER. 



Rev. Dewaldt Rotn acker was born 
March 30, 1805, in Franklin Co., Pa. 
He was baptized in infancy, and in 
later years confirmed a member of the 
Evangelical Lutheran church. 

In 1825, at the age of twenty years, he 
began preparation for the gospel min- 
istry under the direction of the venerable 
Father J. Mechling. Father Rothacker 
remained one year and ten months in 
study. During his course of study he 
sustained himself by occasionally teach- 
ing school. He also spent some time 
under the tuition of Rev. Father Stanch. 

On June 18th of the same year (1829) 
Father Rothacker was examined and 
licensed to preach by the Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Ohio. On July 1 he 
entered upon the duties of his first 
charge at Centerville, Columbiana Co., 
C, now Carrollton, Carroll Co.,0. Father 
Rothacker was married to Anna C. Geiger, 



Oct. 12, 1831. This union was blessed 
with seven children, one of whom and 
the mother preceded him into eternity. 
Father Rothacker married his second 
wife, a Miss Maria Bahl, of Wayne Co., 
Sept. 10, 1868. The happiness of these 
sacred ties lasted but thirteen months, 
when a second loving and Christian 
wife was called to her eternal rest. 

In the forty-eight years of Father 
Rothacker's active ministry he served 
but two charges — Carrollton and Doyles- 
town. The Carrollton charge consisted 
of ten congregations — Zion's church, 
Carroll Co., O.; Sawyer's church, Rum- 
by church, Harrison Co., O.; Sandyville, 
Tuscarawas Co., Zion's church, Harri- 
son Co.; Jerusalem church, Carroll Co.; 
Waynesburg, Stark Co.; Emanuel's, Car- 
roll Co.; Killgore, Carroll Co., O. A 
number of these congregations Father 
Rothacker organized. He remained in 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



633 



this charsfe twenty-one years and eight 
months. 

In 1851 Father Rothacker moved to 
Dovlestown, Wayne Co., O., and re- 
mained in active service twenty-six 
years and four months. This charge 
was composed of four congregations — 
Zion's. Doylestown, Wavne Co.: St. 
Michael's, near Marshallville, Wavne 
Co.: Salem's, Loyal Oak, Summit Co.; 
Madison hnrsr, Wavne Co. 

In 1864 Father Rothacker, on account 
of declining health, resigned at Madi- 
sonburg. and in 1874. at Loyal Oak. 
He continued serving Zion's and St. 
Michael's congregations until March 25, 
1877, when the infirmities of age com- 
Delled him to quit the active ministry. 
But he was still devoted to the cause. 
After his retirement from active service, 
he frequently most heartily responded 
to calls of strangers, and children in 
Christ, in the performance of ministerial 
acts. He frequentlv looked back over 
his past work with the greatest pleasure, 
satisfied that the faith he held and in 
which he had confirmed so ^many was 
"The faith once delivered to the saints," 



i. e., "Justification alone through faith.' 

Though Father Rothacker had no 
more material interests at Doylestown, 
when he resigned, than a small home, 
saved by careful economy, yet he pre- 
ferred to remain among his old flock and 
kneel with them at the same altar 'from 
which he had so many years broken the 
bread of life. He was a man of the 
highest sterling worth : his deeds were 
honestv personified; his words, truth 
electrified. He was looked upon bv 
both young and old of the communitv at 
large and by the ecclesiastical body with 
which he was connected as a careful, 
considerate adviser, and an exemplary 
man. His education and customs were 
primitive, yet his dogmatic and practical 
theology were thoroughly Lutheran. 

During the forty-eight years of Father 
Rothacker 's active ministrv he preached 
6,506 sermons, baptized 2,463, confirmed 
1,521, buried 642, administered com- 
munion to 38,703, married 495. 

Father Rothacker attained the ripe 
old age of 82 years, 4 months and 2 da vs. 

The obsequies took place Thursday, 
Aug. 4, 1887, at 2 p. m. — G. A. Bierdemann. 



7^ 



REV. S. ROTHROCK, D. D. 



One of the most highly respected and 
most generally beloved ministers in the 
Southern Lutheran Church is Rev. S. 
Rothrock, D.D., or "Father Rothrock," 
as he is affectionately called. He is a 
North Carolinian. He was born in 
North Carolina and has spent very 
nearly all his days in his native state, 
residing at present near Gold Hill, 
Rowan Co., which is the strongest Luth- 
eran county in the "Old North State." 

He was born November 26, 1809, eight 
miles south of Salem, N. C, in Davidson 
80 



Co., in a log house that is still to be 
seen. He is the fifth child of Jacob 
Rothrock and his wife Esther, neeZie^\er. 
His father was a blacksmith, but having 
been hurt whilst shoeing a horse, be- 
came a farmer. Young Samuel served 
as "striker" in his father's blacksmith- 
shop when he was a boy and subsequently 
labored on the farm. The grandfather 
of Pastor Rothrock, Peter Rothrock, 
came to North Carolina, from the vicinity 
of York, Pa., and belonged to a very 
large and numerous family. They are 



/ 



634 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




KEY. S. EOTHEOCK -D.D. 



the descendants of Huegenots and fled 
from Europe on account of their religion. 
The Rothrock family has produced some 
quite prominent men. One is a Profes- 
sor in a Medical College, one is a 
Doctor in Nashville, Tenn., one has 
been a Professor in North Carolina 
College, and one had the honor of being 
a judge in the Superior Court of Indiana. 

The educational advantages in his 
boyhood days were indeed lamentably 
limited, and school was kept open only 
three months each year. He attended 
"a regular old field school," in which 
the cheapest teacher was the best, and 
his best aid was "the birch," and where 
every boy had to ''smart," when it pleased 
the teacher. He attended school from 
the age of six to fourteen and then aided 
his father on the farm until he started 
to Grettysburg to educate himself for the 
ministry. 

He walked over 400 miles to college. 
In these days of express trains and 
univeisal traveling facilities, we can 



scarcely, believe the stories of the past. 
Young Rothrock havinig seen a few 
copies of The Lutheran Intelligeneer, the 
first English Lutheran paper published 
in the United States, and having heard 
of the institution at Gettysburg, decided 
to go there. How to get there was the 
great problem to solve, — there were no 
railroads, nor steamship lines, nor even 
through stage-coach lines, and if there 
had been, he had no money, so he must 
walk, and walk he did the entire distance 
from the interior of North Carolina to 
Gettysburg, Pa., a distance of over 400 
miles, and this too, at a time in his life 
when he had never been twenty miles 
away from home, and had no experience 
in the great world. He secured a home- 
made canvass, made a knapsack of it, 
packed into it some home-made clothes 
and his old Bible and started on his long 
journey, Saturday March 7, 1829, sixty 
years ago. On the journey he ate but 
twice a day. He usually walked from 
eight to ten miles before breakfast, and 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPfllES. 



635 



then walked until night overtook him, 
when he ate his second meal and rested. 
Soldier-fashion, when reaching a stream, 
he took off his shoes and stockings and 
waded through the chilling waters, and 
so kept marching on, until March 27, 
when he, after a twenty days journey, 
reached Gettysburg, where Rev. Prof. 
S. S. Schmucker, D. D., of blessed 
memory, kindly received him. His ex- 
periences along the way, on that long 
I)edestrian journey, would make quite 
an interesting chapter, but space will 
not allow us to record the experiences. 
Having spent one year and a half at his 
studies in Gettysburg, he walked all the 
way home, in the fall of 1830, and after 
a stay of eighteen days with his parents, 
ill the same manner returned to Gettys- 
burg. In 1832, in his twenty-fourth 
year, he began to preach. His first 
experience was supplying the pulpit of 
the celebrated Dr. Kurtz in the spring 
of 1832, then in Chambersburg, Pa., 
who was ill, and for whom he preached 
three weeks, in German and English. 
At the request of the congregation and 
in solicitation of the Professors, Dr. 
Kurtz continuing ill, he also supplied 
the pulpit during the summer vacation. 

To return south, he borrowed some 
money to buy a horse and saddle with, 
and reached home once more, at Christ- 
mas time, 1832. Being a beneficiary,— 
for both the Maryland Synod and The 
American Educational Society, had 
helped him, — and being besides in debt 
for his horse, he did not rest until 
at the meeting of the General Synod 
at Chambersburg, in 1839, he paid every 
cent he owed and again returned south 
as he speaks of it, "a free man." 

In 1833 the North Carolina Synod, 
the oldest synod of the south, licensed 
him at Friedens Church. In 1834 in 
the month of May, in Wythe Co., Va., 
he was ordained to the ministry. 



From 1833 to June, 1835, he was pas- 
tor of the old historical St. John's 
Church, in Salisbury, N. C, in which 
the North Carolina Synod was organ- 
ized in 1803. In connection with the 
town church he also served Union 
Church and St. Paul's Church, which 
at that time was known as Holshauser's. 
In 1835 he was called to St. Thomas, 
Pa., where he served the churches in 
St. Thomas, Mercersburg, McConnels- 
burg, and Smoketown. 

In 1836 he was called back again to 
Salisbury, N. C, where he labored suc- 
cessfully until 1842, when, after the 
death of Rev. Dr. Graeber, he was called 
to take charge of the far-famed Organ 
Church and also St. Stephens. This 
church is called "Organ Church" be- 
cause the Germans who came to North 
Carolina over a century ago, direct 
from Germany, brought with them and 
set up in this church the first pipe or- 
gan in North Carolina. He served this 
grand old congregation twenty-two con- 
secutive years, preaching half in Ger- 
man and half in English, but the Ger- 
man has died out. He added six hun- 
dred members to the Organ Church dur- 
ing his ministry there. Near the close 
of the year 1865 he resigned. From 
1866-75 he served churches in Alamance 
county one year, and in Guilford county 
nine years. After the church had been 
served by four or five different minis- 
ters he was again unanimously chosen 
pastor and served the people from 1875 
to 1885, — ten years more, — making al- 
together thirty-two years of faithful ser- 
vices in this one church alone. 

He has held many positions of honor 
and trust in the Church, and always 
with credit to himself and to the good 
of the Church. He is a strong, con- 
servative Lutheran, and a man of most 
lovely, child-like character, and an ever 
pleasant companion. He has, in his 



636 



AMERICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



long life, repeatedly been an officer of 
synod, and enjoyed the rare honor of 
being twice chosen president of the 
General Synod, and each time at Staun- 
ton, Ya. (1849 and 1867.) 

In 1888 the honorary^degree of D. D. 
was conferred upon him by the Uni- 
versity of North Carolina. 

A few years ago he had the rare 
privilege, pleasure, and honor of cele- 
brating his golden wedding with his 
second wife. His first wife having died 
a short time after their marriage, he 
married again and had his second wife 
spared to him over fifty years, she dying 
in May, 1890, at an advanced age. 

Dr. Rothrock has been over fifty-seven 
years in the ministry, and is still quite 
well preserved at the high old age of 
eighty-one years. _ To show the esteem 
in which Dr. Rothrock is held by the 
North Carolina Synod, we will refer 
to a very pleasant occurrence a few 
years ago. When he had been fifty 
years in the ministry, the North Carolina 
Synod arranged a special jubilee in 
honor of the event, and presented him 



with a very handsome gold-headed cane. 
This was presented to him Thursday, 
May 3, 1888, at the eightieth annual 
convention of the North Carolina Synod. 
He delivered on that occasion an inter- 
esting and able address in the Germanic 
part of the history of the North Carolina 
Synod. 

He resides in an elegant country res- 
idence of his own, near his son. Prof. 
Lewis Rothrock, at Geld Hill, N. C, an 
octogenarian who is universally es- 
teemed, and whose name is a household 
word in hundreds of families, for he 
came in contact with many people of 
four generations, and always won gold- 
en opinions for himself. His pure life, 
his faithful services, his gentle man- 
ners, his Christian kindness, his rich 
experiences, and his full consecration to 
God and the Church have made this 
venerable Lutheran pastor, a man of 
whom our Church can be justly proud, 
for he brought us honor everywhere 
and in every way. May his last days 
on earth be his best. — F. W. E. Ptsehuu. 




REV. PH. VON ROHR 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Buffalo, N. Y., February 13, 1843. 
His father's name was Henry von Rohr, 
formerly an officer in the Prussian army, 
who emigrated to America^ at the time 
of the persecution of the Lutherans, 
1839, and after a course of study accepted 
a call to the ministry of the Lutheran 
Church, in which he served faithfully 
unto his^death. 

The ancestors of Rev. Ph. von Rohr 
have lived in Brandenburg ever since 
the thirteenth century, and were closely 
connected with all matters of church 



and state ever since they settled there. 
He received his classical and theological 
education at Martin Luther College, 
Buffalo, N. Y., under the direction of 
Rev. Prof. J. A. A. Grabau, president 
of the Buffalo Synod. He graduated 
from the above institution in the fall of 
1863, and was ordained to the gospel 
ministry at Buffalo, October 13, 1863, 
by the Buffalo Synod, of which he was 
a member. February 1, 1866, he was 
married to Miss Emma Schaal, of Buffalo. 
His first field of labo:' was in Toledo, 
O.. where he remained from October, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



€37 



1863, to May, 1866. He then received 
a call to Winona, Minn., where he has 
labored with marked success since June 
17, 1866. He is at present president 
of the Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin 
and other States, and being a man of 
high scholarly attainments, and equally 
proficient in both English and German, 
he has occupied a number of other 
prominent positions. Of his family he 
has lost four children, the most painful 
loss being that of his hopeful son, Henry, 



who died unexpectedly at the North 
Western University, in Watertown, Wis., 
at the age of seventeen years and one 
month. 

A leading pastor in the Wisconsin 
Synod says of Rev. Ph. von Rohr: "He 
is a very able and sound preacher, 
esteemed and beloved by all his brethren 
in the ministry, and the most poj^ular 
man in the city (Winona) where he has 
lived almost a quarter of a century." 







REV. ANTON R. RUDE, D.D. 



Rev. Anton R. Rude, D.D., was born 
Oct. 5, 1813, and died May 21, 1883, aged 
70 years, 6 months and 26 days. 

The subject of this tribute was a 
member of the Synod of South Carolina, 
and was greatly beloved and venerated 
by this Synod, the members of which 
always rejoiced in his presence, heark- 
ened to his counsels, honored his pro- 
found learning, and delighted to emulate 
his holy example: especially was he 
ever ready to advise and encourage the 
young men of the Ministerium, and those 
most intimately associated with him. He 
counseled and cautioned as a loving 



father, all who confided in his good 
judgment, and appealed to him in times 
of need. 

He was eminent for his deep piety — 
was truly a man of God. But he has 
left us, and entered into rest. The 
Master has said, it is enough — has called 
him from his labors in the church 
militant to his blessed rewards in the 
church triumphant. 

Our deceased brother and father in 
God was a native of Denmark, but in 
early life came to this country. Having 
studied theology at Andover and Get- 
tysburg, he was ordained to the offi 



638 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



of the holy ministry in 1842, and was a 
faithful servant of the church until the 
close of his earthly life. 

In general scholarship, and especially 
in theological science and literature, his 
attainments were acknowledged. In 
sincere and consistent devotion to the 
church, and its pure faith and usages — 
in his untiring diligence in the prepara- 
tion of the Book of "Worship — in his 



position as Editor of the Lutheran Visitor 
— in the capacity of Instructor in the 
Theological Seminary during several 
years — in pastoral activity — and in his 
long connection with said Synod as one 
of the most efficient and influential 
members, he is pre-eminently worthy of 
our imitation and honor. 

He rests from his labors, and his works 
do follow him. 




EEV. FEANCIS J. EUTH. 



Eev. Francis Jacob Euth was born in 
Fredericktown, Md., January 9, 1805, 
of the parents Henry and Margaretta 
Medtart. His father, who was born 
IN'ovember 1, 1779, served in the war of 
1812, and died in the thirty-fifth year of 
his age. Some time after his father's 
death Mr. Euth was taken to Lancaster 
Co., Pa., to live with an uncle, who lived 
on a large and beautiful farm. When 
he was fourteen years of age he attended 
a course of catechetical instruction 
under the Eev. F. A. Herman of the 
German Eeformed Church, and was in 
due time received as a member of that 
church by the solemn and impressive 



rite of confirmation. For three years 
he studied with the ministry in view, 
under Eev. D. F. Schaeffer, D.L)., and 
was licensed to preach by the Synod of 
Maryland and Virginia at its meeting in 
Taneytown, Md., October 19, 1830. In 
August, 1831, he was appointed mis- 
sionary to Ohio. He gladly accepted 
the appointment, and immediately set 
out on the journey, visiting New Phila- 
deli3hia, Mansfield, Mount Vernon, 
Delaware, Columbus, Chilicothe, Circle- 
ville, Sinking Springs, Ashland, and a 
number of other places. He organized 
the church in Ashland October 23, 
1831, and that in Mansfield in the spring 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



689 



of 1832. On Trinity Sunday, 1832, he 
attended the meeting: of the "German 
Ev, Luth. Synod of Ohio," which was 
lield at Cohimbus, to which body he 
made application for membership. He 
was admitted, and his license was 
renewed for another year. He served 
Mount Zion con2:regation, the first 
rpcrularly ore^anized congregation in 
Northern Ohio, until the spring of 1841, 
when he resigned it in behalf of Rev. 
freorge Leiter. Having organized an 
English Lutheran congregation in Bu- 
cvrus January 10, 1833, he resigned his 
charge at Ashland and removed to 
Bucyrus. 

Rev. Ruth was one of the organizers 
of the first English Ev. Luth. Synod of 
Ohio and adjacent States, which held 
its first regular session in Somerset, O.. 
November 6, 1836, the organization 
having taken place at a previous meeting 
held at Lancaster. At the meeting in 
Somerset, Mr. Ruth was ordained to the 
eospel ministry, November 8, 1836, Rev. 
John Reck preaching the ordination 
sermon. October 9, of the same year, 
hp was married to Miss Louisa H. 
Hough, of Richland Co., O., who died 
July 5, 1851. On June 7, 1853, Rev. 
Ruth married Miss Leah H. Hill with 
whom he had two sons. In the autumn 
of 1833 he organized the London con- 
gresration near Shelby; in 1834 the 
Sulphur Springs congregation, and the 
Myers Church, a short distance west 
from Shelby. In 1834 he also re-organ- 
ized Mount Bethel congregation; and in 
1838 the Spring Mill congregation was 



organized. When the Wittenberg Synod 
was organized June 8, 1847, Rev. Ruth 
became its first president. HaviuQ: 
served the Bucyrus Church for a period 
of more than twenty years (from Decem- 
ber 1832 to April 1852) he resigned the 
whole pastorate and accepted a char<ze 
composed of Lost Creek, Leesville, 
Galion, and New Castle congregations, 
he having organized that at LeesvilJp 
and Gralion. In this charge he labored 
from the spring of 1852 to the sprinof of 
1861, when he accepted a call to the 
Mount Zion charge in Richland Co., O., 
consisting of four congregations : Mount 
Zion, Mifflin, Lucas, and St. John's. 
This charge he resigned in 1864, and 
accepted a call to return to the Galion 
charge, where he continued to labor 
until 1875, when the state of his health 
became such that he was compelled to 
give up the charge. In 1877 he accepted 
a call to the Mount Bethel, Spring Mill, 
Clay's, and Zeiter's congregations, which 
he served about three and one-half years 
when he was again obliged to resign bv 
reason of failing health. The four last 
years of his life were spent in the peace- 
ful quiet of retirement. By request of 
the Wittenberg Synod he delivered Ins 
semi-centennial address before that body 
at its meeting at Carey, O., September, 
1881, his subject being "Personal Remi- 
niscences of my Fifty Years' Life and 
Work in the Lutheran Ministry." 

He died at the age of 79 years, Sundav, 
July 27, 1884, at Galion, O., where his 
body is resting in Union Green Cemetery. 



640 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




EEY. FE. EUTHEAUFF. 



Eev. Euthrauff was born in Green- 
castle, Pa., October 25, 1796, and died 
at Worthington, Armstrong County, Pa., 
September 18, 1859. He was a son of 
Eev. John F. Euthrauff, and a brother 
of Jonathan Euthrauff. He was a stu- 
dent at Washington College, Pa., for 
two years, but was obliged to leave on 
account of pecuniary embarrassments, 
and began the study of theology in 1820, 
under Dr. Lochman of Harrisburg. 

Eev. M. Sheeleigh, D. D., of Fort 
Washington, Pa., who was catechised 
and confirmed by Eev. T. Euthrauff, 
thus writes of him: "I have never 
known anyone equal to him in catechis- 
ing. He was plain, simple, familiar, 
earnest and pathetic. He dwelt distinct- 
ly upon the doctrinal, practical, and ex- 
perimental parts of religion. His lec- 
tures were a complete system of divin- 
ity, adapted to the youthful mind. Sub- 
sequently when I studied theology as a 
science, I found that one of the very 
best preparations I had, was the course 
of catechetical instruction, received 
from the lips of this faithful pastor." 

Dr. B. Kurtz, in a long obituary notice 



in the Lutheran Observer of October 7, 
1859, thus speaks of him: 

"I think that I understand him thor- 
oughly, and may be permitted to indulge 
in a few reflections. In subsequent 
life he was constantly so immersed in 
the arduous duties of his vocation, that 
he had but little time left for study. 
When he first commenced his ministry, 
he wrote out every sermon he prepared, 
and read it verbatim to his audience. 
This was a ground of objection among 
his people, and I more than once chided 
him for reading, and urged him, while 
he studied his sermons thoroughly, to 
preach from brief notes at first, and 
gradually accustom himself to dispense 

with them also At last "with fear and 

trembling" he made a trial, succeeded, 
tried again, and succeeded still better, 
and from that day until his death, never, 
I presume, again read a sermon from the 
pulpit. He afterwards thanked me for 
my reproof and exhortations, and his 
people loved him more than ever. 

Mr. Euthrauff was not a florid nor 
a fanciful speaker; but he was an ear- 
nest, impassioned, deeply spirited and 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



641 



practical preacher. His sermons were 
systematic and thoroughly imbued with 
gospel truth; his language plain, his 
manner solemn, his defense of the truth 
fearless, and his warnings and exhor- 
tations powerful and impressive, and 
after delivered with an ardor and elo- 
quence that apalled the guilty and 
caused the daring sinner to quiver with 
the barbed arrows that penetrated and 
rankled m his heart. His prayers es- 
pecially were fervent and over-powering. 
His life was such as might be ex- 
pected from a man of his principles. It 



was consistent with the gospel, and a 
practical commentary upon the gospel's 
precepts. Conscientious, courageous in 
the discharge of duty, untiring in labor, 
candid in the expression of his senti- 
ments, free and open alike with friend 
and foe, and habitually breathing a 
spirit of deep piety. I always felt 
stimulated by personal intercourse with 
him to become a better man and more 
devoted Christian. His ministry was 
repeatedly blessed with signal outpour- 
ings of the spirit " 



REV. JOISrATHAN RUTHRAUFF. 



Rev. Jonathan Ruthrauff, a son of the 
Rev. J. F. Ruthrauff, was born in Green- 
castle, Franklin Connty, Pa.,onthe 16th 
of August, 1801, and was educated, of 
course, under decidedly Christian in- 
fluences. It was his purpose, during 
some of his earlier years, to prepare 
himself for the medical profession; but, 
either before he commenced his studies 
or shortly after, he had a very serious 
illness, which was the means of bring- 
ing him to enter on the new and better 
life, and finally to change his purpose 
in respect to a profession, and become 
a minister of the gospel. He was in- 
structed in the classics, for some time, 
by the Rev. J. X. Clark, and, in the fall 
of 1818, entered Washington College, 
Pa., and remained there a while, though, 
as his name is not on the list of gradu- 
ates, it is presumed that he did not take 
the full college course. In 1822 he 
commenced his theological studies under 
the direction of the Rev. Benjamin 
Kurtz, of Hagerstown, Md., with whom 
he remained one year. He then repaired 
to Harrisburg, Pa., where, for two years, 
81 



he continued his studies, under the Rev. 
Dr. Lochman. 

His theological course being now com- 
pleted, Mr. Ruthrauff was licensed to 
preach the Gospel by the Sjmod of Penn- 
sylvania, convened at Reading in 1825. 
His first public labors were as an itin- 
erant missionary, under the appointment 
of Synod, in visiting the Lutheran breth- 
ren, who were scattered in different 
parts of the state, and not supplied with 
the stated preaching of the Gospel, and 
gathering them into congregations. For 
several months he labored in Hunting- 
don, Centre and Clearfield Counties, 
and subsequently preached in Phila- 
delphia for the Association of Luth- 
erans worshiping in the Academy, and 
afterwards known as St. Mathew's con- 
gregation. He was invited to become 
their regular pastor, but, as he was ap- 
prehensive that his health was inade- 
quate to the amount of labor that would 
be required there, he declined the invi- 
tation, and accepted a call from the 
united churches of Lewistown and the 
vicinity. He entered upon his labors 



642 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



here on the 25tli of February, 1827, and 
for two years was earnestly and success- 
fully devoted to the spiritual interests 
of these congregations. While he was 
here, Howland Hill's Village Dialogues 
fell into his hands, for the first time, 
and he always felt that the reading of 
them had an important influence upon 
his whole future ministry. 

In the winter of 1829 he received and 
accepted a call to the Hanover charge. 
Here he labored with great zeal and 
efficiency for eight years. The charge 
was a difficult one, on account of the 
low state of vital piety, and the indiffer- 
ence or positive aversion that was ex- 
tensively manifested to the doctrines of 
Christianity. Mr. Ruthrauff preached 
with great boldness against prevailing 
vices, as well as in favor of what he con- 
sidered the cardinal truths of the Gos- 
pel; and he was especially uncompro- 
mising in his devotion to the cause of 
temperance. This greatly incensed 
some persons in the community, and, on 
one occasion, there was a plot laid for 
waylaying him, and offering him per- 
sonal violence, from which he always 
regarded himself as rescued by a spec- 
ial interposition of Providence. He was 
returning home from a distant point, 
when he experienced a certain uneasi- 
ness of mind which he could not ex- 
plain, and which suggested to him the 
idea of taking a more retired road than 
the one he usually traveled. He had, 
by no means, decided upon this, yet, 
when he came to the turning off place, 
the horse, though unaccustomed to the 
by-road, seemed determined to take it; 
and he resolved to let the animal have 
his own way. He afterwards learned 
that, by this means, he was saved from 
the snare which had been laid for him. 

Whilst occupying this position Mr. 
Ruthrauff once lay seriously ill. His 
father's family, who lived at Greencas- 



tle, were hastely sent for, under the im- 
pression that he was near the close of 
life, but his parents were only able, that 
night, to reach the top of the mountain 
west of Gettysburg. After they had 
stopped at the inn, the father walked 
out, and, as he cast his eye down into 
the valley, and reflected that his youngest 
son was lying there at the point of death, 
he was well-nigh overwhelmed with 
solicitude and sorrow. His confidence 
in God, however, did not forsake him, 
and he began immediately to wrestle in 
prayer in his son's behalf. "My son, O 
Lord," said he, "is yet in the prime of 
life, and may still labor many years and 
be useful. I am old, and my years of 
toil are nearly over. I can be better 
spared than my son. Spare, O spare 
him, and take me in his place." As if 
the supplication had been already 
answered, his heart was comforted and 
relieved of its burden. He returned to 
the house and said, — "Mother, our son 
will not die. God has heard my prayer. 
I am sure Jonathan will live." He did 
live, and, for twenty years longer, was a 
bright and shining light in the Church. 
In December, 1837, Mr. Euthrauff, 
having resigned his charge at Hanover, 
assumed the pastoral care of the Luth- 
eran Church at Lebanon, Pa. Here he 
probably reaped the richest fruits of his 
ministry. Several powerful revivals took 
place in connection with his labors, and 
hundreds who receive the word at his 
lips, became, hopefully, the subjects of 
renewing grace. After having served 
this people with great fidelity for twelve 
years, — until 1849, he was prostrated by 
the disease which terminated his life. 
He died, greatly sustained, but deeply 
lamented, July 23, 1850, when he had 
nearly completed his fiftieth year. On 
the occasion of his funeral two dis- 
courses were delivered; one in English, 
by the Rev. C. A. Hay, from Philippians 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



643 



i, 21; the other, in German, by the Eev. 

A. C. ■Wedekind,fromII. Timothy iv, 7, 8. 

Mri Ruthraiiff was married, Jnne 12, 

1827, to Ann Louisa, daughter of the 



Kev. George Lochman, D. D., who, with 
three children, — two daughters and one 
son, survived him. — Sprague. 




EEV. JOHN F. RUTHKAUFF. 



John F. Ruthrauff was born in North- 
ampton Co., Pa., January 14, 1764. His 
parents, who had emigrated from Ger- 
many, were especially careful to give 
him a religious education, and he became, 
in early life, deeply impressed with a 
sense of spiritual and eternal realities, 
and, at the age of fifteen, made a public 
profession of his faith. In August, 
1779, he had gained so much confidence 
in his Christian experience, that he 
began to meditate the purpose of devoting 
himself to the ministry of the Gospel. 
He was, at that time, a resident of York 
County, whither his parents had removed 
some years before, and was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits. He did not com- 
mence his theological course until the 
year 1790, when he left the farm on 
which he had been laboring, and went 
to pursue his studies under the direction 
of the Eev. Jacob Goering, then pastor 
of the Lutheran Church in York, and 
distinguished for his learning and elo- 
quence. Here he continued a diligent 
student for three years. He preached 
his first sermon in the year 1793, in 
reference to which he remarks in his 
diary, — "God was present and graciously 
assisted me." During the next two 
years he had the charge of several 
churches in York County, and subse- 
quently preached for a season in Carlisle. 
In June, 1795, he received and accepted 
a call from the Green Castle Congrega- 
tion, and several others, in some of which 



he labored upwards of forty years. His 
charge embraced McConnelsburg, Lon- 
don, Mercersburg, Waynesboro', Quincy, 
Smoketown, Jacob's Church, and several 
in T\- ashington Co. , Md . He also preached 
in the neighborhood of Emmittsburg, 
and for a time at Chambersburg, and 
continued to supply the congregation 
at Carlisle, and another about twelve 
miles from Harrisburg. This was distant 
from his home about fifty miles, and he 
performed the journey once every month. 
Several of his congregations were fifteen 
or twenty miles apart; and a high 
mountain lay between two churches that 
he had to serve on the same Sabbath. 
But, as soon as he left the pulpit, he 
mounted his horse, with his dinner in 
his hand, that he might be able to meet 
his second appointment for the day. 
He had a vigorous constitution and great 
power of endurance, and was thereby 
well fitted to the work of a missionary 
pioneer. Some twelve or fifteen minis- 
ters are now cultivating the field which 
Mr. Euthrauff then occupied alone. 

This devoted servant of Christ con- 
tinued his labors as pastor until the year 
before his death. Even after he had 
formally relinquished his charge, he 
occasionally preached when his services 
were rendered particularly desirable. 
Only nine days before his death, though 
he had then seen upwards of seventy 
years, he engaged with great interest ia 
conducting the exercises of a protracted 



6M 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



meeting in his neighborhood. He died 
December 18, 1837, in the seventy-fourth 
year of his age. From the commence- 
ment of his illness he had little expecta- 
tion that he should recover, and waited 
calmly and trustingly for God's will to 
be done concerning him. A short time 
before he expired, he exclaimed "Victory, 
Victory, the Lord is here!" The exercises 
on the occasion of his funeral were 



conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Scholl, 
Harpel, Cline and Relaugh. 

Mr. Ruthrauff was married, in 1784, 
to Ann Maria Hamme, a native of York 
County, and a lady of great moral and 
Christian worth, who survived her hus- 
band several years. They had nine 
children, — one daughter and eight sons. 
Two of the sons became ministers of the 
Gospel. — Sprague. 




REV. PROF. JOHN SANDER, A.M. 



Rev. Prof. John Sander, A. M., is the 
son of J. M. Sander, and Sophia San- 
der, nee Aderhold. He is the oldest of 
twelve children, five of whom departed 
this life in childhood. His father Jacob 
Michael Sander, is a native of Ulmet, 
Rhine Bavaria, Germany, and came to 
this country as a poor young man in 
1846. During the winter of 1846-47, 
he walked from New York city to Wil- 
liamsport. Pa., a distance of nearly 
three hundred miles. He was a stone 
mason by trade, at which he worked for 
several years and then bought a farm. 
In October, 1849, he married Miss Sop- 
hia Aderhold, of Hepburn Township, 
Lycoming Co., Pa. They soon after 
moved on the farm, which was then 
nearly all covered with brush, wood and 
stone, and many were the predictions by 
those of less faith and energy, that Mr. 
Sander would starve on his farm. But 
both Mr. and Mrs. Sander are stil living 
in good health on that farm and their 
neighbors do not think at all that they 
have any need of starving. 

On the 3d of November, 1850, the 
subject of our sketch first saw the light 
of this world. He was born in Lycom- 
ing Township, Lycoming Co., Pa. He 
was soon after baptized by Rev, August 



Schulze,* and received the name of John. 
John grew up on the farm, and as he 
was the oldest of the children, on him 
fell a good share of work from early 
youth. From the time he was able to 
do anything until he was full grown, he 
knew nothing but work from early till 
late. Healthy air and a good appetite 
made him grow very rapidly, so that by 
his fifteenth or sixteenth year, he had 
attained the growth of a good sized 
man, and did the work of a man. 

John's parents lived more than a mile 
from the nearest school house, and the 
way to it was mostly through the woods. 
He did not go to school, therefore, until 
he was eight years old. The country 
schools of Lycoming County in those 
days, were by no means ideal schools, 
nor could John attend very regularly. 
There were only four months school in 
a year, and unfavorable weather and 
work at home prevented him from at- 
tending even less than half of these. 
But what was missed in school was part- 
ly made up at home. During the long 
winter evenings the father instructed 

*Rev. August Schulze accompanied Napolean on the 
expedition to Russia, served as missionary and pastor 
in Union, Center, Clinton and Lyoming Co., Pa., until 
he was 90 years old, and died at the age of 95. Prof. 
J. Sander bought his entire library after his death. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



645 



his children at home, so that in the 
elementary branches John kept up with 
the neighboring children. At the age 
of sixteen or seventeen his public school 
education ceased. In his eighteenth 
year he took a course in religious in- 
structipn under Eev. J. Hilpot, and was 
confirmed. In connection with these 
religious instructions an interest in the 
doctrines of the different denominations 
was aroused, and, no doubt, the first de- 
sires to study for the ministry awakened. 
In his later theological course, symbol- 
ics was his favorite study, and this study, 
more than any other was the means of 
making him a staunch Lutheran. 

After confirmation he began to teach 
school himself. His first efforts were, 
indeed, feeble, and his education very 
elementary. But he studied privately 
and received what aid was necessary 
from his pastor. Rev. Hilpot. Until his 
twenty-third year he worked on the 
farm, taught school, and at spare times 
attended school at the Lycoming County 
Normal school at Moutoursville, Pa.; at 
these institutions he g^radually prepared 
for college. In September, 1873, he en- 
tered the Freshman class of Muhlen- 
berg College, Allentown, Pa., where he 
took the full four years course and grad- 
uated with second honor in his class. 
In September, 1877, he entered the Luth- 
eran Theological Seminary in Philadel- 
phia and took the full three years course. 
He was ordained to the office of the 
Gospel Ministry on the 26th day of 
May, 1880. 

Even before his ordination he had 
received a call from the First Evangel- 
ical Lutheran church of Ridgway, Pa. 
Immediately after his ordination he en- 
tered upon his labors as a minister of 
the Gospel. Ridgway is the county seat 
of Elk Co., Pa., located in the mountain 
region and in those days a not very at- 
tractive town. Lumbering, tanning and 



coal-mining was all that was going on 
around the town. One railroad, the 
Philadelphia and Erie, was all the facil- 
ities in that line in those days and then 
only one passenger train each way a 
day. The public roads through the 
country around Ridgway were in a very 
poor condition, many of them being 
little more than the necessary ways on 
which to haul logs and bark. On these 
ways our young minister was compelled 
to travel a great deal, looking for new 
members, visiting old ones, preaching 
in school-houses, burying the dead and 
the like. As his salary did not justify 
him in keeping a horse, much of his 
traveling was done on foot, sometimes 
walking a distance of ten to fifteen 
miles during the day and preaching in 
the evening. Many times he enjoyed 
the most comfortable seat which a lum- 
ber or bark wagon could afford, and many 
were the kindnesses which he received 
at the hands of the supposed rough and 
uncouth teamsters, who would incom- 
mode themselves to give greater comfort 
to their clerical companion. 

In 1880, when Rev. Sander came to 
Ridgway, the town scarsely had 1000 
inhabitants; but during the time of his 
stay there it increased very materially. 
New mills and tanneries were built and 
the old ones were enlarged. The country 
around was being settled by farmers; 
two new railroads were run through it 
and the population increased to more 
than 2000; a new court house and several 
hotels were built; a machine shop was 
put up and improvements were made 
in various directions. The Lutheran 
congregation which called Rev. J. San- 
der, and the only one then in the place, 
had very much the character of the 
surrounding country, minus its wealth. 
It had been first organized about ten 
years previous by Rev. I. Brenneman, 
who had erected a neat church on a lot 



6^6 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



presented for that purpose. A small 
house with five rooms on an adjoining 
lot had also been purchased for a 
parsonage; but the whole property was 
so heavily endebted, that nearly every 
body feared it might be sold at public 
sale any day. To make matters worse 
dissentions had arisen in the congrega- 
tion, the pastor, Eev. Brenneman, had 
gotten into trouble and was necessitated 
to leave the place. On the arrival of 
Mr. Sander, in 1879, as a student, there 
were not a half dozen families which 
claimed to be or even wanted to be 
members of the congregation, so demor- 
alizing had been the trouble in the con- 
gregation. Under such circumstances 
it could not be expected that the congre- 
gation wo aid offer a very lucrative salary. 
The call simply stated, that "about ten 
or twelve persons had come together 
and it was found that none of them were 
opposed to him." The call was returned 
as unsatisfactory, with a special request 
that some amount should be mentioned 
as salary, no matter how small. In 
answer to this came the reply, that 
"no one was found who was opposed to 
his being pastor; but as to the salary the 
congregation could stipulate no sum." 
His call is an evidence of the utter care- 
lessness and indifference into which the 
congregation had fallen. The call was, 
however, accepted in good faith, and the 
young pastor's entire income for the 
first year, perquisites and all, including 
six months appropriation by Synod 
am mounted to the net sum of $286.65. 

In the second year of his ministry the 
state of the congregation seems to have 
improved and our young minister had 
the courage to take unto himself a wife. 
He was married to Miss Lydia A. 
Whitman, of Cogan Station, Lycoming 
Co., Pa. At the same time he had an 
offer to become vice principal and 
teacher of mathematics at the Keystone 



State Normal School at Kutztown, Pa., 
but he declined this offer, because of 
the demoralizing effects it might have 
upon the now improving congregation. 

In January, 1884, Mr. Sander re- 
ceived a call from the Lutheran con- 
gregation at Irwin Station, Westmore- 
land Co., Pa., which he was inclined to 
accept and consequently resigned at 
Ridgeway. But by a strenuous effort 
of the congregation at Eidgeway he 
was induced to withdraw his resigna- 
tion. Thus the work continued at 
Eidgeway, at times quite encouraging, 
but at times also very discouraging, but 
but on the whole improving, until the 
1st of August, 1885. During this min- 
istry the congregation increased from 
about twenty to 150 communicant mem- 
bers, 175 persons were baptized, 59 
couples were married, 55 persons buried, 
and 64 persons confirmed. In a little 
more than five years the congregation 
raised for debt, repairs, etc., about 
12500, and for pastor's salary $1750. 
Besides this the Sunday School raised 
$370. During this ministry he preached 
about six hundred regular sermons. 

On the 29th day of July, 1885, Eev. 
Sander very unexpectedly received a 
call from Gustavus Adolphus college, 
St. Peter, Minn., as professor of the 
German and Latin languages. To the 
acceptance of this call Providence 
seems to have led the way. The ex- 
cespive labors at Eidgway, the constant 
traveling in the rough country round 
about Eidgway, and the exposure to all 
kinds of weather had begun to tell on the 
health of the young minister, and his 
throat became very seriously affected. 
His physician advised him months 
before this call was received to cease 
preaching, at least for some months, if 
he hoped to be cured. When, therefore, 
a call came to become teacher, it was 
accepted. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



647 



By the 1st of September Prof. Sander 
was in his new field of labor and has 
continued to hold the same position up 
to this time. He was elected secretary 
of the Faculty of Gustavus Adolphus 



College in 1886 and is holding the same 
office yet. He has the confidence and 
respect of all his fellow-teachers, and of 
the students of the college. 




EEV. BENJAMIN SADTLER, D.D. 



Benjamin Sad tier, D.D., was born in 
Baltimore, Md., Dec. 25, 1823. He was 
graduated at Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, in 1842, and at the theolog- 
ical seminary there in 1844, and was 
successively pastor of Lutheran churches 
at Pine Grove, Pa., 1845-49; Ship- 
pensbur^, Pa., 1849-53; Middletown, 
Pa., 1853-56; and Easton, Pa., in 
1856-62. In the last year he be- 
came principal of the Ladies' Sem- 
inary at Lutherville, Md., and in 1875 
he accepted the presidency of Muh- 
lenberg College, AUentown, Pa. He 
occupied this post until 1886, when, 
disabled for life by a fall on the ice, he 



was compelled to abandon the work. 
In 1867 he received the degree of 
D.D. from Pennsylvania College. He 
was a trustee of that institution from 
1862 to 1877, and has held many offices 
of honor and trust in his church . He 
is a frequent contributor to the period- 
icals of his denomination, and has pub- 
lished numerous baccalaureate discourses 
and addresses, including, "A Eebellious 
Nation Eeproved" (Easton, Pa., 1861); 
and "The Causes and Remedies of the 
Losses of her Population by the Luth- 
eran Church in America." (Philadelphia, 
1878. )—Appl. Cyd. Am. Biog. 




EEV. SAMUEL P. SADTLER, Ph.D. 



Rev. Samuel Philip Sad tier, Ph, D., 
eldest son of Benjamin Sadtler, D. D., 
was born in Prine Grove, Pa., July 18, 
1847. He was graduated at Pennsyl- 
vania College in 1867, studied at Lehigh 
University in 1867-68, and was gradu- 
ated at the Lawrence scientific school 
of Harvard in 1870, with the degree of 
S. B. He then studied chemistry at the 
University of Gottingen, where, in 1861, 
he received the degree of Ph. D., for 
original researches on iridium salts. On 
his return he held the professorship of 
natural science in Pennsylvania college, 
until 1874, when he accepted the chair 



of general and organic chemistry in the 
University of Pennsylvania. This place 
he still holds, and also that of Professor 
of Chemistry in the Philadelphia College 
of Pharmacy, to which he was appointed 
in 1879. Prof. Sadtler again visited 
Europe in 1885, for the purpose of in- 
specting laboratories of applied chem- 
istry in England and on the continent, 
and on his return made a report of his 
observations to the trustees of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, for their guid- 
ance in organizing a laboratory of in- 
dustrial chemistry. He is a Fellow of 
the Chemical Societies of London and 



648 



AMEBIOAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



Berlin, of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, and of 
other societies in the United States. 
Since 1879 he has furnished each month, 
notes on chemistry to the American Jour- 
nal of Pharmaey. Dr. Sadtler was chem- 
ical editor of the American reprint of 
the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica (Philadelphia 1880-84), and 
with Joseph P. Bemington and Horatio 
0. Wood, edited the fifteenth and six- 



teenth editions of the United States Dis- 
pensatory ( 1882-88 ), having entire charge 
of the chemical part of that work. Be- 
sides numerous addresses and lectures, 
he has published "Handbook of Chem- 
ical Experimentation for Lectures" 
(Louisville, 1877) and edited the eighth 
edition of Attfield's Medical and Phar- 
maceutical Chemistry, (Philadelphia, 
1879). Appl. CycL Am. Biogr. 




BEY. CHABLES F. SCHAEFFEB, D. D. 



Charles Frederick Schaeffer was born 
in German town, Pa., September 3d, 1807. 
His father, Frederick David Schaeffer, 
born November 16th, 1760, died January 
27th, 1836, was then Pastor of St. 
Michael's Church, and remained there 
until 1812, when, at the close of a pas- 
torate of 22 years, he removed to St. 
Michael's and Zion's, Philadelpha. It 
was within this venerable mother Church 
that the youth of the departed was spent. 
His first training for his life work was 
received in the Christian family of the 
devoted pastor, a school which has ever 
trained many noble men and women for 



blessed work in life and reward in 
heaven. His father was a man of great 
devoutness of spirit, who spent much 
time daily in prayer, a pietist of the 
nobler kind, after the manner of Spener 
and Muhlenberg; unreservedly devoted 
to the pure doctrine of the Church's 
Confessions, and intensely earnest in 
all personal and pastoral duty. His 
mother, Rosina, daughter of Lewis 
Bosenmiller, of York, (born November 
30th, 1764, died November 27th, 1835), 
aunt of Rev. David P. Rosemiller, was a 
woman of very superior mental power, 
who relftved her husband of all domestic 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



640 



cares, and was the faithful mother of 
noble sons, in whose training for Christ 
and His Church she had.no small part. 

That household sent out into the work 
of the ministry four sons, and the only 
daughter became the wife of Dr. Charles 
R. Demme. Each of the sons bore the 
father's name, Frederick. David Freder- 
ick was for about thirty years pastor at 
Frederick, Md., and was among the 
most active and useful men in his 
generation ; a model pastor and catechist 
and a faithful preacher, who trained 
up many worthy men, as Dr. Greenwald, 
for the ministry. Frederick Solomon 
lived the few years of his ministry at 
Hagerstown, Md., and gave proof of 
extraordinary eloquence and X30wer as a 
preacher, and dying greatly beloved and 
regretted, left as a precious legacy to 
the church his only child, now Dr. C. W. 
Schaeffer. Frederick Christian, during 
ten years labors in New York city, dis- 
played an energy and power which 
brought the English interests of our 
church in that city into a position which 
awakened hopes of which his early death 
allowed no realization. These were the 
members of the household in which 
Charles Frederick grew up. 

The school of Zion's Church was the 
first he attended, and the high estimate 
of congregational school he ever enter- 
tained was formed there and gave force 
to his earnest advocacy of the necessity 
and influence of such schools. His col- 
legiate course of study was pursued at 
the University of Pennsylvania. The 
foundation of the habits of diligent 
study and minutely accurate scholarship 
which followed him through life, was 
laid there. Through all his life he bore 
a warm affection to the University in 
which he and his brothers pursued their 
studies, and with which so many of his 
father's x^redecessors in Zion's Church 
had been connected. Some of thefriend- 
82 



ships formed there continued unbroken 
to the end of his life. 

His theological studies were pursued 
under the direction in part of his father, 
but chiefly of his father's assistant, Rev. 
Chas. R. Demme. He retained to his 
death a deep and abiding sense of the 
debt of gratitude due to Dr. Demme for 
the great interest and care taken in his 
instruction. He told me, but a few 
months before the end of his life, that 
he believed that a large part of whatever 
he had been able to accomj)lish in his 
ministerial life (of which he had a very 
humble estimate,) was due to the untir- 
ing diligence and exacting demands of 
Dr. Demme in the direction of his 
studies. 

He was admitted to the office of the 
ministry June 17, 1829, by licensure by 
the Synod of Maryland and Yirginia. 
He spent some months in New York 
assisting his brother Christian. His 
first pastoral charge was at Carlisle, Pa., 
which had also been his father's first 
charge. The congregations at Carlisle, 
Frankford, Churchtown and Sulphur 
Springs composed the charge, and 325 
communicants are reported in 1831. 
He was dismissed from the Synod o£ 
Maryland and Yirginia by his brother, 
its president, and received by the Synod 
of West Pennsylvania at its meeting at 
Indiana and ordained October 12, 1831. 
He remained at Carlisle from the latter 
part of 1830 until December 1, 1834. 
During his stay at Carlisle he was united 
in marriage, August 27, 1832, by Rev. 
Dr. Hazelius, to Susanna, daughter of 
Rev. Dr. J. G. Schmucker, of York, Pa.; 
he and his father having both found 
their wives at York. Having already 
accepted a call to the pastorate of the 
church at Hagerstown, he was again 
received into the membership of the 
Synod of Maryland at its meeting at 
Clearspring, in October, 1834. The two 



650 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



congregations which composed the 
charge at Hagerstown were grievously 
distracted by the operations of his 
predecessor, Rev. S. K. Hoshour, who 
had proven recreant to his ordination 
vows, and having joined the Camp- 
bellites, a sect at that time making great 
disturbance in Washington Co., tried 
his utmost to draw away his former 
parishioners. But the faithful labors 
of the new pastor overcame the many 
obstacles which surrounded him, and 
restored harmony and peace. Strong 
personal ties strengthened his influence. 
The memory of his brother Solomon was 
still fresh among the people, and Mrs. 
Schaeffer's father had formerly labored 
here and the church been built during 
his ministry. The parsonage was very 
homelike both to the pastor and his 
wife, connected with many memories of 
loved ones. The writer still remembers 
pleasantly a visit made in his boyhood 
to them in the old parsonage. 

Toward the close of 1839 he received 
a call to become the Professor of the 
Theological Seminary at Columbus, O., 
as successor to Prof. William Schmidt, 
who died November 8, 1839. This 
seminary had come into existence in 
1830, at Canton, and been removed in 
1831 to Columbus. Prof. Schmidt had 
been the sole instructor. After his death 
the zealous members of the English 
District of the Joint Synod of Ohio 
were anxious that a man should be 
selected who could lecture in English 
as well as German, and help to train up 
a ministry for the growing English 
portion of the Lutheran Church in Ohio. 
They proposed Rev. C. P. Schaeffer, 
and he was elected and called. The 
pioneers among the English Lutherans 
plead hard that he should accept; men 
like Greenwald, Manning, Bartholomew, 
Roof, were very anxious, and made 
strong presentment of the claims of the 



field. And he was much inclined to go. 
It was, indeed, pioneer work, surrounded 
with difficulties; it would remove him 
and his family from all the ties of their 
lives, for Ohio then was a distant land. 
But he himself already partially realized, 
what after years have established in the 
conviction of all the churches, that his 
proper vocation was that of a teacher. 
He then already longed for the studies 
and labors which would become his 
duties as Professor of Theology. And 
in addition, the intensity of his convic- 
tion of the truth of the Confessions of 
the Church in all their teachings, and of 
the binding obligation of those Con- 
fessions on Lutheran ministers, began 
to make him uncomfortable in his 
surroundings. Both at Carlisle and 
Hagerstown he felt this, and in the 
seminary at Gettysburg, in which those 
congregations and the Synods to which 
they belonged, were deeply interested, 
he could not take hearty part. Deeply 
concerned as he was in the work of 
ministerial education, bis own doctrinal 
convictions would not allow his co- 
operation in the dissemination and per- 
petuation in the ministry of the views 
there taught. 

In Ohio, the friends of the Columbus 
Seminary wished for and would elect 
no other than a strictly confessional 
Lutheran. He was called to teach the 
doctrine of God's Word as confessed by 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and 
he was a very strict constructionist as 
to these Confessions. He hoped to be 
an instrument under God in training 
up men of like conviction for the 
ministry. There was in all the land no 
other Theological Seminary where this 
work, in this strict confessional spirit, 
could be done. The seminaries of the 
General Synod did not require or wel- 
come such symbolical strictness; the 
great seminaries which have since then 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



651 



wrought so wonderful a work in the 
West, were not yet established. He 
decided to accept the call, and in May, 
1840, removed to Columbus. 

He entered on the duties of a teacher 
of theology with great zeal. He soon 
had about fifteen students under his 
care , His instructions covered the whole 
domain of theological science. It was 
an arduous but delightful task. He 
overtasked himself, and this, with the 
malariousness at that time of the new 
country, wrought injuries to his consti- 
tution from which he was never entirely 
freed. But soon difficulties arose among 
the ministers interested in the seminary. 
They did not come from the un-Luth- 
eran element which had been in the 
English District Synod, for in 1840 it 
withdrew and formed another Synod, 
the differences of opinion and practice 
between it and the body of the Joint 
Synod being irreconcilable. But the 
German portion of the Joint Synod 
pursued a course which made the posi- 
tion of Prof. Schaeffer intolerable to 
him, and he withdrew, removing, Novem- 
ber 21, 1848, to Lancaster, O. 

Of the life and labors of Mr. Schaeffer 
at Lancaster, I have little knowledge; 
his own remembrance, however, of much 
kindness shown him there was strong. 
He remained but two years. The dis- 
appointment of his hopes and purposes 
with reference to labor as teacher of 
theology inclined him to remove from 
Ohio. He accepted a call from the 
church at Red Hook, Dutchess Co., N. 
Y., and removed from Lancaster, De- 
cember 23, 1845. At Red Hook he was 
very much esteemed and beloved both 
as preacher and pastor. Years after he 
had left, the people there spoke to me 
of him as "The Model Dominie." 

In April, 1851, he took charge of St. 
John's Church, Easton, as the successor 
of Rev. Dr. J. W. Richards. With his 



labors there, and the esteem in which 
he was held, both in the congregation 
and in the entire community, I am very 
familiarly acquainted, having been for 
some years a near neighbor, a frequent 
visitor at his house, and afterward fol- 
lowing him in the pastoral office there. 

The congregation at Easton, which 
had been much distracted by events 
which had occurred previous to the 
pastorate of Dr. Richards, had been 
brought by his labors into entire har- 
mony and greatly regretted his loss. 
Dr. Schaeffer entered on his labors there 
with every prospect of peaceful and 
successful result, and this prospect was 
fully realized. The whole congregation 
continued, to the end of his stay among 
them, to honor and love him as preacher 
and pastor. No single unpleasant in- 
cident occurred to disturb the mutual 
affection of pastor and people. 

As a preacher Dr. Schaeffer held a 
very high place. His preparation for 
the pulpit was always very systematic 
and thorough. His sermons were in- 
structive in matter and attractive in 
manner. He had from the beginning 
of his preparation for the ministry 
devoted much attention to the science 
of Homiletics. Perhaps no minister 
who has lived and labored in the Luth- 
eran Church in America was superior 
to Dr. Demme in the selection and 
arrangement of material, and in the 
surpassing power of presentation, in his 
sermons. He was probably the greatest 
preacher we have yet seen in America. 
And Dr. Schaeffer was his pupil in 
those early years of his life, when all 
his powers were concentrated on his 
preparation for the pulpit. As profes- 
sor at Columbus it became the duty of 
Dr. Schaeffer to systematize his views 
and to give to his students careful in- 
struction on this subject. In his own 
sermons the beneficial results of these 



652 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



studies were clearly shown. Then, too, 
he was a constant, close exegetical 
student of the Scriptures in the original, 
giving to this study much time, and 
finding in it great delight. His sermons 
were full of the results of careful biblical 
study, and, therefore, of solid, nourishing 
food. 

As a pastor^ he was, in the visitation 
of the afflicted, most faithful, sympathetic 
and consolatory. His mind and heart 
were so absorbed in the Bible that he 
brought the simple Gospel, with all its 
purifying, elevating, soothing power, in 
all naturalness and simplicity, to those 
to whom he came. In the regular 
systematic visitation of all families in 
the congregation he was most exact, but 
the many hours it consumed were grudg- 
ingly given, as so much time taken from 
study. 

It was during his stay at Easton that 
he translated Kurtz's Sacred History, 
and made the minutely careful revision 
of the translation of Luther's Small 
Catechism for the Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvania. 

At the annual meeting of the Minis- 
terium of Pennsylvania, in June, 1855, 
Dr. Schaeffer was unanimously nomina- 
ted as German Professor in Pennsyl- 
vania College and in the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg. The profes- 
sorship had been founded by the minis- 
terium for the purpose of providing 
pastors for its congregations which 
required services in the German lan- 
guage. The proposal to found it had 
come from the Trustees of Pennsylvania 
College, and the Directors of the sem- 
inary had afterward united in desiring 
the arrangement, but no specific agree- 
ment had yet been made as to the duties 
in the seminary of the professor. Be- 
fore Dr. SchaefPer would accept, he 
insisted that an exact determination of 
the position and duties of the Professor 



in the Seminary must be made by mutual 
agreement. Serious difficulties presented 
themselves. The first proposal of the 
authorities of the Seminary, that the 
Professor should give only lingual in- 
struction in the German language, was 
unacceptable to the Professor and to 
the Ministerium. A special meeting 
was called at Beading, in August, 1855, 
to determine the relation of the Profes- 
sorship to the Seminary, at which the 
Faculty of the Seminary were present 
for conference. The Ministerium, sup- 
porting the views of Dr. Schaeffer which 
he made the condition of his acceptance, 
urged that one-half of the time of the 
Professor be devoted to the Seminary 
and that his entire instruction there be 
theological, and not lingual, though in 
the German language. It was also 
agreed that he should not lecture on the 
same branches as the other professors 
at the same time, but it was clearly 
understood that his Catechetics might 
be made to cover as much Dogmatics 
as he saw fit. The difficulties were thus 
removed and he accepted the nomination. 
The position was a very delicate and 
responsible one. The Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania had recently re-united 
with the General Synod, and had urged 
other Synods to do so, earnestly hoping 
and purposing to secure greater unity. 
It had avowed its purpose to maintain 
unchanged its foundation of faith, and 
hoped in the union to secure gradually 
the return of the whole Lutheran Church 
to a closer allegiance to the Confessions. 
The new Professor was expected in all 
his instructions to conform strictly to 
the Confessions, in their entirety and 
purity, and the expectation was clearly 
avowed. To do this, in an Institution 
where the other Professors were not 
expected to conform to the Confessions 
to the sama extent, and to do it peaceably 
and effectually, was manifestly difficult. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



653 



Now, after the solution of the problematic 
attempt at union in Synods and Sem- 
inaries, it is easy to see that the under- 
taking was ill-advised, and that the 
objects arrived at could not be secured 
in that way. But the effort was honestly 
and earnestly made and was well meant 
on all sides. The whole plan proceeded 
from a craving for unity in the Church, 
and the result has shown that unity was 
not to be secured in that way. 

In April, 1856, he left Easton amid 
the loving regrets of the whole congre- 
gation, and with their prayers for his 
future prosperity and usefulness. He 
had insisted on their election of a suc- 
cessor who should at once take his place, 
and had heartily commended him whom 
they had chosen, Rev. B. Sadtler. 

In entering on his new sphere of labor 
at Gettysburg, he was constrained by 
his sense of duty to make open and 
unequivocal assertion of his theological 
position, especially with reference to 
the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. 
He therefore chose as theme of his 
inaugural address the central truth of 
distinctive Lutheran doctrine, the Person 
and Work of Christ. He portrayed 
''The Church -historical Development of 
Christology," and closed his address 
with an extended statement of his own 
relation to each of the Confessions in 
order. It was a clear, loving, filial 
avowal of his reverence for them, each 
and all, and of what they had been to 
him personally. His adherence to them 
is without any reserve and intensely 
earnest. It was the expression of a 
conviction which had grown deeper with 
every year of his life. Whatever gentle- 
ness or courtesy might mark his inter- 
course and co-operation with those of 
different views, no jot or title of that 
conviction could ever be yielded by him 
while life lasted. 

His avowal of his views was so honest, 



full and firm, while, at the same time, 
his intercourse with his fellow Profes- 
sors was marked by so much amenity 
and courtesy, and such evidences of 
personal esteem, that no breach of 
fraternal relationship occurred during 
his stay at Gettysburg. 

His eminent ability as a teacher, his 
intense interest in the subjects presented, 
his warm sympathy with the students, 
his personal effort to secure relief for 
the needy, united to give him influence 
over those entrusted to his care. The 
extent to which the acceptance of his 
own views obtained, especially among 
the students from the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania, was an occasion of rejoic- 
ing to the members of that body. Many 
of his students have ever since been 
among the most earnest and active 
defenders of the Confessions of their 
Church in their strict, original, historical 
sense. 

He was very thorough and efficient 
in his instruction in the College as 
Professor of the German Language and 
Literature, his own appreciation of that 
literature and language being so great, 
but his heart was chiefly engaged in his 
duties in the Seminary. 

The Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
having decided in July, 1864, to establish 
a Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 
called Dr. Schaeffer to the Professor- 
ship of Dogmatic Theology, his instruc- 
tion to be given in German and English 
equally. In September of the same 
year he removed to Philadelphia to 
enter upon labors which were to continue 
until the hand of death was laid upon 
him. 

He was a born teacher. All the 
peculiarities of his mind, and all the 
habits of his life, united to make him 
excel in this office. The minute accuracy, 
even in the least matters which his 
nature required, made him both exact 



654 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and exacting as a teacher. Nothing 
was trivial, no generalities would satisfy, 
precise knowledge and accurate state- 
ment were absolutely necessary with 
him. The enthusiasm, too, with which 
he entered into every study was catching, 
and communicated itself to his students. 
And, above all, his convictions of truth 
were so absolute, all doubts had been 
overcome and the assurance of faith was 
perfect. He could not rest satisfied in 
uncertainty. He must thoroughly and 
exhaustively examine the subject, and it 
was only thus that his convictions were 
attained, but when attained they were 
immovable. It was thus with reference 
to all the distinctive doctrines of the 
Confessions. He had examined them 
most carefully and prayerfully, had 
compared them with the Scriptures in 
the original with diligent exegetical 
study, had weighed all testimony to the 
contrary, and had come, as the result of 
all his thought and study, to the convic- 
tion that in all their parts, aspects, 
relations and consec^uences, they were 
in entire accord with the Word and 
mind of God, and that whatever was in 
conflict therewith must be wrong. This 
conviction had become part of the very 
substance of the soul. Luther's closing 
words at Worms describe his position, 
"Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders." 

The four sons of Dr. Frederick David 
Schaeffer, who, like their father, adorned 
the office of the ministry, have now all 
entered into their rest. Charles Fred- 
erick fell asleep gently, imperceptibly, 
merely ceasing to breathe, early on the 
morning of the twenty-third of Novem- 
ber, 1879. 

Among the many publications from 



his pen we note the following: Sermon 
on Justification by Faith; Sermon on 
the Parable of the Ten Pounds; Maurice 
and the Emperor; Manual of Sacred 
History, from the German of Dr. J. H. 
Kurtz; Luther's Small Catechism, re- 
vised translation; Antritt's Eede, in- 
augural Address at Gettysburg; Sermon 
at the Centenary Celebration of Trinity 
Church, Lancaster, Pa., 1861, memorial 
volume; Commentary on the Acts of 
the Apostles, from the German of 
Lechler and Gerock; Arndt's True 
Christianity, revision of Boehm's trans- 
lation, with additions; Steadfastness in 
Doctrine and Duty; The Gospel in the 
Old Testament, from the German of 
Dr. F. W. C. Umbreit; Symbolic Theo- 
logy; Doctrine of the Atonement as 
presented in the Symbolical Books; 
Enquiry into the Nature of Fundamental 
Doctrine ; Lutheran Doctrio e of Election ; 
The Confession of the Evangelical Lu- 
theran Church; Homiletics; Division of 
the Decalogue; Baptismal Eegeneration; 
The Three Saxon Electors of the Era 
of theEeformation; Eeview of Schaff's 
Church History; Annotations on Matt, 
xxix; The Book of Job, from the German 
of Lie. Konst. Schlottman; Eationalism 
and Supranaturalism, from German of 
Dr. A. Tholuck; Hebrew Poetry, from 
German in Zeller's Biblisches Woerter- 
buch; M. Flacius Illyricus and his 
Times; Inspiration, from Zeller's Woer- 
terbuch ; Precious Stones, from the same; 
Marriage, from the same; Athanasius 
and the Arian Controversy; Exegetical 
Punctuation of the New Testament; 
The English Version of the New Testa- 
ment and the Marginal Eeadings. — Dr. 
B. M. Schmueker. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



655 




KEY. CHAS. W. SCHAEFFER, D.D., LL.D. 



Charles AVilliam Schaeffer, the son of 
the Rev. Solomon Frederick Schaeft'er, 
was born in Hagerstown, Md., May 5, 
1813. His father was at the time the 
pastor of St. John's Church of that 
city, but when only twenty-four years 
of age, and the son was about one year 
old, he fell victim to a fever that was 
contracted by visiting a camp of soldiers 
near Hagerstown. His mother was 
Catharine Eliza Crever. 

After the father's death, the widow, 
with her infant son, returned to her 
father's home in Carlisle, Pa., where the 
subject of this sketch spent the next 
fourteen years of his life. 

During her residence in Carlisle, Mrs 
Schaeffer was married to the Rev. Ben- 
jamin Keller, the pastor of the church 
in that city. In 1829 Mr. Keller having 
received a call from St. Michael's 
Church, German town. Pa., the family 
left Carlisle for their new place of resi- 
dence. This move brought the son, 
Charles, to a place which was not with- 
out its special interest to him, for here 



his father was born, while his grandfather, 
the Rev. Frederick David Schaeffer, 
D. D., was pastor of St. Michael's. 

The German town Academy, whose 
origin dates back to the years preceding 
the Revolution, offered the best educa- 
tional advantages, and thither the young- 
Charles was sent to complete his prepa- 
ration for college. He next attended 
the University of Pennsylvania from 
which he graduated with honor in 1832. 
While going to College he made his 
home with his grandfather, who then 
was the pastor of Zion's and St. Michael's 
Church, Philadelphia. 

Having resolved to enter the ministry 
of the Church, the young man, after his 
graduation at the University, went to 
Gettysburg, and entered the Theological 
Seminary. While pursuing his studies 
there he also spent a part of his time in 
discharging the d uties of a tutor in the 
college. 

In 1835 Dr. Schaeffer was licensed to 
preach by the Pennsylvania Synod, at 
its meeting in Germantown, and im- 



656 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



mediately afterwards he took up his 
residence at Barren Hill, Montgomery 
Co., Pa , where he became the pastor 
of Sti. Peter's Church, and also of the 
Union Church of White Marsh, in the 
same county. These congregations had 
heretofore been connected with St. 
Michael's Church, Germantown, but 
now they formed a separate charge, and 
Dr. Schaeffer was their first resident 
pastor. 

In 1840 Eev. Dr. Schaeffer was called 
to Harrisburg, Pa., where he resided as 
the pastor of what is now the mother 
church of all the Lutheran congrega- 
tions in that city. In 1849 he resigned. 
and coming to Germantown, assumed 
charge of St. Michael's Church, which 
he retained until June, 1875, a period 
of twenty-six years. Dariug the years 
of his ministry, in connection with St. 
Michael's, Dr. Schaeffer, having now 
received the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
from the University of Pennsylvania, 
witnessed and took a very active part 
in many ot the most important move- 
ments of the church in latter years. 

When the Theological Seminary in 
Philadelphia was begun, October, 1864, 
Dr. Schaeffer was a member of the 
faculty, being Professor Extraordinary, 



a position he occupied until the endow- 
ment of the Burkhalter Professorship, 
to which he was nominated and elected 
in the year 1870, and the duties of which 
he still continues to discharge. Since 
the death of his uncle the Eev. Charles 
F. Schaeffer, D. D., Dr. Charles W. 
Schaeffer has been the Chairman of the 
Faculty of the Seminary, and has ever 
shown a keen interest in its welfare. 

Dr. Schaeffer, whose abilities were 
recognized a few years ago by Thiel 
College, which conferred upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Laws, has contrib- 
uted to the literature of the Church, 
as books, translations of prose and verse, 
and numerous articles in papers and 
reviews will testify. His first official 
position in the Church was that of 
Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Synod, 
and then in later years he was President 
of the same Synod and also of the 
General Council. 

He has published the following: His- 
tory of the Luth. Church in Harrisbarg, 
Pa. ; The General Synod ; Early History 
of the Lutheran Church in America; 
Luther's Preaching; The Lord's Supper 
from Luther; Valedictory; Wittenberg 
Nightingale; Washington's Birthday; 
Halle Eeports (trans.) — Indicator. 



EEY. DAVID F. SCHAEFFEE, D.D. 



David Frederick Schaeffer, the eldest 
son of the Eev. Dr. Frederick David 
and Eosina (Eosin miller) Schaeffer, was 
born in Carlisle, Pa., on the 22d of 
July, 1787. After being prepared for 
College at an Academy in Philadelphia 
he entered the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and, having passed through the 
regular course of study with diligence 
and success, graduated in the year 1807. 



Having studied theology, according to 
one authority under his father, and, ac- 
cording to another, under Doctors Hel- 
muth and Schmidt, he took charge of 
the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation 
in Frederick City, Md., in July, 1808. 
Though, at that time, but twenty-one 
years of age, he had developed a fine 
commanding person; had, for his years, 
a large measure of intellectual acquire 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



657 



ment; possessed the finest social qual- 
ities; and, for general personal attrac- 
tions, was almost unrivalled. His ordi- 
nation took place in Philadelphia, on 
Trinity, 1812. 

Mr. Schaeffer soon became greatly en- 
deared to his congregation, and was un- 
tiring in his efforts for the advancement 
of their interests. He labored in season 
and out of season; in town and in the 
country; on the Sabbath and during the 
week; in the pulpit and out of the pul- 
pit; beside the sick bed and in the cate- 
chetical class. In 1829 he was unani- 
mously elected Principal of the Fred- 
erick Academy, and, by the urgent so- 
licitation of the Trustees, was induced 
to accept the appointment; though, af- 
ter holding the office for some time, he 
was obliged to relinquish it on account 
of the pressure of his pastorial and 
ecclesiastical duties. In 1836 the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
upon him by St. John's College, An- 
napolis. 

Dr. Schaeffer was intimately con- 
nected with all the leading movements 
in his own denomination, and with many 
important public enterprises out of it. 
The first English periodical established 
in the Lutheran Church, (which was 
the Lutheran Intelligencer, ) in 1826, was, 
by common consent, committed to his 
editorial charge. He had a very im- 
portant, if not a primary, agency in es- 
tablishing the Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg, which has now taken a 
commanding place among the Divinity 
Schools of the country. He was one 
of the founders of the Frederick County 
Bible Society, and was President of the 
General Synod in 1831 and 1832, and 
was, for several years, its Secretary. 
His earnestness and ability in a pro- 
tracted controversy with the Romanists, 
who had a stronghold in Frederick, were 
eminently conducive to the interests of 
83 



Protestantism in that region. He had 
rarely less than three or four students 
of theology under his care, and it was 
a common saying, in view of the great 
number of ministers whom he brought 
into the Lutheran ranks, that he was a 
"Church Father." 

Dr. Schaeffer's indefatigable labors, in 
connection with severe domestic afflic- 
tions, so materially affected his health 
that, for the last year or two of his life, 
he was physically inadequate to the 
amount of service which he had been 
accustomed to perform. In addition to 
this, certain adverse circumstances 
brought him into painful embarrassment 
in his relations with the Synod; and 
just at that period his earthly career 
closed. He died suddenly in Frederick, 
which had been his only field of labor, 
on the 5th of May, 1837, in the fiftieth 
year of his age, and the thirtieth of his 
ministry. His funeral sermon was 
preached by the Rev. Dr. Harkey, who 
was at that time officiating in the Luth- 
eran Church in Frederick, and another 
Commemorative Discourse was subse- 
quently delivered, at the special request 
of the congregation, by the Rev. Dr. 
Krauth, President of Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, who had pursued his theological 
studies under Dr. Schaeffer's direction. 

Dr. Schaeffer's published works are 
to be found chiefly in the five volumes 
of the Lutheran Intelligencer, (from 
1826 to 1831,) of which he was the edi- 
tor. He published, in addition, A Fast 
Sermon, delivered during the war of 
1812-1815; An Historic Address Com- 
memorative of the Blessed Reformation, 
1818; and a Charge to the Rev. S. S. 
Schmucker, on his Induction as Profes- 
sor in the Theological Seminary, 1826; 
and, it is believed, some other pamphlets. 

On the 28th of June, 1810, he was 
married to Elizabeth, daughter of 
George and Catharine Krebs, of Phila- 



658 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



delphia. They had six children, one of 
whom, the eldest, is a physician in Fred- 
erick, and another is the author of 
"Sketches of Travel in South America, 



Mexico and California," published in 
1860. Mrs. Schaeffer died on the 30th 
of January, 1837, in the forty-sixth year 
of her age. — Sprague. 




REV. FEEDEEICK C. SCHAEFFER, D.D. 



Frederick Christian Schaeffer, a son 
of the Eev. Dr. Frederick David and 
Eosina (Eosenmiller) Schaeffer, was 
born at Germantown, Pa., where his 
father was then pastor, November 12, 
1792. Both his parents were distin- 
guished for great force of intellect and 
character, for consistent and elevated 
piety, and for earnest devotion to the 
interests of their children. This son, 
in his early childhood, evinced a very 
thoughtful and serious spirit, and seemed 
to grow up in the love and practice of 
religion. Shortly after he was received 
to the communion of the Church, he 
commenced his preparations for the 
sacred office. He pursued his classical 
studies, partly at the Academy in his 
native place, and partly under the 
direction of his father; and his theolog- 
ical course also was conducted by his 
father almost entirely. He was licensed 
to preach the Gospel in 1812, by the 
Synod of Pennsylvania, then in session 
at Carlisle. 

Shortly after his licensure Mr. Schaef- 
fer was called to the Church in Harris- 
burg: he accepted the call and entered 
upon his labors November 12, 1812. 
Though he was very young, he proved 
himself fully adequate to the place, 
and his labors were at once eminently 
acceptable and useful. It was during 
his ministry here that the English 
language was successfully introduced 
into the worship of the sanctuary, — a 
measure invariably attended with diffi- 



culty, and in many cases fraught with 
very serious consequences. 

After laboring at Harrisburg for about 
three years, he accepted a call from the 
congregation of Christ's Church in the 
city of New York, "to preach German 
and English." This church was built 
in 1773, and was known by the name of 
the Old Swamp Chifrch. Here he 
preached in the two languages until the 
erection of St. Matthew's Church in 
1823, which was designed exclusively 
for English services. On the completion 
of this edifice, he took charge of the 
English congregation, and Dr. Geissen- 
hainer, who had had charge of the 
Swamp Church previous to the settle- 
ment of Mr. Schaeffer, was recalled to 
that church with an understanding that 
the exercises were to be conducted in 
the German language. Difficulties, how- 
ever, arose, in consequence of conflict- 
ing interests between the two churches, 
until St. Matthew's was finally sold to 
the Germans. Mr. Schaeffer and his 
people removed to the edifice known as 
St. James' Church, presented to the 
congregation by Mr. Lorillard, who 
desired to be, and for a long time was, 
unknown as the generous donor. Here 
he continued to labor till the close of 
his life. 

In 1830 he was honored with the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity from Colum- 
bia College. In that year also he was 
appointed professor of the German Lan- 
guage and Literature in the same in- 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



659 



stitution; but he had only entered upon 
the duties of his professorship, when 
these and all his other earthly labors 
were terminated by death. He died of 
pulmonary disease, March 26, 1832. 
His last days were marked by intense 
suffering, but by serene and joyful 
triumph. A short time before his de- 
parture, he expressed the apprehension 
that he should be too weak, in his last 
moments, to render such a testimony to 
his Redeemer's power and grace as he 
desired; but, after having continued for 
some hours in an apparently unconscious 
state, he suddenly revived, and exclaimed, 
with perfect distinctness, — "Victory, 
Victory ! 'Thanks be to God, who giveth 



us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ.' " His funeral was attended 
by an immense throng, and an appro- 
priate address was delivered by the 
Rev. Dr. Milnor, of the Episcopal 
Church, with whom he had been in most 
intimate relations, and who had ad- 
ministered to him, during his illness, 
the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
A funeral discourse was subsequently 
addressed to the bereaved congregation, 
by the Rev. Dr. Mayer, of Philadelphia. 
Dr. Schaeffer published German Cor- 
respondent, one volume; Sermon at the 
Centennial Jubilee of the Reformation, 
1817; Parables and Parabolic Sayings, 
one volume. — Sprague. 




REV. FREDERICK D. SCHAEFFER, D.D. 



Rev. Frederick David Schaeffer, a son 
of John Jacob and Susanna Maria 
Schaeffer, was born in Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, November 15, 1760. His parents 
were both exemplary professors of re- 
ligion; and, though they died while he 
was quite young, they lived long enough 
to give a permanent direction to his dis- 
position and habits. In after life he 
often spoke of their influence upon his 
character with great interest, and es- 
pecially of the counsels and instructions 
of his devout mother, who was taken 
from him when he was but twelve years 
old. 

At the age of about eight he was 
placed at the Gymnasium in Hanan to 
be educated. Here he remained for six 
years, — till his father's death, which oc- 
cured in 1774 At this period, being 
now in his fourteenth year, he left the 
Gymnasium, and found a home in the 
family of his grandmother. His educa- 
tion was then, for a season, conducted 



by his uncle, the Superintendent General 
at Rodheim, in the kingdom of Witten- 
berg, by whom he was, in 1774, received 
into the Church by the rite of Confirm- 
ation. His grandmother, with whom 
he lived, died the next year; in conse- 
quence of which the homestead was 
broken up, the family separated and the 
estate divided. This occasioned an in- 
terruption of his studies and a derange- 
ment of his plans; and as one of his 
uncles, about this time, formed the pur- 
pose of visiting America, it was deter- 
mined also that he should accompany 
him. This purpose was, accordingly, 
carried out; but, shortly after their ar- 
rival his uncle died, and the next that 
is heard of the young man is that he is 
engaged as a teacher in York County, 
Pa. His labors, in this capacity, were 
eminently successful; but, while he was 
thus engaged, he was brought under the 
influence of the Rev. Jacob Goering, 
an excellent minister of the Lutheran 



660 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Church, who sympathized with bim in 
his difficulties, and proffered him im- 
portant aid. He received him under 
his care as a student of Divinity, and 
directed his whole preparation for the 
ministry. His choice of this profession 
was in accordance with both his earlier 
and later predilections, as well as with 
the known wishes and prayers of his 
parents, and his mind and heart went 
fully into the work. 

He was licensed to preach in 1786, 
by the Synod of Pennsylvania ; and was 
ordained on the 1st of October, 1788. 
As a licentiate, he took charge of the 
Lutheran Church at Carlisle, and preach- 
ed also to several other congregations in 
Cumberland and York Counties. 

In 1790 Mr. Schaeffer assumed the 
pastoral charge of the then extensive 
Germantown District. Here he labored 
with marked success till the year 1812, 
when he moved to Philadelphia, to settle 
over St. Michael's and Zion*s Churches, 
as Colleague Pastor with the Eev. Dr. 
Helmuth, and successor to the Eev. Mr. 
Schmidt. In this charge he continued 
for twenty-two years, laboring with his 
characteristic zeal and fidelity. It was 
partly during this period that the great 
controversy prevailed in the German 
Lutheran Church, in respect to the in- 
troduction of English into the services 
of the sanctuary. Mr. Schaeffer was of 
opinion that the German language 
should be upheld and the interests of 
his German brethren respected, but he 
thought provisions should be made for 
those who understood only the English. 
He is said to have suffered much in the 
conflict, and to have been deeply pained 
by the issue of it. 

In 1814 he received the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from the 
University of Pennsylvania. 

In 1834, in consequence of declining 
health and increasing infirmities, he re- 



linquished the active duties of the min- 
istry, and moved to Frederick, Md., to 
spend his remaining days with his eldest 
son. Here he lingered till January 27, 
1836, when he died, in the seventy-sixth 
year of his age. In his last moments 
he was enabled, with the utmost serenity, 
to testify to the all-sustaining power of 
that religion of which he had so long 
been a professor and a minister. He 
was buried in the Lutheran cemetery at 
Frederick; and, on the following Sab- 
bath, a funeral sermon was preached 
by the Eev. Dr. Sch mucker, of Gettys- 
burg, from the words, — "Blessed are 
the dead that die in the Lord," etc. The 
Council of the Lutheran Church in 
Frederick, and the Corporation of the 
German Churches in Philadelphia, which 
Dr. Schaeffer had so long served, testi- 
fied, by appropriate resolutions, their 
respect for his memory. His loss was 
deeply lamented by all the denomina- 
tions of Protestant Christians. 

The only work that he published was 
a "Eeply to a Defence of the Methodists," 
in 1806. 

In the autumn of 1786 he was united 
in marriage to Eosina, a daughter of 
Lewis Eosen miller, of York County. 
She was distinguished for high intel- 
lectual and moral qualities, as well as 
for earnest, active piety; and her death 
occurred but about one year before his 
own. They had eight children, — four 
sons who became ministers of the Gospel, 
and a daughter who was married to the 
Eev. Dr. Demme, of Philadelphia. 

Of the sons who became ministers one 
only (Charles Frederick) now (1863) 
survives. Two of the others are com- 
memorated in this work. The remain- 
ing one (Frederick Solomon) was born 
in Germantown, November 12, 1790; 
studied theology under the direction of 
his father, and became pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



661 



Hagerstown, Md., where lie died January 
30, 1815, in the twenty-fifth year of his 
age. He was married to Eliza Graver, 
of Carlisle, and was the father of the 



Kev. C. W. Schaeffer D.D., now of 
German town, Pa. He was reckoned a 
young man of great promise. — Sprague. 




KEV. JOHN HELFEICH SCHAUM. 



John Helfrich Schaum w^as born at 
Giesen, in Germany, and was the son 
of pious iDarents, who were particularly 
careful to give their children a Christian 
education. His father was a teacher at 
Munchsholtzhausen, and it would seem, 
from some of his letters addressed to 
his son, that he was deeply concerned 
for the spiritual interests of his pupils. 
The son, after passing through the 
preparatory training at home, was sent 
to the celebrated institution at Halle, 
where he was brought into intimate 
relations with the great and good Dr. 
Francke, not only as a pupil but as a 
personal friend. He was a student here 
at the time when the spiritual destitution 
in America awakened so much interest 
in a portion of the German Lutheran 
Church; and when the question of be- 
coming associated with the missionary 
enterprise to this country was proposed 
to him, he almost immediately signified 
his willingness to engage in it. 

Mr. Schaum came to this country in 
company with Peter Brunnholtz and 
John Nicholas Kurtz, by way of England, 
and landed at Philadelphia, January 26, 
1715. He immediately commenced his 
labors as schoolmaster in Philadelphia, 
and occasionally preached on the Sab- 
bath. Not long after his arrival he was 
sent to Somerset, N. J., as a temporary 
supply, until the congregation, who 
were then negotiating for a pastor, could 
be accommodated. In the spring of 
1717 he was commissioned to go to the 



Raritan, N. J., as a Diacenus, by Pastors 
Muhlenberg and Brunnholtz, under 
whose direction the Catechets appear to 
have been placed; and the instructions 
given him on this occasion sho v the 
ralations which this order in the minis- 
try, at that time, sustained, aijd the 
manner in whicn public worship was 
then conducted. He is directed to keep 
an exact journal of his proceedings, and 
exhorted to be very circumspect in his 
external conduct, and, in his intercourse 
with his people, to converse with them 
on spiritual rather than on secular 
topics. The most minute directions are 
given as to the order in which the 
services of the sanctuary are to be per- 
formed, 1. The Form of Confession 
was to bo read — nothing added to it, 
and nothing taken from it: 2. Singing: 
8. Prayer: 1. Reading of the Epistle: 
5. Singing again, and well-known hymns 
and tunes recommended: 6. Reading of 
the Gospel with the Creed: 7. Singing. 
This constituted the Altar service . Then 
he is directed to go into the pulpit, and 
there follows 8. The Sermon, which he 
is told to have thoroughly committed, 
so that there shall be no stammering or 
repetition of words. It is also proposed 
that the sermon should not exceed a 
half -hour in length: 9. The Reading of 
the Liturgy: 10. The Catechizing of the 
children : Something was to be repeated 
out of Luther's Catechism, together with 
some hymns. This service was not to 
consume more than half an hour. These 



662 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



instructions also authorize him to baptize 
children and solemnize marriages, and 
strictly enjoin upon him the duty of 
instructing the young and of guarding 
against speculation in worldly matters. 
In the spring of 1748 Mr. Sch^.um 
was sent to serve the congregation at 
York, Pa. Here he found great favor 
with the people, and a rich blessing 
attended his labors. At a meeting of 
the Synod held in Lancaster, in 1749, 
he was permanently invested with the 
sacred office. He would have been 
ordained, in connection with Mr. Kurtz, 
the year preceding, but, in consequence 
of the distance from York to Philadel- 
phia, where th ^ Synod held its session, 
and of the difficulty of communication 
at that day, his ordination was post- 
poned. In addition to this, it was thought 
desirable that an opportunity should be 
furnished the congregation to become 
better acquainted with him, so as to 
unite in his call. In a communication 
to Halle there is an interesting account 
given of the exercises in connection 
with his ordination. In advance of 
the public services, the pastors and 
delegates of the congregations met at 
the parsonage, and, while the bells were 
ringing, proceeded in a body to the 
church in the following order: 1. Rev. 
Mr. Handschuch, the pastor of the 
congregation, with his Vestry: 2. Rev. 
Mr. Brunnholtz, Mr. W( iser and the 
delegates from Pennsylvania and Ger- 
mantown: 3. Dr. Muhlenberg and the 
delegates from New Hanover and Provi- 
dence: 4. Rev. Mr. Kurtz and the 
deputies from Tulpehocken and Pike- 
land: 5. Mr. Schaum and the deputies 
from York. A sermon was preached by 
Dr. Muhlenberg, by request of his 
colleagues, on the Marriage Feast, after 
which, all those present stood in a semi- 
circle around the altar, and joined in 
prayer while Mr. Schaum was ordained. 



The Lord's Supper was then adminis- 
tered and the morning service concluded. 
In the afternoon Mr. Kurtz officiated. 
At night Dr. Muhlenberg preached for 
the English, as they were without a 
pastor, and earnestly requested his 
services. The next day the pastors and 
delegates went again to the church, and 
heard a discourse from Mr. Schaum. 
In the afternoon a conference was held, 
and various questions, touching the 
improvement of the congregations, were 
discussed. 

Mr. Schaum remained in York seven 
years. He had to encounter many dif- 
ficulties here, one of which was that a 
portion of his congregation left him, 
and employed as their minister an 
individual who was not a member of 
the Synod; but his church was still 
well attended, and the more pious part 
of the congregation sustained and en- 
couraged him. Dr. Muhlenberg, in 
a letter written in 1754, says, — "I have 
been confidently informed that Mr. 
Schaum has still his church crowded 
full of hearers, and receives adequate 
support, though a portion of his mem- 
bers have separated, and taken for their 
pastor a young man formerly connected 
with the public school." During his 
residence at York, he carried on an 
extensive correspondence, and many of 
these letters, which have been preserved, 
are alike creditable to the writers and 
to the friend to whom they were ad- 
dressed. 

In 1755 Mr. Schaum received and 
accepted a call to Tohickon, and some 
other congregations in the vicinity. In 
1759 he was living at New Hanover, 
and preaching at Oley, Pikeland and 
Upper Dublin, and likewise assisting 
Dr. Muhlenberg once in four weeks, at 
New Providence (the Trappe). Subse- 
quently he preached in several other 
places; but he continued laboring in 




Rev. a. a. Scheie. 

Page 663. 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



€63 



this region till Wie close of life. His 
death occurred January 26, 1778, the 
thirty-third anniversary of his arrival in 
this country. In the prospect of his 
departure, he was enabled to exercise 
an unwavering confidence in the merits 
of his Redeemer, and was sustained by 
the full assurance that he was entering 
into rest. He died greatly lamented, 
not only by his own people, but by the 
whole community in which he lived. 

All authorities unite in asserting that 
Mr. Schaum was an eminently good 
man, and wholly devoted to the work of 
the ministry. Perfect freedom from 
guile, deep interest in the spiritual 



welfare of men, industry and zeal, confi- 
dence in God and consequent intrepidity 
in danger, humility and submission to 
the Divine will, were among the most 
promiii3nt features of his character. 
He was rather retiring in his disposition, 
and perhaps even grave, but he was 
friendly to all and easily accessible. 
His kindly spirit and inoffensive conduct 
secured the confidence of his brethren. 
From a portrait of him that remains, it 
is inferred that he was a man of a mild, 
equable, genial temper, that made every 
one happy who came within his influ- 
ence. — Sprague. 




REY. ANDREAS A. SCHEIE. 



Rev. Andreas A, Scheie was born in 
Yigedahl, Norway, Feb. 17, 1818. His 
parents had sixteen children — thirteen 
sons and three daughters. His Christian 
mother instructed by word and example 
their children in Christian doctrine, and 
sought to install the love of the Savior 
Id to their minds. When but nine years 
old Andreas had to leave home and go 
out among strangers as a servant. In 
the year 1840, he immigrated to this 
country, and settled in Rochester, N. Y. 
Here he made the acquaintance of that 
faithful servant of God, Rev. Muel- 
heuser. From Rochester he removed 
with his family to Racine Co., Wis., 
and afterwards to McHenry Co., 111. 
As the Norwegian Lutherans at that 
time had only one or two ordained pas- 
tors in America, Scheie and other gifted 
laymen held devotional meetiugs where- 
ever they could, and no doubt this was 
one of the means, in the providence of 
God, to keep alive the religious faith in 
a large number of the first Norwegian 



settlers to this country, and to preserve 
them from being scattered by ravenous 
sects. He was appointed colporteur by 
the American Bible Society, and in this 
capacity he traveled extensively in Illi- 
nois and Wisconsin. After years of use- 
fulness in this way, he received and ac- 
cepted a call to the ministry. His first 
charge was Leland, Illinois, where he 
succeeded in building a small church. 
On the 7th of October, 1855, he was or- 
dained by the Synod of Northern Illi- 
nois, and shortly after accepted a call 
from a small Norwegian church in Mil- 
waukee, Wis. This congregation he 
served for several years, and it was main- 
ly through his efforts that a neat frame 
church was erected, which has served 
the congregation for over twenty years. 
On his resignation at Milwaukee, he re- 
moved to Newberg, Fillmore Co., Minn. 
Here, and also on Highland Prairie, he 
succeeded, by divine aid, in building up 
strong congreerations. Under his min- 
istry both these congregations erected 



664 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



substantial and convenient diurches. 
The last pastoral charge was in Nor- 
man Co., Minn. Here he labored suc- 
cessfully amidst privations and hard- 
ships, and organized three congrega- 
tions. These he served until sickness 
compelled him to resign. After his suc- 
cessor, Kev. O. A. T. Solem, had taken 
charge, Rev. Scheie preached occasion- 
ally, as his health permitted. He made 
two journeys back to his old home in 
Norway. On returning from his first 
trip, some twelve years ago, he seemed 
to have entirely regained his health and 
strength. Even his last journey ap- 
peared for a time to do him good, but 
he soon sunk under the disease that 



ended his life. He leaves a wife and 
seven children. 

Rev. A. Scheie was. enabled, by God's 
mercy, to accomplish much good. He 
had many excellent traits of character. 
He was a trusty friend, and a kind and 
affectionate husband and father. Al- 
though his education was somewhat 
limited, he became, by the diligent study 
of the divine Word, and good Lutheran 
books, quite an able preacher. His dis- 
courses were plain and pointed, and 
made an excellent impression on the 
people. He, too, now "rests from his 
labors," but his faithful toil will yet be 
blessed to the salvation of many souls. 
He died February 20th, 1885.— H. 




REV. SIMEON SCHERER. 



The Scherer family has played quite 
an important part in the work and his- 
tory of the Lutheran Church in the 
Southern, Central and Western states. 
The family belongs to the crowd of 
Palatines that came to the Western 
Continent, not to make money but to 
escape persecution and worship Al- 
mighty God according to the dictates of 



' their own consciences and the teachings 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
They settled in Guilford Co., N. C, 
about the middle of the last century, 
and have furnished the Lutheran 
Church quite a number of earnest, faith- 
ful, laborious, and successful pastors. 

The father of the subject of this 
sketch was the Rev. Jacob Scherer. He 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



665 



was born in Guilford Co., N. C, bap- 
tized in infancy and confirmed in early 
youth. He received authority to preach 
the gospel and administer the sacra- 
ments from the Synod of North Caro- 
lina, in the year 1810. It must be ex- 
ceedingly regretted that, as yet, we have 
been able to find no picture or sketch of 
this venerable man of God. He labored 
in the ministry of the Lutheran church 
in the states of North Carolina, Tennes- 
see, Virginia, and elsewhere, often riding 
on horseback three and four hundred 
miles to preach to the scattered Luther- 
ans and to attend Sy nodical conventions. 
Between the years 1850 and 1858 he 
moved with his oldest son, Rev. Gideon 
Scherer, who was also a most zealous 
and laborious pastor, to Texas, to look 
after the interests of the Church there. 
There he died at a ripe old age, lament- 
ed by many who had enjoyed the bless- 
ings of the ministry. His name was a 
household word in many Lutheran 
families from the Atlantic, coast to the 
place of his death and burial. This 
blessing was not intended by the erec- 
tion and dedication of a church in 
Kansas, entitled the Rev. Jacob Scherer 
Memorial Church. The only surviving 
son of this worthy man is the Rev. Prof. 
J. J. Scherer, A.M., the proficient Pres- 
ident of Marion Female College, Marion, 
Ya., a man well known and most highly 
respected by all who know him. He 
has done much valuable service in the 
ministry, and has been most eminently 
successful as an educator of the young 
women of the church, and has sent out 
hundreds of educated young women to 
work for and in the Church. The Rev. 
Daniel Scherer, brother of Rev. Jacob, 
and uncle of Simeon, born in Guilford 
Co., N. C, in the year 1791, was also a 
man of most excellent qualities, and 
labored assiduously and successfully in 
North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and 
84 



Illinois, where, like his brother, he made 
frequent and long missionary tours, at 
his own expense, traveling in summer 
and winter, through heat and cold, dust 
and mud, rain and snow, organizing 
many congregations, preaching the gos- 
pel in German and English, baptizing 
children and instructing the young. He 
died April 4, 1852, in the 62d year of 
his age, and was buried in the cemetery 
at Mt. Carmel, 111. An humble stone, 
erected by the Synod of Illinois, marks 
the spot where his mortal remains repose. 
He gave to the ministry a son, Rev.^ 
Jacob Scherer, Jr., who was a regular 
graduate of both the college and semi- 
nary at Gettysburg, and possessed in 
full the spirit of his father. He died in 
October, 1851, in the midst of his work 
and days, and was buried at Hillsboro, 
111. Though passing away so young the 
hard work and valuable service which 
he did for Lutheranism in the West has 
not been forgotten. 

Frederick and John Scherer, brothers 
of Revs. Daniel and Jacob, Sr,, also fur- 
nished each a son for the ministry. The 
former was the father of the late Rev. 
F. R. Scherer, of Waterville, Kas., and 
the latter of Rev. A. H. Scherer, of 
Sharpsville, Ind., who, having served 
the church faithfully for many years, is 
now quietly enjoying the evening of his 
life in the bosom of a large family. 

We now return to the subject of this 
sketch. Rev, Simeon Scherer was the 
son of Rev. Jacob Scherer, Sr. He was 
born in Guilford'Co., N. C, Oct. 29, 1819. 
He was baptized by the venerable Rev. 
Dr. C. A. G. Storch, confirmed in child- 
hood, and early in life consecrated him- 
self to God for the work of the ministry. 
He studied one year in the seminary at 
Lexington, S. C, and, in company with 
a friend, walked from that place to Vir- 
ginia, a distance of 300 miles, whither 
the family had moved. After having 



666 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



taught school for some time to procure 
means, he entered the Virginia Institute 
(now Eoanoke College) in Augusta Co., 
Va., and studied under Rev. Prof. Dr. 
D. F. Bittle. Here he received the 
greater part of his classical education. 
He studied theology at Gettysburg un- 
der Eev. Drs. Schmucker, Hay and 
Krauth, Sr. He entered the ministry 
in 1851, and served charges in Giles Co., 
Va., and in Alamance, Guilford, Eowan, 
Cabarrus and Iredell counties, N. C. 
The high esteem in which he was held 
is manifested in the fact that he was 
honored a number of times by being 
elected President of the old North Car- 
olina Synod, and delegate to the General 
Synod of the United States of America. 
His last field of labor was in Guilford 
and Alamance counties. He died at 
Gibson ville, N. C, near the place of his 
nativity, July 11, 1876, and was laid to 
rest in the cemetery at Friedens church, 
by the side of his mother and many 
relatives. 

The descendant of a pious family and 
son of a most noble pastor, he, in turn, 
became the father of four of our faithful 
Lutheran pastors, — for he has the honor 
of having four sons in the prime of life, — 
now serving churches in our communion. 
They are as follows: Eev. L. P. Scherer, 
A.M., pastor of the church and charge 
of Harper's Ferry, W. Va.; Eev. W. J. 
D. Scherer, A.M., Fairfield, Pa.; Rev. 
M. G. G. Scherer, A.M., Grafton, W. 
Va., and Rev. J. A. B. Scherer, A.B., 
Pulaski City, Va. 



But few ministers in any church can 
claim the honor of having given to God 
and His cause four sons as minister. 
This fact alone speaks volumes of praise 
in honor of the subject of our sketch. 
His strong devotion to the Lutheran 
Church, in the darkest days of her 
struggle to establish and assert herself 
on American soil, won his noble sons, 
without argument, to a like devotion in 
the same grand, dear old faith and 
Church. No one, except the descend- 
ants of these faithful Lutheran families 
and the student of history, can form any 
conception of the vastness of the grati- 
tude we owe these pioneers and found- 
ers of our church work. The courage, 
firmness, self-sacrifice and indefatigable 
zeal necessary to begin poor weak 
churches in isolated places, and main- 
tain and build up the same by traveling 
and preaching from the Atlantic coast 
to the Gulf of Mexico as the Scherer 
pastors have done, in and through for- 
ests of indefinite length and full of 
dangers by night and by day, must call 
forth the unbroken admiration of the 
present and coming generations of the 
children of the faithful. 

We rejoice to be permitted to present 
the above facts and pay the above trib- 
ute to this family of worthy Lutheran 
pastors, that deserve monuments greater 
than the heroes of battle, and that are 
destined to have their names appear for 
all time to come, in our land, amid the 
most distinguished, active, successful 
pioneers and pastors.— jF. W. E. Peschau. 




EEV. H. K. SCHILLING, Ph.D. 



Among those who constitute the corps 
of instructors in Wittenberg College, 
Dr. Schilling, who occupies the Alumni 
Endowment Chair of Modern Lan- 



guages, is the youngest in years and 
time, and is one of the very few who 
attain to such eminence in his special 
department at so early an age. 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



667 




REV. H. K. SCHILLING, PH.D. 



Dr. Schilling was born in Saalfeld, 
Thnringia, Germany, March 28, 1861. 
His parents were both of the original 
Teutonic race. 

His father was a mechanical engineer 
by profession, and became manager of 
one of the first sewing machine manu- 
factories of that country. 

The long line of ancestors on both 
his parents' side, which are known back 
as far as the time of Martin Luther, 
were almost entirely professional men. 
They were Lutherans from the time of 
Luther, who often visited Saalfeld, it 
being one of the first towns that turned 
to him in his work of the reformation, 
and the home of his friend Aquila. The 
old church in which Dr. Schilling re- 
ceived the ordinance of baptism, cate- 
chetical instruction and the right of 
confirmation, is the same one in which 
Luther preached at that place. 

His parents were both pious Christian 
people, and his childhood was spent 
amidst the influence of a Christian home. 



At the age of five years he commenced 
to attend school in his native town, 
where he continued four years, at the 
end of which time he went to the gym- 
nasium and took up the regular nine 
years' course. The progress he made, 
and the success he met with in his 
studies there, were more than ordinary, 
and at the end of his fourth year he was 
given the honors of his class, and because 
of his thoroughness was allowed to pass 
over the fifth year in the course, and 
finish his studies there in eight years, 
an incident of rare occurence in a Ger- 
man gymnasium. Graduating in 1878 
with high class standing, he immediately 
went to the University of Leipsic, where 
he was matriculated as a student in 
Modern Philology, consisting of the 
Germanic, Romanic and English lan- 
guages. For some time after his enter- 
ing there he was the youngest among 
3,500 students. His principal teachers 
were Prof. Wuelker, in English, Profs. 
Zarncke and Hildebrand in German, 



668 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



and Prof. Ebert, in Romanic Philology, 
all celebrated scholars and authorities 
in their departments. Duriog his stay 
at Leipsic of five semesters — two years 
and a half — his success was no less 
marked than at the gymnasium. In 
1880 he went abroad from Germany to 
visit the native countries of those lan- 
guages, the study of which he was 
pursuing, to finish his education, which 
all German Universities require from 
their students of Modern Philology. 
He first went to England and spent 
several months in the British Museum 
at London, examining ancient manu- 
scripts. In the spring of 1881 he went 
to Ireland, where, in connection with 
his studies, he became tutor in a private 
fajnily, and remained in that country 
until midsummer of 1882, about one 
year and a half. He next made an 
extended tour through Ireland and 
England, subsequently crossing over to 
Paris, France, for the purpose of gaining 
a practical knowledge of the French 
language also; while there he studied 
in the "Bibliotheque Nationale," and 
heard lectures in the "Sorbonne" and 
"College de France" until November, 
1883, when he returned to Leipsic, 
resumed his studies and became leader 
of the Anglo-Saxon Seminary under 
Prof. Wuelker. He graduated in 1885, 
after examination and presentation of 
thesis, the subject of which was "Koenig 
Aelfred's Angelsaechsische Bearbeitung 
der Weltgeschichte des Orosius," (King 
Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the 
History of the World by Orosius), and 
was created Philosophice Doctor and at the 
same time Bonarum Artium Magister. His 
dissertation, which was afterwards en- 
larged and published in pamphlet form, 
received from the faculty the grade 
admodum laudabilis. After graduating 
he returned to his home in Saalfeld, 
where he spent the winter. During this 



time he decided to come to America. 
He landed in New York February 28, 
1886, and proceeded at once to Baltimore, 
where he remained until about the 
middle of June of the same year. While 
in Baltimore he lectured before the 
Philological Society in Johns Hopkins 
Hall, and was offered the instructorship 
of German in John Hopkins University, 
which he did not accept. About that 
time he received a call to the Professor- 
ship of Modern Languages in Witten- 
berg College, which he accepted. He 
came at once to Sprirgfield, Ohio, but 
did not begin his labor as teacher until 
September, 1886. 

The first year of his college work at 
Wittenberg proved him a man worthy 
and well qualified for the position he 
occupies. Since coming to this country he 
has been elected a member of the Modern 
Language Association of America. 

As an author Dr. Schilling has been 
active little more than a year, but has 
already become widely known in Philo- 
logical circles. Besides his pamphlet 
on "King Aelfred's Orosius," he has 
published in the "Modern Language 
Notes," a philological journal, edited by 
Prof. Elliott, of the Johns Hopkins 
University, the following articles on 
subjects pertaining to his special work, 
viz.: 

Notes on the Finnsaga; A Disputed 
Passage in the Finnsburg Fragment, 
and the Intransitive use of Beran in 
Anglo-Saxon; and The Finnsburg Frag- 
ment and the Finnepisode. 

He has also received the distinguished 
honor of being appointed by Prof. 
Wuelker, of Leipsic, editor of the leading 
journal of English Philology, "The 
Anglia," to write a critical review of the 
American publications in the domain of 
English philology for the year 1886. 

In the month of May, 1887, at the 
request of the authorities of the Indiana 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



669 



State University, at Bloomington, he 
delivered in that institution a course of 
six lectures on the "Folk Songs of Ger- 
many," and on "Shakespeare in German 
Literature" and with such success that 
he was immediately offered the position 
of Associate Professor of the Germanic 
Languages and Li teratures. As a teach er 
he is precise and thorough, yet kind- 



hearted and charitable, entertaining a 
feeling of high regard for his students, 
and for the mind and its cultivation. 
He is a man of fine physical form and 
development, erect, polite, obliging and 
attractive in his appearance, bearing 
strong marks of the physical, mental 
and moral culture that he has received. 
— Hist. Witt. College. 



KEY. PROF. EMMANUEL SCHMID. 



Prof. Schmid was born July 3d, 1835, 
at Ann Arbor, Michigan, then a small 
hamlet of a few hundred inhabitants, 
with Indian camps in the neighborhood. 
Wakening to life just previous to the 
anniversary of our national day, while 
Michigan was yet a territory (became a 
state, 1837), Prof. Schmid appears 
from early childhood .to have been asso- 
ciated with the religious and intellectual 
growth and development of our country. 
His father, Rev. F. Schmid, accom- 
panied by his wife, Louisa, planted the 
Lutheran Chrrch in that wilderness 
frontier, and for many years he was the 
only Lutheran minister in Michigan. 
Emmanuel Schmid made frequent trips 
with him to the scattered and lonely 
settlements of German Lutherans, 
through a large portion of the state; 
now and then also visiting the Indians. 
From earliest youth, he had the purpose 
to become a minister, and these mis- 
sionary tours increased this desire. 

After having attended the common 
school, and pavt of the year the paroch- 
ial, and then the academy, with also the 
privilege of enjoying private instruc- 
tions in Latin and Greek, he entered 
as Freshman the University of Michi- 
gan in 1851, receiving three years after 
the honorary degree of A. M. A few 



months after graduating, in August, 
1855, he left for Germany to study theo- 
logy. Again the name of Schmid ap- 
pears as pioneer, but this time east- 
ward. In that comparatively early 
period of the development of the cen- 
ter of our continent, attendants at Ger- 
man Universities from this so called 
western country, were not often met 
with, and many frontier log houses were 
to be passed in going to reach those old, 
densely pjopulated and ornate seats of 
European culture. While the starry 
lamp of emp>ire was moving westward, 
it proved necessary with many to return, 
as it were, to the fountain source, for a 
new supply of oil. He entered the 
University of Tuebingen, where there 
were then prominent as Theological 
Professors Palmer, Beck, Landerer, 
Oehler and Baur. 

After spending three "semesters" at 
Tuebinger, he went to Erlangen, where 
many theological students at that time 
congregated, to hear such men as Hof- 
mann, Delitzsch, Schmid, Thomasius 
and Zetzwitsh. The vacations were 
spent in traveling through a large por- 
tion of Germany, Switzerland, France, 
and Italy. 

In the later part of 1857, he returned 
to America, with the intention of en- 



670 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



tering the ministry. At first he assisted 
his father in his extensive field of labor 
in Michigan. A few months after his 
return, he received a call to Columbus, 
O. This was a two-fold one: as Profes- 
sor of Latin and Greek in "Capital Un- 
iversity" of the Lutheran Joint Synod 
of Ohio, and as pastor oi a small Eng- 
lish Lutheran congregation in Colum- 
bus. He accepted both calls, and at 
Easter, 1858, moved to Columbus. He 
was married the same year to Wilh el- 
mine C, youngest daughter of Rev. 
Prof. W. Schmidt, the first professor 
and founder of the Theological Semi- 
nary in Columbus. His wife died in 
1884, leaving two daughters. 

Soon after the arrival of Emmanuel 
Schmid in Columbus, he also took 
charge of a German congregation in 
Grove City near by. After serving these 
congregations some years, he resigned 
their charge and accepted the call of 
another congregation ( English and Ger- 
man) seven miles from Columbus, which 
he has served twenty-eight years, and 
of which he is now pastor. As professor, 
he has now, without interruption, been 
connected with "Capital University" 
nearly thirty-three years. For twenty- 



two years he taught the languages and 
history, then of the languages a few 
years only Greek. Since 1883, his labors 
have been confined to lectures on Uni- 
versal History. Since 1863 he has also 
filled the office of Secretary of the Fac- 
ulty continuously to this day. When 
the Joint Synod in 1859 resolved to 
publish a German paper. The Luther- 
ische Kirchen-Zeitung, he was appointed 
associate editor with Prof. Lehmann. 
The department edited by Prof. Schmid 
was that of Church News, and it is 
yet, after thirty-one years. During all 
this time he has enjoyed the blessing 
of good health, so that not a single 
number of the periodical has appeared 
without some news published by him. 
Of "Luther's House Postil," published 
in English by the Rev. J. A. Schulze, 
he translated the first volume and the 
greater part of the second. During his 
connection with the "Ohio Synod," he 
has held for thirteen years the office of 
president of the "Western District," 
and holds it at the present time. 

It will be observed that a special 
feature of the life of Prof. Schmid is 
the continuousness of his occupancy of 
the positions he has held. 



REV. F. SMID. 



The venerable F. Schmid, the first 
Lutheran pastor in the State of Michigan, 
and residing since 1833 in or near Ann 
Arbor, fell asleep August, 3, 1883. He 
was not only pastor of the various Ger- 
man settlements in Washtenaw County, 
but was in labors most abundant and in 
journeys oft, seeking out the scattered 
German settlers over the state. Educated 
in the Mission House at Basle, he had 
the mission spirit in an eminent degree 
and with many prayers and sacrifices 



commenced and carried on for years the 
first mission of our American church 
among the North American Indians. 
He was also the founder of the Synod 
of Michigan, now in connection with 
the General Council. Like not a few 
of the old German pioneers from Wur- 
temberg, who were educated in Basle, 
Father Schmid had his own troubles in 
his long and eventful life. In this 
intensely practical atmosphere, where 
principles rapidly develop into actual 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



671 



life, he suffered greatly from withdrawals 
of pastors and churches from the Synod 
because of its too Lutheran charac ter. 
These went to the United Synod of the 
West! Not less was he distressed and 
embarrassed by the withdrawal of others 
to the Missouri Synod, to whom his 
Synod was not sufficiently Lutheran. 
Even the missionaries he had trained 
for the Indian mission among the 
Chippewas, were carried away by the 
last movement, taking, we believe, both 
the Indian and the German congrega- 
tions with them. 

Since 1860 this venerable man has 
been suffering from paralysis, but he 
bore this great trial with quiet submis- 



sion, although for fourteen years he has 
been confined to his room or bed. "Verily, 
he rests from *his labors and his works 
follow him." He leaves behind him a 
family of ten children, among whom 
are Rev. Prof. E. Schmid, of Capital 
University, Columbus, O., and the wife 
of Rev. Pastor Voltz, of Buffalo, N. Y. 
On Monday, September 3, his earthly 
remains were committed to the grave, 
from the German Lutheran church in 
Ann Arbor, a large number of his 
brethren in the Synod being present, and 
an immense concourse of people from 
various parts of the surrounding country. 
— V/orkman. 




REV. FREDERICK 

Frederick Augustus Schmidt was born 
on the 3d of January, 1837, at Leuten- 
berg in Thuringia (principality of 
Schwarzburg, Rudolstadt, ) His father, 
John Frederick Schmidt, died in 1839 
or '40. His mother, Helena, nee Wirth, 
emigrated to America in 1841, her 



A. SCHMIDT, D.D 

mother and other relatives having 
preceded her as participants in 
the Saxon colonization scheme cf M. 
Stephan. From 1842 to 1848 Dr. 
Schmidt attended the parochial school 
of Trinity Church in Lombard Street, 
St. Louis, Mo. Rev. Buenger, who at 



672 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



that time acted as teacher in said school, 
persuaded the mother and stepfather of 
Dr. Schmidt (John F. Scheel) to let 
him commence the study of Latin, with 
a view of sending him to Altenburg, 
Perry Co., Mo., where the Saxon emi- 
grants had established a gymnasium and 
seminary, for the purpose of educating 
ministers. In 1848 he was received as 
pupil in Altenburg, where Rev. Gott- 
hold Loeber, the pastor of the congre- 
gation, acted as professor of the theo- 
logy, Rector Goenner as instructor in 
the ancient languages, and Mr. Nitschke 
as teacher of modern languages and 
other branches of practical education. 
Dr. Schmidt was the youngest of the 
nine students of the college and semi- 
nary combined, during the years 1848-50. 
In 1849 his mother died during the cho- 
lera epidemic in St. Louis. In 1850 the 
institution was moved to St. Louis. 
Rector Goenner also removed to the 
new location, but Eev. Loeber's place 
was taken by Rev. C. F. W. Walther, 
and Mr. Nitchke's by Prof. A. Biewend. 
When Concordia College and Seminary 
were dedicated in June, 1850, there 
were six students in the seminary, and 
ten in the college. Dr. Schmidt grad- 
uated with his college class in 1853, but 
on account of his youth he was not ad- 
mitted to the seminary, until the next 
year, he in the meantime, partly pursu- 
ing his classical studies and partly aid- 
ing teachers in the college. From 1854 
to '57 he pursued the study of Theo- 
logy under the care of Walther, Bie- 
wend, Schick, and Seyffarth. Wishing 
to remain free to pursue his studies fur- 
ther in German, Dr. Schmidt did not 
graduate with his class in the summer 
of '57, but borrowing a hundred dollars, 
he set out on his journey to Leipsic. 
A providental concatenation of circum- 
stances, however, did not permit him to 
reach even New York city, to which 



place he had bought his ticket from St. 
Louis. Whilst remaining some days 
in the neighborhood of Buffalo, N. Y.-, 
partly to see Niagara Falls, partly to 
meet former classmates, he was called 
to become pastor of a German congre- 
gation in Eden, Erie Co , N. Y. He at 
first declined to accept the call, but 
finally yielded to a second call, was ex- 
amined and ordained by Revs. Buerger 
and Dulitz, and served the congregation 
for two years. In the fall of 1857 Dr. 
Schmidt was admitted as a member of 
the German Missouri Synod at its Gen- 
eral Session in Fort Wayne, Ind. In 
1858 he married Caroline Sophia, daugh- 
ter of John Joachim Allwardt, of Plato, 
Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. In 1859 St. 
Peter's English Lutheran congregation 
of Baltimore, Md., having become va- 
cant by the death of Clemens Miller, 
called Dr. Schmidt to become their 
pastor, and although the congregations 
served by him refused to dismiss him, 
he nevertheless regarded it as his duty 
to come to the rescue in Baltimore. 
Not only the German congregation and 
its aged pastor, Rev. Keyl, but the mem- 
bers of the Missouri Synod in general 
were at that time rather opposed to the 
formation of English congregations out 
of the young English-speaking material 
of the German churches. It was claimed 
that English Lutheran congregations 
should seek material for growth among 
the other denominations or among un- 
churchly people, but that the children 
of German congregations should learn 
their religion in German and thus be un- 
fit for membership in English churches. 
St. Peter's congregation and their pas- 
tors. Miller and Schmidt, were of the 
opinion that the choice of language is a 
matter of freedom {adiaphoron) and 
that the younger members of German 
churches, if they can understand and 
speak English reasonably well, ought to 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



673 



be left free to make their own choice in 
regard to the question, whether they 
would be members of the German or 
of the English congregation. The 
standpoint taken by Synod can be seen 
from its reports of the General Sessions 
of 1857 and 1860. At the latter meet- 
ing, held in St. Louis, Dr. Schmidt was 
present and sought to advance the cause 
of English congregations, formed from 
among the German ones ; but, the older 
members of Synod, and the great ma- 
jority following them, expressed their 
wonder that "such a spirit" should ven- 
ture to speak on that floor. On account 
of the civil war the small English con- 
gregation was unable to maintain its 
ground. Dr. Schmidt received a call 
from the Church Council of the Nor- 
wegian Synod (with some of whose 
members he had happened to become 
acquainted), to become teacher of Eng- 
lish and German in the school to be 
erected by Synod. 

In Sept. 1861, Dr. Schmidt removed 
to Halfway Creek, Wis., at which place 
the Norwegian College was, for the time 
being, to be located. Prof. L. Larsen 
was the other professor. The number 
of students was ten. In 1862 the school 
was removed to Decor ah, Iowa, where 
it has since then flourished and has be- 
come a powder among the Norwegian 
church people. 

In 1872 Dr. Schmidt was called to St. 
Louis, to fill the vacancy occasioned by 
the defection of Dr. Preus. The Nor- 
wegian Church Council, wishing to re- 
tain his services in their Synod, gave 
him also a call to become Norwegian 
theological professor at St. Louis. This 
latter call Dr. Schmidt accepted and re- 
mained in St. Louis until 1876. In 
1873 he was sent by his synod to act as 
delegate to the Missionary Society of 
Norway, convened in Drammen. In 
1876 the Synod resolved to establish a 
85 



j theological seminary of its own at 
Madison, Wis. Prof. Asperheim, of 
Springfield, 111., and Dr. Schmidt were 
its first professors. Up to this time Dr. 
Schmidt was a firm friend and advocate 
of Missourian theology, and when his 
colleague. Prof. Asperheim attacked the 
orthodoxy of the Missourians, Dr. 
Schmidt defended them as best he could, 
although he was aware of several points 
of a non-fundamental character, on 
which he did not agree with other lead- 
ing theologians of Missouri. In the 
year 1878, however, a radical change 
took place in this respect. The leaders 
of Missouri advocated a doctrine of 
predestination and conversion, in which 
Dr. Schmidt could not but see a funda- 
mental deviation from the revealed truth 
of the gospel. 

In 1880 Dr. Schmidt commenced the 
public^ation of Altes und Neues and 
continued the same for five years, with 
a view of combating the Missouri doc- 
trine. In the Norwegian Synod about 
half of the ministers sided with Missouri 
and hence this controversy finally re- 
sulted in a rupture of Synod. From 
1882-87 Dr. Schmidt published the 
Lutherske Vidnesbyrd, which paper in 
1890, was merged, with others, into the 
Luthersk Ugeblad. The two main posi- 
tions which Dr. Schmidt from his own 
point of view sought to maintain, were 
these: 1. The rule according to which 
God selects some sinners in preference 
to others unto actual salvation through 
Christ, is the revealed one : Whosoever 
believes shall be saved (election, justi- 
fication and salvation in view of faith.) 
2. The sufficiency of the Gospel call 
out of the means of grace for the pur- 
pose of salvation involves the fact that 
God, through such call and means, ren- 
ders it possible to sinners to enter the 
way to salvation through conversion, 
faith, and perseverance, so that every 



674 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



sinner called by the Gospel is enabled 
to make his choice between the natural 
road to perdition and the Gospel road to 
salvation. (Dent. 30, 19; Ps. 5, 4) In 
1886 that wing of the Norwegian Synod, 
which did not agree with Missouri, es- 
tablished a divinity school of their ow^n 
at Northfield, Minn. Together with 
Prof. Boeckman, Dr. Schmidt there pre- 
pared a number of students for the min- 
istry. In 1887 th" Norwegian Synod 
condemned this action as revolutionary 
and unconstitutional. Consequently the 
"Anti-Missourians," in large numbers, 
withdrew from Synod to escape further 
troubles. In 1888 these Anti-Missou- 
rians, with a view of avoiding the or- 



ganization of a fifth Norwegian Luth- 
eran Synod, sent delegates to the three 
Synods that had formed in the course 
of time, aside from the old Norwegian 
Synod, viz: the Hauge's Synod, the 
Augustana Synod, and the Conference. 
In 1890 the two last named Synods, and 
the Anti-Missourians united in forming 
a new body: "The L^nited Norwegian 
Lutheran Church in America." Accord- 
ing to previous agreement each of the 
uniting bodies was entitled to call one 
or two professors to serve in the semi- 
nary of the United Church. Dr. Schmidt 
was thus chosen by the Anti-Missou- 
rians and serves in that capacity at the 
present time. 




REV. H. C. SCHMIDT. 



The following sketch is taken from 
Brother Trabert's "Historical Sketch of 
the Telugu Mission": 

"Rev. H. C. Schmidt had come to 
America with Father Heyer in the 
spring of 1869, and had been ordained 
by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania 
with the understanding that, as soon as 



the way was clear for him to enter upon 
the mission work at Rajahmundry, he 
should at once proceed to India. During 
the interval he took charge of a small 
German congregation at Carlisle, Pa., 
until the matter of transfer by the 
General Synod was settled. When the 
time for his proposed departure for 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



675 



India arrived, he was retained as a 
witness in an important trial before the 
Court. By this he was delayed from 
time to time, and did not sail for his 
designated field of labor until March, 
1870. He remained in Europe until 
the beginning of July, when, hearing 
of the sudden death of his friend, 
Missionary Becker, he resolved to take 
the ovei'land route, in order to reach 
India as soon as possible. Before the 
end of the same month he arrived in 
Rajahmundry, just three months after 
Mr. Becker's death. 

Rev. Schmidt was a man of much 
practical tact, and hence peculiarly fitted 
for the work which had to be done. He 
was endowed with more than ordinary 
skill and ingenuity, and was able to 
find employment for many of the low- 
caste converts by giving them a sort of 
industrial education, by means of which 
both they and the mission reaped a 
decided advantage. As an evidence of 
his practical ability, the following is of 
interest: When he built the mission 
house at Rajahmundry, he concluded to 
introduce an innovation, and covered 
the roof with shingles, according to the 
American style. Both Europeans and 
prominent natives predicted that the 
first storm would demolish it. The 
southeast monsoon set in before it was 
completed, and coming with considerable 
violence, so as to play havoc with roofs 
generally, Rev. Schmidt became some- 
what nervous about it. He hastened to 
ascend and see whether there was any 
danger of material damage, when he 
found that all was secure, whilst an 
English officer, who had been inclined 
to laugh at the missionary's Yankee 
notions, was compelled to have his roof 
tied town with ropes, to save it from 
destruction. Rev. Schmidt's brief resi- 
dence in America had served the mission 
a good purpose. On one occasion he 



was itinerating in the southern part of 
the Godavery delta, when, at a certain 
town, it was necessary to have a building 
for school and church purposes. There 
being no stone, and wood being both 
expensive and scarce, he concluded, 
after examining the clay, that brick 
might be made for the purpose. The 
natives, however, declared that whilst 
the "mud" would make sun-dried brick, 
they could not be burned, as then they 
would crumble. To test the matter, he 
at once had some made, and improvising 
a n iniature brick-kiln, burned them, 
when, to the surprise of the people, they 
proved to be a first-rate article. He 
immediately set people to work, to make 
the necessary quantity for the building. 

Missionary Schmidt has been the 
designer and builder of about all the 
houses belonging to our mission at 
Rajahmundry, including the stately St. 
Paul's Church, whose tall spire bears 
testimony to the work of Christ in that 
city. As a fruit of his skill there is a 
mission-boat, called "Dove of Peace," 
which has done noble servic-" in carrying 
the missionaries from place to place on 
the river and the canals, bearing the 
peace of God to hundreds of precious 
souls. 

An important event in the life of a 
missionary who has been alone in the 
foreign field for some years, occurred on 
New Years day, 1874, when Rev. Schmidt 
was united in marriage to Giovanni 
Bleshoy, in the Lutheran church of the 
Leipsic Mission at Bombay. This was 
the second missionary's wife in the 
mission, as Rev. Paulson, who reached 
Rajahmundry a few months after the 
arrival of Mr, Schmidt, had married the 
year previous= By this a material force 
was added to the mission, inasmuch as 
female missionaries are of the greatest 
importance, especially since the rules 
of Hindu Society do not allow the 



676 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



women to come in contact or commingle 
with men. Women, especially of the 
higher castes, are kept in absolute 
seclusion. Only among the lowest classes 
and no-caste people can the missionary 
hope to directly reach the women by 
personal contact, whilst his wife and 
female missionaries in general will secure 
access to the private apartments of caste 
women where they can sow the seeds of 
truth in hope of an abundant harvest in 
God's good time. 

Mrs. Schmidt has proved a true help- 
meet for her husband. She loves the 
mission work and her influence among 
the high-caste women will, no doubt, 
bear much good fruit. 

After laboring for thirteen years in 
the trying climate of India, the condition 
of Rev. Schmidt's health was such that 
a change became necessary. During all 
those years he had continued at his 
post, with but one interruption, when 
for a few months, they sojourned in the 
cool atmosphere of the Nilighiris Moun- 
tains, to which place Rev. Schmidt was 
compelled to go, in order to recover 
from repeated attacks of jungle fever. 
His system was so completely shattered 
by disease that a two years' sojourn in 
Europe or America became necessary, 
if his life should be spared to continue 
longer in the Master's work. In conse- 
quence of this necessity he left Eajah- 



mundry with his frmily in April, 1883, 
arriving at Toulon, France, on the first 
day of May, and after spending a month 
in France and Switzerland, arrived June 
12, in the old home in Fredericia, Den- 
mark. 

On May 11th, 1884, they sailed for 
New York. He visited numerous con- 
gregations in Pennsylvania, New York, 
Iowa, Illinois, and other states, deliver- 
ing mission addresses, and on Novem- 
ber 13th, sailed again from New York 
to Denmark. On June 17th, 1885, Mis- 
sionary Schmidt and wife once more 
set out on their return to India, reach- 
ing Madras August 2d, and arriving in 
Rajahmundry on the evening of the 
9th. The following day they were 
royally welcomed by the children of the 
schools, marching in procession with 
banners bearing appropriate inscriptions. 

Since their return to India, Rev. and 
Mrs. Schmidt have been laboring dili- 
gently in their chosen calling, enjoying 
God's blessing and comparatively good 
health. Seven missionaries have been 
sent to the Rajahmundry mission since 
Rev. Schmidt first arrived there, four of 
whom have died at their post, whilst 
one was compelled to return on account 
of continued illness. The Schmidt's 
have but one child, a daughter named 
Dagmar. 




REY. HENRY I. SCHMIDT, D.D. 



On Monday, at 6 P. M., February 11, 
1889, the Rev. Henry Immanu el Schmidt, 
D. D., Emeritus Professor of Columbia 
College, New York, quietly entered into 
eternal rest. 

He was born at Nazareth, Pa., in 1806, 
where his father was a distinguished 



physician. The family belonged to the 
Morav^ian church, and the young Henry 
received his first instruction in the 
school of that church. He subsequently 
became a teacher at Nazareth Hall. 
Having entered the ministry of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, in 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



677 



1829, he became member of the New 
York Ministerium, and remained in 
that body until he was admitted into 
the Ev. Lutheran Ministerium of Penn- 
sylvaDia in 1879. He had some expe- 
rience as a pastor, at Saddle River, and 
Stone Arabia, as well as in the German 
congregation at Boston, Mass., where lie 
labored from 1835 to 1837. But the 
greater part of his life was devoted to 
the work of a professor in Hartwick 
Seminary, in Pennsylvania College, Get- 
tysburg, and last and longest of all, in 
Columbia College, in the city of New 
York, in which he continued until 1880, 
when he retired with the title of Pro- 
fessor Emeritus, and a pension. Asso- 
ciated with the leaders of half a century 
ago, he was recognized as one of the 
ablest and most scholarly of our men. 
He was one of the most frequent con- 
tributors to the Evangelical Review, 
when that publication began its career, 
and his voice and pen were heard and 
felt in the earnest and warm controver- 
sies of that time. He was a man of 
strong convictions, and never shrank 
from expressing them. Although one 
of the most gentlemanly and courteous 
of men, he never hesitated to speak his 
mind to friend or foe, and was ever 
ready to wield a Damascus blade in de- 
fence of truth. He enjoyed the warm 
friendship of some of the best men of 
the church, and the younger Dr. Krauth 
whom he loved for his father's sake, as 
well as his own, and of whom he always 



spoke as "Charles," was his guest as 
often as he came to New York. He 
mourned over him as over a son. 

He was a most influential member of 
the New York Ministerium, in whose 
important committees he was associated 
with such men as Dr. P. F. Mayer and 
Dr. Stohlmann. For years he presided 
over the Pastoral Conference of New 
York, in its old meeting place in St. 
Matthew's Church, Walker St., and 
then in the new St. Matthew's, in Browne 
St. He was well known in many of the 
congregations of this city and vicinity, 
and often officiated on important occa- 
sions. His sermons, whether German 
or English, were carefully written, and 
read with deep earnestness, and his 
appearance and manner were calculated 
to give those who saw and heard him 
the impression that he was an earnest, 
upright, highminded Christian scholar 
and minister. 

He was a most conscientious and 
painstaking professor, and it is not at 
all unlikely that his untiring application 
to his duties, helped to develop that 
extraordinary nervous sensitiveness that 
troubled him so much in subsequent 
years, but which has been wearing oif 
of late. He was deeply interested in 
his work and in his students, and took 
special delight in the subsequent suc- 
cessful career of many a distinguished 
son of Columbia. 

He leaves an aged widow and no 
children, and an only brother.^6^. F, K. 




678 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 






'I 'I ' ' II .^ 



WP^m^ 



1 ' II 



III 



''i ' f 'iii\ 






'[Y 



I' .. '11 



EEY. JOHN F. SCHMIDT. 



Jolin Frederick Schmidt was born at 
a place called Frohse, near Aschersle- 
ben, in the Principality of Halberstadt, 
January 9, 1746. His father was a 
highly respectable farmer, was a man 
of much more than ordinary intelligence, 
and was very careful in the education of 
his children. Discovering that his^son 
John possessed talent of a high order, 
he resolved to furnish him with the best 
advantages for intellectual culture, and 
with a view to thip. sent him to the 
Orphan House at Halle, then under the 
care of the celebrated Geo. A. Francke. 



Here he made very rapid improvement, 
not only in the classics but in the 
sciences, and in 1765 he was admitted 
a member of the University m the same 
place. He still retained his'high repu- 
tation for scholarship, engaging with 
great zeal in'^the study of Divinity, as 
well as of the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic 
languages. He was distinguished also 
in Mathematics, Astronomy and History; 
and in Ecclesiastical History particu- 
larly he had few superiors. During his 
connection with the University, he was 
appointed a teacher in the Orphan 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



679 



School, and, for two years, gave instruc- 
tion in the Mathematics as well as in the 
Latin and Greek Languages. 

^hen Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Helmuth, 
in 1768, received a call to come to Amer- 
ica in the capacity of a missionary, he 
immediately communicated the fact to 
his friend Schmidt, with whom he was 
in the most intimate relations, and who 
expressed the deepest grief at the pros- 
pect of being separated from him. It 
was afterwards arranged, partly through 
the influence of Dr. Francke, that 
Schmidt should be Helmuth 's com- 
panion. 

After this determination had been 
arrived at, with the concurrence of Mr. 
Schmidt's parents, the two young men 
set out on their journey, and proceeded 
first to Schmidt's native place, with a 
view to take leave of his relatives who 
remained there. When they reached 
his father's house, the whole family were 
at church. The father, on his return, 
gave them a cordial welcome, but seemed 
much afi'ected by the thought that his 
son had come to pay him a farewell visit. 
Presently the mother and the rest of 
the household reached the dwelling, and 
then the grief of the whole circle be- 
came so intense as to exhibit itself in 
sobs and tears. The news quickly spread 
through the neighborhood, and numbers 
came rushing in to express their regret 
and sympathy. Amidst all the excite- 
ment, the much loved youth who was 
the occasion of it remained perfectly 
calm and self-possessed, and did not 
open his lips. Mr. Helmuth now re- 
quested that all who were present would 
be quiet for a few moments, as he had 
something that he wished to say to them. 
He took from his pocket his favorite 
book, Bogatzky's Schatz Kustlein, and 
read from it a passage that seemed spec- 
ially adapted to the occasion, and then 
offered up a fervent prayer. The effect 



of this was most happy — all seemed to 
be comforted, and Mr. Schmidt, (the 
father, ) extending his hand toward the 
two young missionaries, said "Go, in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, if it should 
be necessary, even to Turkey — the Lord 
be with you." The father testified his 
approbation of their mission still fur- 
ther, by following them so as to be pre- 
sent at their ordination, which took 
place at Wernigerode, a few days after. 

The ordination being past, they pro- 
ceeded to Han;burg with a view to em- 
bark for London. But while at Ham- 
burg Mr. Schmidt began to grow des- 
pondent in respect to the enterprise, and 
to doubt whether he had not mistaken 
a mere temporary excitement for the 
voice of Providence speaking to him 
in a sober conviction of duty. He, how- 
ever, quickly regained his confidence, 
and no longer regretted that his field 
of labor was to be on this side of the 
ocean. 

They were detained at Hamburg 
longer than they expected. Their pas- 
sage had been secured, and their bag- 
gage placed on board the ship; but some 
unforeseen difficulty arose at the last 
moment, which obliged them to remain. 
Their effects were consequently removed 
from the ship, and they awaited another 
opportunity, which they supposed would 
soon offer. This detention, which occa- 
sioned them a temporary disappoint- 
ment, was the means of saving their 
lives, as the vessel in which they in- 
tended to come was wrecked on the 
passage. 

They sailed from London in January, 
1769, and arrived at Philadelphia in 
April following. During part of the 
voyage, Mr. Schmidt's health suffered 
quite severely, so that his friend Helmuth 
became very anxious in regard to the 
result; but his illness lasted but a short 
time. On reaching Philadelphia, Mr. 



680 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



Schmidt was most cordially welcomed 
by Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, 
and, for some time, enjoyed the hospi- 
talities of his house. After a few months 
he accepted a call from the congrega- 
tion at Germantown, and served it with 
great fidelity and acceptance seventeen 
years. During his residence there he 
was married to Mary Barbara Schau- 
wecker, by whom he had eleven chil- 
dren. He survived her several years. 
His ministry at Germantown included 
the period of the Eevolutionary War; 
and as he was, like most of his breth- 
ren, a zealous Whig, he was compelled 
to flee when the town came to be occu- 
pied by the British. 

In the year 1785 Mr. Schmidt was 
elected assistant to his friend, Dr. Hel- 



muth, at Philadelphia. He accepted 
the appointment, and, the next year, 
was chosen the second minister, in 
which relation he continued during the 
residue of his life. He was eminently 
a man of afiliction — he baried his wife 
and seven children in rapid succession, 
and was twice attacked with the Yellow 
Fever, during its ravages in 1793, hav- 
ing taken the infection, as was supposed, 
by means of his untiring labors among 
the sick and dying. 

He died on the sixteenth of May, 1812. 
after a protracted and painful illness, 
in the sixty-seventh year of his age. 
His remains having been carried into 
Zion's Church, a short sermon was 
delivered by Dr. Helmuth, from 2 Sam. 
i, xxvi. — Sprague. 




EEV. PEOR WILLIAM SCHMIDT. 



Eev. Prof. William Schmidt was born 
in Duensbach, near Kircheim, in the 
Kingdom of Wurtemburg, on the 11th 
of December, 1803. His father, grand- 
father and great-grandfater, were all 
ministers of the gospel. His father, the 
Eev. George Frederick Schmidt, a man 
of sound and vigorous intellect, and of 
an excellent German education, was or- 
dained in 1790; the next year became 
assistant to his father at Duensbach, 
and ultimately his father's successor; 
and died, greatly lamented, at a very 
advanced age, in the winter of 1850. 
His mother was Catherine Margaret 
Kochendorf, whose character may be 
inferred from this remarkable testimony 
of her husband: — "If ever there was a 
marriage in the world which was happy 
and blessed of God, it was my own." 
With such parents to conduct his re- 
ligious education, it is not strange that 



he was found walking in the fear and 
love of God while he was yet in early 
youth . Having pursued his preparatory 
studies under the direction of his father, 
he entered the Saxon Gymnasia of 
Schleusingin and Meiningen, where he 
soon became distinguished for bis class- 
ical attainments. So enthusiastically 
was he devoted to his studies that, for a 
long period, he allowed himself only 
four hours sleep during the twenty-four, 
often studying with his feet in water to 
enable him to keep awake. His nervous 
system, which was naturally very weak, 
suffered greatly from this intense appli- 
cation. In 1823 he was transferred to 
the University of Halle, where he pur- 
sued his theological studies with the 
same untiring assiduity that had marked 
his course in preceding years. Having 
remained at the university three years, 
he left it a highly accomplished general 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



681 



scholar, and tliorouglily acquainted with 
the different branches of theological 
science; and, in accordance with the 
practice of the country, he was received 
as a candidate of theology in the King- 
dom of Wurtemburg. • 

Not long after this, having previously 
declined an invitation to become pri- 
vate tutor to the family of the British 
Consul at Teneriffe, he directed his 
course to the United States, in company 
with a younger brother, with a view of 
joining two other brothers who had 
previously come hither. He reached 
Philadelphia in the summer of 1826. 
Here he remained nearly a year, and 
was engaged in editing a German peri- 
odical, called the American Correspondent. 
He then removed to Holmes county, O., 
where he became one of the original 
proprietors of the present flourishing 
town of Weinsburg, principally settled 
and inhabited by European Germans. 
Having been examined and received as 
a candidate of theology before he left 
Germany, he set himself at once to or- 
ganizing several small congregations in 
the region, with a view to supply the 
people, so far as circumstances would 
permit, with the ministration of the 
Word. And in these efforts he was 
eminently successful. The next year he 
was admitted a member of the Synod of 
Ohio, and soon after became pastor of 
the Lutheran church at Canton. 

It was about this time that the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Columbus, under 
the auspices of the Synod of Ohio, was 
established; and attention was directed 
to Mr. Schmidt as a person eminently 
qualified for thb professorial chair. He 
was, accordingly, at the meeting of the 
Synod, held in Zanesville, in 1830, un- 
animously elected to the office; and, as 
soon as he could make the necessary 
arrangements, he entered upon the 
discharge of its duties. He was, at the 
86 



same time, chosen pastor of the German 
Lutheran Congregation in Columbus. 
In this important field of usefulness he 
continued to labor, to great acceptance, 
with a brief interruption, till he was 
called to his rest. His health, however, 
became seriously impaired, under the 
pressure of his manifold engagements, 
and, in 1837, he felt obliged to give him- 
self a season of relaxation. Having 
obtained leave of absence for eight 
months, he visited his native country for 
the purpose of once more seeing his 
aged father and other friends, and iu 
the hope that the voyage might serve to 
invigorate his health. In respect to this 
visit the father writes thus : "In Novem- 
ber, 1837, my son William came back 
from America, to pay me a visit and to 
comfort me; also to offer me a peaceful 
home in America. It gave me inde- 
scribable pleasure to embrace this ex- 
emplary and dutiful son, after a separa- 
tion of twelve years, and to press him to 
my paternal heart. I would have ac- 
cepted his oft-repeated invitation, if the 
tears of my daughter, who remained in 
Germany, had not withheld me." The 
son returned to the United States in 
1838, with his health apparently much 
improved. He resumed his duties with 
great zeal, but it soon became manifest 
that he had undertaken more than he 
was able to perform. Still, however, he 
continued to labor till a short time 
before his death. On the day im- 
mediately preceding the commencement 
of his last illness, he had preached a 
Sacramental Sermon, and administered 
the ordinance of the Supper to upwards 
of two hundred communicants; and, 
after this effort, though he was very 
feeble and weary, he went a considerable 
distance from the church to baptize a 
sick child. This was his last official act. 
He was immediately attacked with nerv- 
ous fever, which terminated fatally after 



682 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



fourteen days. He died November 3, 
1839, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, 
leaving behind him the impreesive tes- 
timony of a devoted life, and a triumphant 
death, to the truth and power of the 
religion he had preached. At his funeral , 
the Eev. J. Wagenhals delivered a 
pathetic and consolatory address in 
German, and the Rev. Dr. Hoge pro- 
nounced an appropriate discourse in 
English. His fatherj on receiving the 
sad tidings of his son's death, writes 
thus: — "This mournful intelligence over- 
whelmed me and mine in Europe, and 
mine in America. For with the departure 



of our William the most beautiful star 
of our prosperity and hopes, in this 
fleeting, terrestrial life, faded away, for 
them and for me." The remains of 
Professor Schmidt are interred in Green 
Lawn Cemetery, and the spot is indicated 
by a neat marble monument, bearing an 
inscription beautiful for its simplicity. 
In the autumn of 1831 Professor 
Schmidt was married to Eebecca, daugh- 
ter of the late John Buckins, of Canton, 
O. He was the father of four children, 
— one son, who died in infancy, and 
three daughters, all of whom are married 
to Lutheran clergymen. — Sprague. 




REV. JOHN G. SCHMUCKER, D.D. 



Rev. John George Schmucker, D. D., 
was born in Michaelstadt, in the Duchy 
of Darmstadt, Germany, on the 18th of 
August, 1771. His parents were pious 
people, and spared no pains in forming 
him to good principles and virtuous 
habits. When he was in his fourteenth 
year he was received as a member of the 
church, according to German usage, by 
the rite of confirmation. His father, 
with the whole family, migrated to this 
country in 1785, and, after a residence 
of one year in Northampton Co., Pa., 



and another in Lancaster Co., in the 
same state, he removed to the vicinity 
of Woodstock, Va., where he made his 
permanent home. 

The subject of this notice evinced a 
serious regard for religion from his early 
childhood; but it was not till he had 
reached his eighteenth year that he ex- 
perienced what he believed to be a radi- 
cal change of character. About this 
time, there were a number of Baptist 
ministers in the region in which he 
lived, who exhibited great zeal in their 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



683 



labors, and whose preaching Mr. 
Schmucker attended with much interest 
and profit. But it was to the influence 
of a lay member of the Baptist church 
that he considered himself as chiefly 
indebted, under God, for the great 
change that now passed upon him. This 
individual frequently conversed with 
him, explaining to him the plan of sal- 
vation, and urging him to an unreserved 
consecration of himself to God; and the 
result was that he obtained the peace 
that passeth understanding. Immedi- 
ately after this he formed a purpose to 
devote himself to the ministry of the 
gospel. 

After about one year he entered on a 
course of study, under the direction of 
the Rev. Paul Henkel, who was at that 
time pastor of the Lutheran church in 
Woodstock, and whom he frequently 
accompanied on his tours of missionary 
labor. These excursions, in the desti- 
tute portions of the country, were of 
great use to Mr. Schmucker, as they 
served to awaken his sympathies, to 
quicken his zeal, and to aid his prepara- 
tion for the sacred ofiice. 

In 1790 he repaired to Philadelphia 
to avail himself of the instruction of the 
Rev. Dr. Helmuth and the Rev. Mr. 
Schmidt, who were at that time in the 
habit of conducting the education of 
young men for the ministry. Here he 
remained two years, vigorously prose- 
cuting both his classical and theological 
studies. Amongst his fellow students 
were Lochman and Endress, who after- 
wards became eminent ministers, with 
whom he lived on terms of great inti- 
macy, and towards whom he always 
cherished a strong affection. In 1792, 
having finished his course of study in 
Philadelphia, he w^as admitted as a 
member of the Synod of Pennsylvania. 
then in session at Reading. 

Mr. Schmucker's first charge consist- 



ed of several congregations in York Co., 
Pa., the call to which he accepted on 
the recommendation of his particular 
friends. Dr. Helmuth and the Rev. J. 
Goering. Here he exerted a highly 
important influence — the churches un- 
der his care were revived, and consider- 
erable numbers were added to them. 
During his residence here he continued 
the study of the Hebrew language and 
of theology, with the aid of the Rev. 
Mr. Goering, who was then settled as 
pastor in the borough of York, and was 
regarded as among the learned ministers 
of his time. 

In 1794 he accepted a unanimous call 
from Hagerstown, Md., — a charge which 
had been for some time vacant, and 
which embraced no less than eight con- 
gregations. He was now only twenty- 
two years of age; in his person he was 
uncommonly small, pale and emaciated, 
and in his manners extremely difiident 
and youthful. Many doubted his com- 
petence to occupy so important a field; 
and he was even sportively designated 
the boy preacher, but he quickly acquired 
an influence, both in and out of the 
pulpit, which falls to the lot of compar- 
atively few ministers. An extensive 
revival of religion soon took place under 
his labors, which he conducted with 
great zeal, discretion and success. 

After the death of Dr. Kunze in 1807, 
Mr. Schmucker was called to succeed 
him in the city of New York; but he 
thought it his duty to decline the call. 
In 1809 he was invited to become the 
successor of the lamented Goering, at 
York; and, though he was reluctant to 
leave the people who then constituted 
his pastoral charge, he felt constrained, 
in view of all the circumstances of the 
case, to accept the invitation. He, ac- 
cordingly, commenced his labors in this 
new field, and prosecuted them with un- 
remitting assiduity and great success 



684 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



during a period of twenty-six years. 
And when, in consequence of declining 
health, he was obliged to resign his 
charge, he still continued to serve one 
of the congregations in the country, to 
which he ministered on his first intro- 
duction to the sacred office. At length 
he found it necessary, on account of his 
increased and increasing infirmities, to 
withdraw from active service altogether; 
and, accordingly, in 1852, he removed 
to Williamsburg, Pa., where several of 
his children resided. Here he continued 
during the rest of his days. His facul- 
ties remained unimpaired to the last, 
and his death was, like his liff , tranquil 
and happy. He died Oct. 7, 1854, in 
the eighty-fourth year of his age. A 
discourse was delivered on the occasion 
of his funeral, by the Rev. Dr. Kurtz, of 
Baltimore, from the words " Them that 
honor me will I honor." His remains 
were taken to York, the scene of his 
former labors, and buried in front of 
the large German Lutheran church, 
with every expression of deep regard 
and reverential sorrow. 

In 1825 he received the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity from the University 
of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Schmucker occupied many im- 
portant places, and rendered much valu- 
able service in connection with the 
public interests of the church. He was 
one of the founders and most zealous 
advocates of the General Lutheran Sy- 
nod. He was president of the Foreign 
Mission Society, from its formation till 
a short time before his death, when he 
declined a re-election. He was also the 



early and active supporter of the Theo- 
logical Seminary of the General Synod, 
and, for many years, served as president 
of its Board of Directors. He had an 
important agency in the establishment 
of Pennsylvania College, and for more 
than twenty years acted as a trustee. 
At the time of his death he was the 
senior vice-president of the American 
Tract Society, having been appointed to 
the office in 182'^. Various other be- 
nevolent institutions also found in him 
an efficient auxiliary. 

The following is a list of Dr. 
Schmucker's publications: Vornehmste 
Weissagungen der Heiligen Schrift; 
Reformations Geschichte zur Jubelfeier 
der Reformation; Prophetic History of 
the Christian Religion, or Explanation 
of the Revelation of St. John; Schwarm- 
ergeist unserer Tage entlarvt zur Warn- 
ung erweckter Seelen; Lieder Anhang, 
zum Evang. Gesangbuch der General 
Synode; Wachterstimme an Zion's Kin- 
der; and Erklarung der Offenbarung 
Johannis. 

Dr. Schmucker was married at an 
early period of his ministry, to Eliza- 
beth, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth 
Gross, of York County, Pa. By this 
marriage there were twelve children, 
five sons and seven daughters. Mrs. 
Schmucker died in 1819. In July, 1821, 
he was married to Ann Maria Hoffman, 
by whom he had seven children. One of 
Dr. Schmucker's sons is the Rev. S. S. 
Schmucker, professor in the Theologi- 
cal Seminary at Gettysburg. Four of 
his daughters are married to clergymen. 
— Sprague. 




AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



685 




REV. BEALE M. SCHMUCKER, D.D. 



Rev. Dr. Schmiicker came of a min- 
isterial family. Both his father and 
grandfather were clergymen, and the 
connections of the family with the 
SchaefPers, the Sprechers, the Geissen- 
hainers and Sadtlers represented some 
of the best known ministerial names of 
our church in this country. Nicolaus 
Schmucker, his great-grandfather, was 
a native of Michelstadt, Hessia, and em- 
igrated to this country in the year 1785. 
His grandfather, the Rev. Dr. John Geo. 
Schmucker, was born in 1771. He 
studied for the ministry, first, in Shen- 
andoah County, Ya., under Rev. Paul 
Henkel, and afterwards in Philadelphia, 
under Drs. Helmuth and Schmidt. From 
1809 to 1852 he had charge of the Luth- 
eran Congregation in York, Pa. He 
was one of the founders of the General 
Synod. Some of the characteristic fea- 
tures of the Schmucker family are read- 



ily recognized in him, when his friends 
describe him as a methodical and log- 
ical preacher, of uniformly placid tem- 
per that was hardly ever seen ruffled by 
the trials and annoyances of life — a 
model of Christian politeness. He was 
an influential member of the Minister- 
ium of Pennsylvania, and at one time 
its president. His son, the Rev, Dr. 
Samuel Simon Schmucker, who was 
born in 1799, and died in 1873, was, be- 
yond question, the most prominent 
leader of the General Synod. - Holding 
the chair of didactic theology in the 
Seminary at Gettysburg for nearly forty 
years, he exercised the greatest influence 
in the training of a full generation of 
Lutheran ministers. 

His son, the Rev. Beale Melanchthon 
Schmucker, was born in Gettysburg the 
26th of August, 1827. His mother was 
a Miss Steenbergen, of Yirginia. In a 



686 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



note, addressed to Dr. H. E. Jacobs, a 
few weeks before his death, he said that 
his great-grandfather was Taverner 
Beale, of English origin, and that he 
thought it exceedingly probable that he 
came from the same family as the cele- 
brated Eichard Taverner, the transla- 
tor of the Bible and of the Augsburg 
Confession. Beale M. Schmucker re- 
ceived his preparatory education in Pen- 
sylvania College, from which, in 1844, 
he entered the Theological Seminary, 
where his father and the Eev. Charles 
Philip Krauth were his teachers. Hav- 
ing been licensed to preach the Gospel 
in 1847, he entered upon the active work 
of the ministry as the successor of Eev. 
Charles Porterfield Krauth, who had 
mentioned his name to the congrega- 
tions of Martinsburg and Shepherds- 
town, Ya., at the time of his removal 
to Winchester, Va. In those days that 
warm, life-long friendship was formed 
between the two young and highly-tal- 
ented ministers, whose fathers were col- 
leagues in the theological seminary in 
Gettysburg. 

Beale M. Schmucker, by nature and 
education, was a great lover of books, 
and his friendship with Dr. C. P. Krauth 
greatly developed and nourished this 
love. Their letters of those early years, 
1849, when a lively and regular corre- 
spondence was carried on, deal some- 
times exclusively with lists of new books, 
catalogues, prices, and the prospects of 
securing some rare and valuable volumes. 
*'How glorious a thing the gathering of 
books is!" he says in one of these epistles. 
"If I should be an applicant for admis- 
sion into the asylum, I have no doubt 
the malady would be bibliomania. I 
wish our seminary were richly endowed 
and they would appoint me librarian! 
But enough of books, blessed books, 
glorious old Lutheran books! Away 
with all your new books, your books 



written and printed by steam. Give 
me your books of the olden time, your 
venerable, massive tomes, where that 
noblest of all creatures, the book worm, 
has spent its centuries; your Gothic 
books, whose mighty, ponderous piles 
of thought bind heaven and earth to- 
gether; your books that engender a 
holy reverence for men that were men; 
books written by the children who won- 
drously outgrew their fathers in stature 
and in favor with God." 

This insatiable craving for books, — 
" blessed, glorious old Lutheran books," 
— was gratified to a considerable extent 
when, some years afterwards, Beale M. 
Schmucker, as a member of the Penn- 
sylvania Ministerium's Church Book 
Committee, and as the English Secre- 
tary of the General Council's Church 
Book Committee, was authorized to pur- 
chase for the use of those committees 
whatever he thought necessary for the 
work entrusted to them. Thus, during 
the last years of his life he was sur- 
rounded by one of the most complete 
and valuable liturgical libraries that can 
be found anywhere, the chief treasures 
of which were mostly selected by him- 
self, his brethren having implicit confi- 
dence in his judgment in all these mat- 
ters. Most of these books were bought 
for the use of the committee and are the 
property of the Seminary library; but 
not a few very valuable works were his 
own personal purchases, and are now, 
through the liberality of the family, 
presented to the Seminary, together 
with his whole theological library. 

Mr. Schmucker's connection with his 
first congregations in Martinsburg and 
Shepherdstown was only of short dura- 
tion. Towards the latter part of 1851 
he suffered from an affection of the 
throat, which finally constrained him to 
resign his charge and return to his 
father's house in Gettysburg, where he 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



687 



spent the winter 1815 to 1852. In the 
spring of that year Rev. Jos. Jaeger 
had resigned his pastorate of the Luth- 
eran Church in Allentown. The con- 
gregation was advised by Synod to se- 
cure two pastors, one German and one 
English. Beale M, Schmucker was in- 
vited to preach September 19th, 1852, 
and a week afterwards a formal call 
was extended to him by the Church 
Council. He entered upon his pastoral 
work in Allentown in October, 1852. 
Under his pastorate the church was 
built and the congregation regularly 
organized as St. John's English Luth- 
eran Church in Easton, which he served 
for five years, with Rev. Philip Pfat- 
teicher as his German colleague. His 
longest pastorate belonged to St. James' 
Church, in Reading, from 1867 to 1881 ; 
his last one to the church of the Trans- 
figuration, in Pottstown, 1881-1888. 

During his pastoral connection with 
the Church in Allentown he entered 
into the state of holy matrimony, on the 
6th of March, 1860, with Christianna 
M, Pretz. This happy union was 
blessed with two children, one of whom, 
Professor Samuel C. Schmucker, fills 
the chair of Natural Science in the 
Boys' High School, at Reading, the 
other is employed as a machinist in 
Fort Wayne, Ind. 

In the year 1870 he received the de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from the 
L^niversity of Pennsylvania. 

However much Dr. Schmucker was 
esteemed in his congregations for his 
affability and kindness, and for his re- 
markable gifts and talents, his great 
strength and the principal work of his 
life was not in the field of pastoral 
labor, but on the floor of Synodical 
meetings and at the table of the working 
committees of the church. There was 
not a single department in the church's 
work of organization, education, govern- 



ment, in which he did not hold a most 
prominent position and take a most 
active part. Thus we find him in the 
faithful, service of the church as sec- 
retary of the Ministerium of Pennsyl- 
vania (1862 to 1864), as member and 
secretary of the Executive Committee 
of Synod (1863 to 1888), English sec- 
retary of the Board of Directors of the 
Theological Seminary from the begin- 
ning to the time of his death; as sec- 
retary of the General Council's Foreign 
Mission Committee and of the English 
Church Book Committee, member of 
the German Church Book and Sunday- 
School Book Committee, and of the 
Joint Committee on the Common Service ; 
member of the Board of Trustees of 
Muhlenberg College; member of the 
Committees on Congregational and Syn- 
odical Constitutions, both in the Minis- 
terium of Pennsylvania and in the 
General Council. To the latter he was 
regularly elected as delegate, and missed 
only two conventions, at Lancaster 
(1870) and at Monroe (1884). Few 
men, even among those who are well 
acquainted with the details of our 
Church-work, will, be able to realize the 
full amount of work involved in these 
different positions which he held. It is 
not saying too much, that it will take 
three or four men to carry the burden 
which for the last quarter of a century 
was laid on his shoulders. He sat down 
at the committee table not to rule but 
to work. But by the thoroughness of 
his work, the exactness of his informa- 
tion, the perseverance and tenacity of 
his investigations, he always reached 
the point from which he completely 
mastered his subject and determined all 
the essential features of the work of the 
respective committee. Never have we 
seen a man go to work in a more sys- 
tematic way — some would call it pedantry 
— to ascertain, compare and extract the 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



statements of principal autliorities and 
original sources, necessary for the guid- 
ance of the committee. Not before 
every accessible source had been scrupu- 
lously examined, and the results of such 
examination put into convenient shape 
for comparison and survey, would he 
ever proceed to form his judgment and 
make his recommendations. It was this 
exhaustive minuteness, accuracy and 
thoroughness of his research which 
secured for his presentations that unre- 
served confidence with which his breth- 
ren were soon accustomed to receive 
them. 

There can be no question among us 
that he was most prominent in the field 
of liturgies, and even in Germany few 
scholars were his equal in exact know- 
ledge of liturgical matters, and perhaps 
none were his superiors. 

Immediately after his admission into 
the Synod of Virginia he was appointed 
on a committee together with Dr. Krauth 
to examine the translation of the Penn- 
sylvania Synod's Liturgy of 1842, 
which has been published by the General 
Synod in 1847. They recommended its 
adoption for use, but suggested certain 
changes to be proposed fo the Conven- 
tion in Charleston 1850. The delegates 
were the two friends, C. P. Krauth and 
B. M. Schmucker, and though the sub- 
ject was not taken up at the meeting in 
Charleston, the result of their deliber- 
ations was afterwards presented to the 
Yirginia Synod in an elaborate report. 
All the essential and distinctive features 
of our present Church Book can readily 
be traced to the propositions which weje 
then and there laid before the Yirginia 
Synod by two friends. 

The Church Book may properly be 
called the principal and abiding work 
of Dr. B. M. Schmucker, without dis- 
paragement to the faithful, intelligent 
and learned men who were associated 



with him in its preparation. His preci- 
ous life was spared to us by a kind 
Providence until this work was com- 
pleted, and only when the draft of the 
last orders for ministerial acts was 
finished, when he had sketched the 
beautiful and solemn form for the Chris- 
tian burial of the dead, the pen dropped 
from his hand. He had lived to see a 
most wonderful change in our Lutheran 
Church with reference to the apprecia- 
tion and acceptance of those ancient 
and pure forms of the service of the 
sanctuary. AVhen, forty years ago, his 
heart was first drawn to the study of 
this subject, there was very little sym- 
pathy and understanding for it in the 
church at large. His own father's 
"pronunciamentos against liturgies" de- 
terred him, even at a late date, from 
writing on this theme. (Letter to Dr. 
Krauth in 1860, in answer to a request 
for contributions to the Lutheran.) And 
at the close of his life he was permitted 
to see not only the Church Book ac- 
cepted and in use throughout the Eng- 
lish congregations of the General Coun- 
cil, but the principles on which it rested 
acknowledged by the General Synod 
South and North. 

It was Dr. Schmucker who proposed 
the basis for the work on the Common 
Service for English-speaking Lutherans, 
viz: "The common consent of the pure 
Lutheran Liturgies of the sixteenth 
century, and when there is not an entire 
agreement among them, the consent of 
the largest number of those of greatest 
weight." And to his learning, to his 
singular tact and delicacy, to his per- 
sonal affability and courtesy, most of 
the success is due that has crowned the 
efforts of the united committees for 
the Common Service. 

Dr. Schmucker was more free from 
ambition of literary fame and honor 
than any man of his remarkable gifts 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



689 



we liave known. He was very slow in 
going to print with anything he had 
collected or elaborated. In 1860, when 
Dr. C. P. Krauth, as editor of the 
Lutheran, asked for contributions from 
his pen, he answered: "I have a morbid, 
sensitive dislike, to types, but I will try 
to overcome it." For years and years 
he had constantly been gathering mate- 
rial, particularly in the neld of the local, 
personal, congregational and s)'nodical 
history of our Lutheran Church in 
America. His most important literary 
work on the Church Book was done in 
such a manner that his name would not 
appear in connection with it. He was 
even opposed to anything like a preface, 
because there the subjective and personal 
might find room for display. Only 
within the last years did he begin to 
give out some of the treasures he had 
gathered and laid up in his contributions 
to the Church Rtview and a number of 
most valuable historical monographs. 
The only work of longer extent that 
bears his name as co-editor is the new 
edition of the Halle'sche Nachrichten, 
in which he was associated with Drs. 
Mann and German. In all his work, 
without regard to personal gain or honor, 
he was simply striving to discharge the 
duty laid upon him in the most thorough 
and conscientious manner so that it 
might be a blessing and a credit to the 
church which he delighted to serve. 

Rev. B. M. Schmucker was the 
author of the following works: Re- 
flections on the State of the Church 
in Norway. Translated from the Ger- 
man of Dr. C. Sarwey, Studien und 
Kritiken, 1849; second and third arti- 
cles on above; General View of Divine 
Worship as held by the Lutheran 
Church; Charge to the Professors of the 
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia 
in St. John's Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, Oct. 4, 1864; The Life and 

87 



Labors of the late C. F. Shaeffer, D.D., 
briefly sketched. Memorial of Charles 
Fred. Schaeffer, D. D., Philadelphia; 
Historical Discourse at the Twenty-fifth 
Anniversary of the Consecration of St. 
John's Church, Allentown, Pa.; The 
Beginnings of Pennsylvania College. 
Pennsylvania College Book; Samuel S. 
Schmucker; The First Pennsylvania 
Liturgy Adopted in 1748; The Early 
History of the Tulpehocken Churches; 
The Lutheran Church in Pottstown. A 
Historical Discourse, delivered at the 
Decennial Commemoration of the Con- 
secration of Emanuel Lutheran Church ; 
The Rite of Confirmation in the Luth- 
eran Church; Memorial of Charles 
Porterfield Krauth, D.D., LL.D.; The 
Lutheran Church in Frederick, Md.; 
Memorial of Rev. Augustus Theodosius 
Geissenhainer; The Lutheran Church 
in the City of New York During the 
First Century of Its History; Luther's 
Small Catechism; English Translations 
of the Augsburg Confession; The Or- 
ganization of the Congregation in the 
Early Lutheran Churches in America; 
Psalmodia Germanica; Preface to the 
Common Service, by Authority of the 
United Synod of the Evangelical Luth- 
eran Church in the South; The Lutheran 
Church in York, Pa. 

He succeeded Dr. C. P. Krauth in the 
Department of Book Reviews in the 
Lutheran^ and was a regular and diligent 
contributor to it to the very end of his 
life. Some of his book-notices are of 
more than transitory value and contain 
important items with reference to the 
history and literature of our Church in 
America. Such articles are, for instance, 
the following: "On the German Hymn 
Book of 1786;" "The German Book of 
Common Prayer;" "Dr. W. J. Mann's 
Life of H. M. Muhlenberg;" "Dr. H. E. 
Jacobs' Book of Concord;" "Dr. F. W. 
Conrad's Catechism;" "The Branden- 



690 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



burg-Nurnberg Kinderpredigteii," etc. i published in England. 
He was also a contributor to Julian's \ by Dr. A. Spaeth. 
Dictionary of Hymnology, which is being | 



Ext. from sketch 




EEV. SAMUEL S. SCHMUCKEE, D.D. 



Eev. Samuel S. Schmucker, D. D., 
filled a larger place in the public eye 
outside of the Lutheran Church than 
any other man in America. He was one 
of the original founders of the Theolog- 
ical Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and 
its first professor. His translation of 
Storr and Flatt's theology brought him 
into extensive notice with the theologi- 
cal public, and his attentive corres- 
pondence with some of their learned 
men made him widely known. 

As a theologian he had read many of 
the writings of our older authors, and 
was originally trained in the schools of 
Mosheim, Eeinhard, Storr, and Flatt, 
and others of the same modified type. 
He adopted their views on the Sacra- 
ments and strongly defended them in 
an "Appendix to the Doctrine of the 
Eucharist," on page 328, Vol. ii., of 
the first edition of his Storr and Flatt. 
He designated Eeinhard's illustration 
of the Lord's Supper as ''lucid and phil- 
osophical," and gives it his hearty as- 



sent. Dr. Schmucker subequently 
changed his views, and in his numerous 
writings labored to depreciate the old 
confessional system of the church, and 
even to disparage those sections of the 
confessions themselves which teach the 
Lutheran doctrine of the sacraments. 
He was all along a sturdy defender of 
the church's interests, as he understood 
them, and his influence on her progress 
was marked and decisive. He with 
some others signed an appeal, which 
was sent to Europe in 1846, which dis- 
paraged the Lutheran doctrine of the 
Lord's Supper,[and which strongly pre- 
judiced the minds of many German 
theologians against him, and which they 
did not conceal during his visit to 
Europe in that year. 

When Dr. Schmucker left Princeton 
Seminary he was the best educated 
young man in the Church, and had 
claims upon the most respectable pulpit, 
but there was no English pulpit vacant 
at that time. He could preach plain 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



691 



German, but there was no place in the 
central section of the church which 
needed his services. He took charge 
of an obscure pastorate in Shenandoah 
Co., Va., where his youthful appearance, 
his fluent speech, well j^repared sermons 
and freshness of manner, secured for 
him a high popularity among the few 
cultivated people of that region outside 
of our church. 

Before his coming they had the poor- 
est quality of preaching from ignorant 
Dunkers, bigoted Baptists, uneducated 
Methodists and untaught Lutherans. 
When young Schmucker came it was 
like fresh viands after a dreary winter 
of stale provisions. A few days after 
his settlement he was invited to attend 
a funeral of some prominent man in the 
county. He had carefully prepared a 
sermon on "Blessed are the dead," etc. 
He was preceded by an old illiterate 
Baptii-t who selected the same text and 
bungled through a very lame discourse. 
Schmucker was uneasy when he heard 
the announcement fearing that the man 
would exhaust the subject and leave 
nothing for him to say; but he soon 
discovered that the man did not un- 
derstand the text, and made terrible 
work of the theme. He gained confi- 
dence as the man proceeded, and when 
the harangue was finished the preach- 
er announced that there was a young 
man present who could add a few 
words. Schmucker arose and said that 
the preacher, for want of time prob- 
ably had left some points of the text 
untouched, which he would supplement. 
He preached his whole sermon, and 
created an astounding sensation. He 
was an entire stranger, and everybody 
asked who that young man was. From 
that day his reputation was established. 
I have often heard him tell this story 
with great glee. He was never pastor 
of any other church, and left this after 



a few years, when he was elected to 
the seminary. Hence he never had 
much pastoral experience, and encoun- 
tered none or very few of the difficul- 
ties of a long pastoral life. 

It cannot be doubted that to Schmuck- 
er the church is much indebted for 
the respectable position it assumed and 
the progress it made during the early 
part of his career. He had a noble am- 
bition to elevate its character by the de- 
velopment of its resources, and he suc- 
ceeded. He was indefatigable in his 
labors to promote what he conceived to 
be its best interests. 

As an author he was prolific. More 
than forty distinct publications have 
issued from his pen, besides ten or twelve 
articles in the Evangelieal Review. Some 
of his later works are chiefly remodel- 
ings of the earlier, so that for the last 
fifteen years of his life he produced 
nothing absolutely new of permanent 
value. 

His appeal on Christian Union, pub- 
lished first in Andover, 1838, was re- 
published in London, and contributed 
in no small degree in bringing about 
the World's Alliance, held in London 
in 1846. Dr. King, an eminent dis- 
serting minister, openly declared on the 
platform in London, that to Dr. 
Schmucker belongs much of the credit 
of originating and promoting that great 
movement. 

Dr. Schmucker deserves the credit of 
being the originator of Pennsylvania 
College, as he had been of the Gym- 
nasium previously. For the "old acad- 
emy" in which the later was held before 
the college building was erected, he be- 
came personally responsible by either 
advancing the money or endorsing the 
notes. It was by his untiring efforts 
that the charter was secured from the 
legislature of Pennsylvania. 

He was also greatly instrumental in 



692 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



arranging the complicated affairs of 
Emmaus Institute, and in a lengthy 
report displayed his acute business 
aptitude to a remarkable degree. 

After he had left the seminary at 
Princeton, he took the temporary charge 
of the York Academy. He was at that 
time a young man of twenty, of fair 
complexion, meager visage, of vigorous 
health and of exceedingly staid deport- 
ment. 

Nicholas Schmucker, a godly, recluse 
old minister, the uncle of our subject, 
was pastor of a large district in Shenan- 
doah and adjacent counties in Virginia. 
He preached only German, and was a 
perfect specimen of the old school of 
ministers. 

He relinquished the charge of four 
of his churches, and prevailed upon the 
people to call his nephew as their minis- 
ter. He accepted, and so we see the 
highly educated Princetonian, the class- 
mate of men who afterwards became 
Bishops Mcllvaine and Johns, and of 
other eminent divines, tracing- his 
steps to an obscure section of Virginia, 
to labor among a people not far advanced 
in intellectual refinement, of primitive 
simplicity, and of exceedingly rural 
culture. 

After he had been settled there several 
years, he conceived the idea of estab- 
lishing a sort of pro-seminary. This 
was in 1823, and it gradually led to the 
founding of the schools we now have at 
Gettysburg. 

During Mr. Schmucker's residence at 
New Market, he accepted a call from a 
small number of people in Georgetown, 
D. C, to establish an English church in 
that place. It. was a most auspicious 
time. Those of our people who had 
gone to other churches, were ready to 
come home again if young Schmucker 
would become their leader. If he had 
done so we would now have a large 



church in that city. But what changed 
his mind? In the meantime a seminary 
had been spoken of. He was destined 
to be the head of it. After a hard 
struggle it was located at Gettysburg. 
He was chosen, and the acceptance to 
Georgetown was 2:iven up. He went to 
Gettysburg in 1826, and had a class of 
seven students the first year. His lectures 
were delivered in the old academy 
building until the seminary was built. 
Even at that early period he displayed 
an extent of reading and profundity of 
research that utterly astonished the 
raw youngsters, and would have called 
out the admiration of more intelligent 
men. 

From 1828 to about 1815— some seven- 
teen years — he occupied the highest 
position in the church, and during that 
time he had more influence in the 
Lutheran Church in the United States 
than any other man in it. He was a 
man of untiring industry, and, being 
very methodical in his habits and ac- 
curate in his studies, he was able to 
accomplish much for the church. His 
lectures in the seminary, and the sermons 
he preached at the meetings of the 
Synods, were models of neatness and 
accuracy. Everything was in place — 
nothing wanting — nothing redundant. 
Like Atlas, he seemed for a time to 
have carried the whole Lutheran Church 
on bis shoulders. Nothing could be 
done without him; he had made his 
labors a necessity in the church. Thus 
he compiled its hymn book, and its 
liturgy, and its formula of discipline — 
he prepared his theology by request of 
the General Synod, and had the molding 
of nearly all the ministers of the church 
in his own hands for over twenty years. 
And such was his influence, growing- 
out of his elevated position, his talents 
and his learning, and the urbanity and 
suavity of his manners, that he succeeded 



I 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



693 



iu forming very many of his students 
into his own model. He was a man of 
most exemplary piety and sincerity. 

His father, Dr. J. G. Schmucker, was 
a Pietistic Lutheran of the Spenerian 
school, and hence sent him to study 
theology at a Puritanical Seminary; 
this was, perhaps, a misfortune for one 
who was to have the training of not less 
than five hundred ministers in his hands. 

Dr. S. S. Schmucker was the autlior 



of many works, among which are the 
following: Discourse on the Reforma- 
tion; The American Lutheran Church; 
The Peace of Zion; Lutheran Manual; 
American Lutheranism Vindicated; Por- 
traiture of Lutheranism ; Retrospect of 
Lutheranism in the United States; 
Vocation of the American Lutheran 
Church; The primitive Church and that 
of the Early Reformers. — Morris. 




REV. GEORGE H. SCHODDE, Ph.D. 



George Henry Schodde was born in 
Alleghany City, Pa., April 15, 1854. His 
parents are both Hanovarians. His 
early training he received in the loaroch- 
ial school of the St. John's Lutheran 
congregation, of which his parents are 
still members, and in the public and 
high schools of his native city. After 
confirmation he, in 1868, entered the 
freshman class of Cai^ital University, 
Columbus, O., and was graduated from 
the college in June, 1872. His course 
in the theological seminary at the same 
place was interrupted by illness in March, 
1874, when he at once went to Germany 



and was matriculated as a student in 
the University of Tubingen early in 
May. Although inscribed as a student 
of tiieology and hearing the lectures of 
Beck, Palmer and others in this depart- 
ment, he devoted the greater portion of 
his time to philology, chiefly the He- 
brew and allied Semitic languages. The 
aim of his work then was, and still is, a 
mastery of Biblical philology in the 
widest sense of the word. He remained 
one year at Tubingen and then went to 
Leipzig, attracted to this then the lead- 
ing university of Germany, chiefly by 
the great reputation of Delitzsch, whose 



694 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



pupil he at once became. Besides 
studying Hebrew under this famous 
scholar and Arabic under the leading 
specialist, Prof. Fleischer, his time was 
given also to the sister tongues of the 
same family, so that in July, 1876, he 
passed his doctorate examination in the 
department of Oriental languages, his 
dissertation being a comparison of the 
Greek texts of Pastor Hermae with the 
Ethiopic, the object being to determine 
from which Greek text the latter had 
been translated. Upon returning to 
America he temporarily assumed charge 
of the congregations in and around 
Canal Winchester, O., being ordained to 
the ministry at that place in January, 
1877. One year later he accepted a call 
to a small congregation in Martin's 
Ferry, O., opposite Wheeling, where he 
remained about three years. Then he 
was called to the professorship of Latin 
in Capital University, which chair he 
two years later exchanged for that of 
Greek, and in 1887 assumed also the 



duties of the Hebrew chair in the 
college. 

From the beginning he has been 
working on the Lutheran Standard and 
has been assistsnt editor for about eight 
years. During all this time he has been 
engaged in literary work for a number 
of journals and periodicals, besides pub- 
lishing three books, namely: "The Bock 
of Enoch;" "The Book of Jubilee," 
and "A Day in Capernaum." The sub ■ 
jects on which he has written are chiefly 
of a Biblical character, although he has 
reviewed a large number of foreign 
works for the Independent^ of New York, 
and the Sunday School Times, of Phila- 
delphia. Since 1883 he has also been a 
member of American Institute of He- 
brew, and is now a member of the In- 
stitute of Sacred Scriptures. He has 
taught and lectured at five summer 
schools; three times in Chicago, once 
in Chautauqua, and once in Atlanta, Ga. 
He is the Holman lecturer on the Augs- 
burg Confession for 1891. 



REY. PEOF. C. H. L. SCHUETTE, A.M. 



Eev. Prof. C. H. L. Schuette, A.M., 
was born in Yarrel (at that time the 
Kingdom of) Hanover, Germany, June 
17, 1843. At six years of age he entered 
the parochial school of his native town, 
which he attended till his tenth year, 
when he emigrated to the United States, 
making his home in Allegheny City, 
Pa., with an elder brother who had 
preceded him to America several years 
before. In his new home he attended a 
parochial school for about two years, 
and the public schools for the same 
length of time. In 1858 he entered 
Capital University, Columbus, 0., grad- 
uating from the collegiate department 
in 1863, and entering the theological 



department in the fall of the same year. 
He was ordained to the holy ministry 
and installed as pastor of St. Mark's 
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Dela- 
ware, O., Aug. 23, 1865, having been 
called to succeed Dr. M. Loy. In De- 
cember, 1872, his Alma Mater honored 
him with a call to the Chair of Mathe- 
matics and Natural Philosophy. He 
assumed the duties of this new position 
in May of the year following. In 1880 
he was called, in addition to his profes- 
sorship in the college, to teach Compar- 
ative Theology, Christian Ethics and 
Homiletics in the theological depart- 
ment of Capital University. 

For some time Prof. Schuette served 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



695 



as pastor of Grace congregation, Colum- 
bus, O. It was here, as preacher of the 
cross, that the writer of this sketch first 
made his acquaintance. And as a grate- 
ful tribute to his earnest, unostentatious 
presentation of the gospel and to the 
grace of God which wrought through 
him, we would record the fact that it 
was under his voice in the pulpit of that 
humble chapel that the desire and de- 
termination were born within us of 
becoming a preacher of that same sweet 
gospel of Jesus which we heard from 
his lips with so much delight. We 
know not how many others were through 
him won for the holy ministry, but we 
do know with regard to our fellow stu- 
dents generally, that they heard him 
gladly. He is at present pastor of 
Christ's Church, opposite the college 
building. When, after that momentous 
crisis in our life (1876), we had occa- 
sion to make his acquaintance as a 
teacher of mathematics and theology, 
we learned to admire in him the same 
qualities that had impressed us in his 
preaching, — clearness and penetration 
of thought, depth of spiritual insight, an 
independent and untrammeled judg- 
ment, perspicuity in his presentation of 
a topic, and last, but not least, his 
splendid abilities sustained by true hu- 
mility of soul, untarnished by any at- 
tempt at ostentation or display. These 



qualities manifest themselves to a large 
extent also in his writings. He was 
editor of the Lutheran Child's Paper for 
some years, and editor-in-chief of the 
Columbus Theological Magazine for three 
years, besides contributing able articles 
to the same at other times. In prepar- 
ing and publishing "The Church Mem- 
ber's Manual," he rendered a service to 
the Church of great practical importance. 
The same is true of his larger work, 
"The State, the Church and the School." 

Prof. Schuette was at one time Presi- 
dent of the English District, and has 
for some years been Yice-President of 
the Joint Synod of Ohio and other 
states. 

We deem it but just to express at 
least our opinion that not a little share 
of his success in life is due, under God, 
to the amiability and faithfulness of his 
wife. In September, 1865, he was united 
in marriage with Miss V. M. Wirth, of 
Columbus, O., whose gentleness of tem- 
peramant. Christian tenderness and 
womanly tact, seem to have blended 
most happily with the sterner qualities 
and manly independence of her honor3d 
spouse. Their home life has been bur- 
dened and brightened by the rearing of 
three daughters and two sons, one of 
whom, Rev. W. S. Schuette, is pastor of 
a congregation in Detroit. — E. Pfeiffer. 




REV. CHRISTOPHER E. SCHULTZE. 



Rev. Christopher Emanuel Schultze, 
a son of John Andrew and Amelia 
Schultze, was born at Probstrell, in 
Saxony, Jan. 25, 1740. His parents were 
exemplary Christians, and were careful 
to give their son a religious education. 
After having passed through the usual 



course of elementary instruction, he en- 
tered the Frederick College at Halle. 
Here he remained five years, and then 
became a member of the Orphan House 
for the purpose of qualifying himself 
more fully for the Christian ministry. 
In this institution a most benign influ- 



696 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ence was exerted upon him, and his de- 
sire to be instrumental in converting- 
sinners seemed to mount up into a re- 
ligious xDassion. The report of the 
spiritual destitution which existed at 
this time among the German emigrants 
to America, produced a pow^erful im- 
pression ui)on his mind, and very soon 
led him to offer himself in the capacity 
of a missionary. Being regarded as 
every way suited to such an enterprise 
he was accepted, and, in the summer of 
1765, was ordained by the Consif^torium 
at Wernigerode, and immediately after 
commenced his journey to this country. 
He arrived in Philadelphia in October 
following, and was at once chosen 
Second Minister of St. Michael's 
Church, Dr. Muhlenberg being, at that 
time, the Senior Pastor. His opportune 
arrival prevented the necessity of a di- 
vision of the congregation, — a measure 
which had been for some time meditated, 
as the duties were considered too ouer- 
ous for one man. There were no less 
than seven hundred families connected 
with the church, requiring pastoral at- 
tention. Mr. Schultze continued to 
labor with his colleague for several 
years, in great harmony and with very 
encouraging success. The next year 
after his arrival the corner stone of 
Zion's Church was laid, and the church 
was dedicated on the 26th of June, 1769. 
This was considered, at the time, as the 
most spacious and splendid church in 
this country. During the Revolution- 
ary War, when Philadel^Dhia was in 
possession of the British, this same edi- 
fice was used as a hospital for the sick. 
To this church also Congress repaired, 
in a body, to offer their thanksgivings 
to Almighty God, for the victory 
achieved, and the peace secured, on the 
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 

In the spring of 1769 Mr. Schultze 
was chosen vice-rector of the Philadel- 



phia congregation, with the understaud- 
iag that, if he should survive Dr. Muh- 
lenberg, he should succeed him in his 
charge. His appointment to this office, 
which was creatod in consequence of 
the frequent absence of the senior 
pastor from the city, on business con- 
nected with the general interests of the 
church, may be regarded as an evidence 
of the high esteem in which he was 
held, as well by his venerable colleague 
as by members of the congregation. 
After a residence of five years in Phila- 
delphia, he received and accepted a call 
to the church in Tulpehocken. Here he 
lived and labored for thirty-eight years, 
enjoying in a high degree the affection 
of his congregation, and many tokens 
of the Divine blessings attended his 
labors. On the removal of Dr. Muhlen- 
berg, to^the Trappe, in 1784, an effort 
was made to induce him to return to 
Philadelphia, he was elected pastor by 
a large majority of votes over the other 
candidate, but in view of all the cir- 
cumstances of the case, he thought it 
his duty to decline the call. That the 
congregation did not submit to his re- 
fusal with the best grace may be inferred 
from the following communication, dated 
June 5th, 1785, in the Hallische Naehrich- 
ten: — "Our Synod held its annual meet- 
ing lately in Philadelphia,, when Mr. 
Schultze honored us with a visit, which 
was not, however, so very acceptable, as 
he declined the call given him. by our 
congregation." 

Of the fidelity of Mr. Schultze's min- 
istry at Tulpehocken some idea may be 
formed from the following extract from 
a letter written to some person in Halle, 
in 1782:— 

"M^. Schultze is now, for the second 
time, president of the Ministerium. Be- 
sides his principal congregation at 
Tulpehocken, he attends to several other 
smaller ones. It is almost impossible, 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



697 



on account of the multiplicity of his 
official duties, to be a single day at home 
with his large family; but, notwithstand- 
ing, he is yet active and vigorous, and 
is able to en dare labor and fatigue. 
Every year he instructs a large number 
of young persons in the principles of 
the Christian religion, and receives 
them into the church." 

Mr. Schultz's health suffered a gradual 
decline* during his later years, though 
he continued to conduct the services of 
public worship even after he had be- 
come so feeble as to require help in get- 
ting into the pulpit. On the Sabbath 
immediately preceding his death, being 
too much prostrated to walk to the 
chunh, near which he lived, he preached 
in the parsonage. From this period, his 
little remaining strength underwent a 
rapid decay, and on the Saturday fol- 
lowing, March 9, 1809, he finished his 
earthly career, being in the sixty-ninth 
year of his age. His dying scene was 
full of joyful confidence and bright an- 
ticipation. His remains were interred 
on the Wednesday following, in the 
cemetery attached to the church, and 
an appropriate funeral discourse was 
addressed to an immense congregation, 
by the Rev. Dr. Lochman, from the 
words, — "If any man serve me, let him 
follow me; and where I am, there shall 



also my servant be; if any man serve 
me, him will my Father honor." 

Mr. Schultze was married the year 
after his arrival in this country, to Eve 
Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Henry Mel- 
chior Muhlenberg, a lady eminently 
fitted to minister to both his happiness 
and usefulness. She died but a few 
months before him, and his bitter mourn- 
ing for her is supposed to have hastened 
his own death. There were nine chil- 
dren by this marriage, four of whom 
survived their father. His son, John 
Andrew, was, for several years, governor 
of Pennsylvania. A portion of his li- 
brary was presented, by his heirs, to 
Pennsylvania College. 

Mr. Schaltze was a man of great in- 
tegrity and benevolence, and had deeply 
at heart the cause and honor of the 
Master to whom he had devoted' him- 
self. He lived emphatically for Christ 
and the Church. The industry, self- 
denial and perseverance, with which he 
prosecuted his various duties, were pro- 
verbial. He enjoyed, in a high degree, 
the confidence of his brethren in the 
ministry, and was an influential member 
of the Ecclesiastical Body with which 
he was connected. He was frequently 
elected to offices of honor and trust in 
the Church, and died the senior of the 
Synod of Pennsylvania.— Spra^we. 




REV. PROF. JOHN G. SCHWARTZ. 



John G.Schwartz was born in Charles- 
ton, S. C, July 6, 1807. His parents 
were both exemplary members of the 
Lutheran Church under the pastoral 
care of the Rev. Dr. Bachman; and this 
son seems to have evinced strong religious 
tendencies from early childhood. At 
the age of twelve years he was bereaved 
of his father, who, on his death-bed, 
88 



intimated to his pastor a wish that, if 
his son should be inclined to become a 
minister of the gospel, he would kindly 
encourage any such disposition. The 
boy had shown a decided leaning in that 
direction before his father's death ; and, 
while the grief occasioned by his be- 
reavement had scarcely subsided, he 
called upon his pastor for the purpose 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



of obtaining counsel in reference to his 
studies, and stated to him explicitly his 
intention to devote himself to the gospel 
ministry. Dr. Bachman, fearing that 
his resolution had been adopted rather 
as a tribute of affectionate regard to his 
father's memory, than from any intelli- 
gent conviction of duty, advised him to 
wait for one year, and, in the mean time, 
consider the question carefully; and if, 
at the end of the year, his wishes should 
remain unchanged, he would then give 
him further directions. They met fre- 
quently during the year, but no allusion 
was made to the subject, on either side, 
though the boy was making rapid prog- 
ress in his studies, and securing great 
favor by his deportment. At length, 
when the subject had almost faded from 
the pastor's recollection, young Schwartz 
presented himself before him on the 
morning of a rainy day. He told him 
that he had come to give him the result 
of another year's reflection; that it was 
that day a year since he had encouraged 
him to call, and that he had come, 
punctually, to say that his feelings and 
wishes were still the same, and that his 
resolution to devote himself to the minis- 
try of the gospel remained unchanged. 
From this period the ministry was the 
commanding object of his thoughts and 
studies. He spent much time in the 
family of Dr. Bachman, and there grew 
up between them a strong attachment, 
which was dissolved only by death . The 
Doctor watched with great interest his 
rapid improvement, and devoted several 
hours of every Saturday to giving him 
instruction. For some time he was a 
regular pupil of Dr. Jones, but the 
principal part of his academical educa- 
tion he received at the school of the 
German Friendly Society. He showed 
great enthusiasm in the pursuit of 
knowledge, and took a high rank as a 
scholar among his associates. In the 



fall of 1824 he entered the junior class of 
the South Carolina College at Columbia, 
and, in 1826, was graduated with one of 
the highest honors of his class. He was 
a universal favorite with both the stu- 
dents and the faculty. One of the 
professors in the college wrote thus 
concerning him: — "He is not only one 
of the best scholars, but one of the best 
young men the institution has for several 
years graduated." 

It was in the year 1824, before leaving 
home for college, that he made a public 
profession of religion, and was confirmed 
according to the usages of the Lutheran 
Church ; though his conversion probably 
took place several years anterior to this. 

Mr. Schwartz commenced the study 
of theology during his senior year in 
college, as he found leisure and oppor- 
tunity, and, after his graduation, con- 
tinued it under the direction of Dr. 
Bachman. In the summer of 1827, 
before he was quite twenty years of age, 
he preached with great acceptance, his 
first sermon, in the Lutheran church of 
his native city. He subsequently, for 
several weeks, supplied the pulpit during 
the absence of the pastor, preaching 
twice every Sabbath, at the same time 
that he was holding the place of a teacher 
in the Charleston Grammar School. 
The same year he was licensed to preach 
the gospel by the Synod of South 
Carolina, and immediately engaged in 
itinerant missionary service, visiting 
nearly all the middle and upper districts 
of the state, and frequently officiating 
every day in the week. The report 
which he presented respecting the con- 
dition and wants of the people in the 
districts he visited, did much to stir up 
the Lutheran church throughout the 
state to a vigorous effort to supply the 
vast destitution. 

On his return from his missionary 
toui) he received the appointment of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



699 



Assistant Professor of Ancient Lan- 
guages in the Charleston College. He 
accepted the place, chiefly from a desire 
to pursue his theological studies still 
further. But, though his services in 
this capacity proved highly acceptable, 
he resigned the place after a short time, 
in consequence of finding much less 
leisure for studies bearing immediately 
on his profession than he had expected. 
As his health was now somewhat reduced, 
he made a journey to the North with a 
view to invigorate it; and, on his return, 
resumed his missionary labors with 
increased interest and energy. He took 
charge of four congregations, in a district 
of country by no meaus healthful; and, 
though he received several very eligible 
proposals from other places, he thought 
the prospect of usefulness where he was 
too great to warrant him in listening to 
them. His services were received with 
many tokens of good will and thankful- 
ness; considerable numbers were added 
to the church; and the congregations 
requested of the ''Society for the Promo- 
tion of Religion," from which he had 
received his appointment, that his ser- 
vices might be continued, in the expecta- 
tion that they could themselves raise 
for him an adequate support. 

In 1829 the initiatory measures were 
taken for establishing a Theological 
Seminary, in connection with the Luth- 
eran Church, in South Carolina. The 
project had to encounter considerable 
opposition; but the diflSculties were 
gradually removed, the requisite funds 
were raised, and the necessary arrange- 
ments made for the institution to go 
into operation. Though Mr. Schwartz 
was at this time only twenty-three years 
of age, his remarkable qualifications for 
the place fixed the eyes of the church 
upon him, and he was chosen the first 
professor, by a unanimous vote of Synod. 
The result of the election was entirely 



unexpected to him, and he was well 
nigh overwhelmed by the announcement 
of it. He, however, after pausing a few 
minutes, signified his willingness to 
accept the place, and, by his touching 
and eloquent remarks on the occasion, 
produced a powerful impression upon 
the whole assembly. 

The professor, without unnecessary 
delay, entered upon his duties; but, as 
circumstances prevented the immediate 
location of the seminary, as his congre- 
gations in Newberry and Lexington 
were very desirous of retaining his 
services for the year, he was permitted 
to continue among them, and to receive, 
in the mean time, such students as might 
offer at his residence in Newberry. 
Several young men soon presented them- 
selves, and he began to devote himself 
with great vigor and interest to his new 
duties. It appears, from letters which 
he wrote at this time, that he was deeply 
impressed with the magnitude of the 
work to which he had been called and 
that nothing but his confidence in God's 
all-sufficient grace kept him from sinking 
under the mighty burden of responsibility 
which he had assumed. 

But, just as the Seminary was becom- 
ing fixed in the confidence and affections 
of the southern portion of the church, 
and the fairest prospects of a protracted 
career of usefulness seemed to be open- 
ing upon the young Professor, Provi- 
dence delivered to them all a most af- 
fecting lesson on the uncertainly tbat 
pertains to all human prospects. During 
the summer months the district in which 
Prof. Schwartz lived was gerei ally sick- 
ly, and he had proposed to tiansfer the 
institution, for a season, to a more 
healthful locality; but, as there was 
much more than usual atttnton to re- 
ligion in his congregation at that time, 
he felt that it would be wiorg for him 
to leave them. He, therefore, commit- 



700 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BI0GBAPHIE8. 



ted himself to God's gracious care, and 
resolved to remain at his post. Soon 
after this he was seized with a violent 
fever, which at first seemed to yield to 
remedial agencies, but afterwards re- 
turned with increased severity, and ter- 
minated his valuable life on the 26th of 
August, 1831 in the twenty-fourth year 
of his age. His death was a scene of 
calm and humble trium})h. His remains 
were buried in the cemetery of the 



Bethlehem Church, in Newbury District, 
amidst a deep and widely extended la- 
mentation. In addition to the funeral 
services, in which several clergymen 
shared, there was an appropriate and 
eloquent sermon, in reference to his 
death, delivered in Charleston, by his 
former pastor, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, 
from the words, — "Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life." — Sprague. 




REV. PROF. THEO. L. SEIP, D.D. 



Rev. Prof. Theo. L. Seip, D .D., has 
been connected with Muhlenberg Col- 
lege since its establishment in 1867. 
He was educated at Pennsylvania Col- 
lege, Gettysburg, and graduatedm 1864. 
He pursued his theological studies at 
the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia 
and graduated in 1867, after which he 
took charge of the Academic Depart- 
ment of Muhlenberg College. Later on 
he was made adj anct professor of 
Greek, and subsequently elected to the i 



Latin professorship, which professor- 
ship he endowed by his own collections 
to the amount of 120,000. During the 
years of 1875 and 1876 he collected for 
the institution about 133,000. In ]880 
he was transferred to the Mosser-Keck 
Professorship of the Greek language 
and literature, which was endowed with 
$20,000 by Messrs. James K. Mosser 
and Thomas Keck. Prof. Seip assumed 
the duties of the presidency on January 
1, and was inaugurated president of 



AMEKIOAN LUTHEKAN BI0GBAPHIE8. 



701 



Muhlenberg College, January 6, 18 — . 
Prof. 8eip has done much for the lu- 
stitation and its interests have ever en- 
listed his best services. He possesses 
executive ability and is a good financier. 
He is a successful instructor and to his 
labors is due no small measure of the 
success of the college. Combining with 
a commanding personal appearance, a 
cheerful disposition and great urbanity, 
he is exceedingly popular with all with 
whom he associates. He is a progressive 
man and under his presidency the col- 



lege will continue to move upward and 
onward and soon fill the position in the 
educational field which, its founders de- 
signed for it. He will bring to the 
discharge of his duties the ex- 
perience of many years as an educator 
and we cannot but congratulate the 
Board of Trustees on the excellence of 
their choice, and we very much mistake 
the character of Prof. Seip if he ever 
gives the Board occasion to regret its 
action. 




EEY. JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D., LL.D. 



The ancestry of this highly gifted ser- 
vant of God and distinguished author, 
Rev. Joseph Augustus 8eiss, D. D., 
LL.D., — "The eminent expositor of un- 
filled prophecy," — lived in the Alsatian 
mountains in the neighborhood of 
Strassburg. The original family name 
was "Suess," which means sweet. The 
great-grandfather of Dr. Seiss emigrated 
to this country and settled near Read- 
ing, Pa. His grandfather was a worker 
in iron ; and removed at an early period 
to the newly founded German settle- 
ment of the Moravian brethren named 
Graceham, Frederick Co., Md. The 
father of the subject of our sketch was 
the oldest of twelve children, was him- 
self a hard working farmer with a family 
of four children, the oldest of whom 
was Joseph Augustus, born March 18, 
1828. His early life was spent as a 
practical farmer's boy. When eight 
years of age he was sent to the Moravian 
parish school in Graceham, where he 
acquired the rudiments of a secular and 
religious education. His studious dis- 
position and the ease and rapidity with 
which he progressed in his lessons gave 



promise of his future literary eminence. 
But close application having somewhat 
impaired his health, he was taken from 
his books to the duties of farm -life. 
His health in his new occupation was 
soon not only fully restored, but a strong, 
vigorous physique was developed, and 
thus by having a mens sana in corpore sano 
he was wonderfully prepared for his 
work in the great field of theological 
learning. His thirst for knowledge was 
intense during these years of his farmer 
life. Having little means with which 
he could purchase books, he would often, 
in summer nights, lie for hours on his 
back on the grass gazing with insatiable 
wonder on the starry heavens, and pon- 
dering on the origin and purpose of the 
things he saw but could not understand. 
His father called his boy a "dreamer 
Joseph" and preferred he should be a 
field-laborer, but his excellent, pious 
mother sympathized with her son's ar- 
dent desire for learning, and of her he 
now says: "Looking back on all the way 
that I have come to what and where I 
am, I can detect nothing with clearer 
distinctness than the pious mind, spirit 



702 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




IIEV. JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D., LL.D. 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



703 



and tender anxiety of my mother, as I 
began to grow toward manhood, and 
never had occasion to unlearn anything 
she ever taught me with her cheerful 
and sympathetic wisdom." 

After his confirmation in his sixteenth 
year as a member of the Moravian 
Church, his heart was fixed upon the 
aim of his life — to become a minister of 
the gospel. But both his father and 
his bishop discouraged him. The 
Moravian pastor, however, proved a 
friend in need. To his house (a dis- 
tance of three miles from his home) our 
youthful aspirant repaired in the even- 
ings, after the labors of the day were 
over, where he was instructed in Latin 
and in profane and sacred history, and 
on Sunday he often traveled seven miles 
to listen to the preaching of the Rev. 
Mr. Keller in the Lutheran church of 
Emmitsburg, Md. As no encouragment 
for entering the ministry was given him 
by his own church, by the help of a few 
Lutheran clergymen he was enabled to 
enter Pennsylvenia College at Gettys- 
burg in 1839. Here he applied himself 
with great assiduity to collegiate and 
theological studies. His theological 
course was mostly pursued in private, 
and in 1842, in his nineteenth year, he 
was licensed as a preacher by the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod of Virginia. 
Two years later he was ordained in 
Winchester, Va., his first pastorate be- 
ing in Martinsburg and Shepherdstown 
of the same state. Here he labored 
with great success. When only in his 
twenty-third year he published his first 
book, "Lectures on the Epistle to the 
Hebrews," which was well received and 
increased his growing reputation. He 
served with great fidelity and abound- 
ing prosperity the Lutheran congrega- 
tion of Cumberland, Md., from 1847 till 
1852, and that of Baltimore, Md., from 
1852 till 1858. In this year the oldest 



and perhaps the largest and most influ- 
ential English Lutheran church in 
America, that of St. John's, Phila- 
delphia, called him to its pastorate, as 
successor to the Rev. Dr. Mayer. This 
call was accepted, and for sixteen years 
the duties of his pastorate were dis- 
charged with unswerving fidelity, with 
growing popularity, with widening in- 
fluence and without intermission, except 
one year — April, 1864, March, 1865 — 
spent in travel, visiting Palestine, 
Egypt, etc., to recuperate his health at 
the expense generously volunteered by 
his congregation. His Alma Mater con- 
ferred upon him the honorary title of 
D. D. in 1860, and Roanoke College, Va., 
that of Doctor of Laws in 1884. In 
1874 the necessity for a new church of 
the Lutheran order in the western por- 
tion of Philadelphia led to the establish- 
ment of the Church of the Holy 
Communion by a portion of the mem- 
bers of the Church of St. John. Of 
this new church Dr. Seiss became the 
pastor, in which capacity he still serves 
with an energy and faithfulness seldom 
surpassed. Of him Dr. F. W. Conrad 
writes: "As a preacher Dr. Seiss ranks 
not only among the ablest of his de- 
nomination but of the country. The 
matter of his discourses is thoroughly 
digested and systematically arranged. 
His style is clear, ornate and forcible. 
He writes his sermons with great care, 
and although he follows his manuscript 
his manner is easy, natural and dignified. 
He has a fine personal presence. His 
delivery is earnest, at times impassioned 
and profoundly impressive. So well 
prepared are his discourses, that they 
are ready for the printer almost without 
revision, and the four volumes on the 
Gospels and Epistles which he has pub- 
lished are unsurpassed in the English 
language." No one can hear Dr. Seiss 
without feeling that he is fluent) fasci- 



704 



AMERICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



nating, eloquent and convincing. Fire 
and light combined. He is the most 
voluminous writer in the Lutheran 
Church. Over thirty volumes, some of 
them large books, have been produced 
by his prolific pen. These works are 
remarkable for deep reseai ch and pro- 
; found learning. . His reputation as an 
author has spread over the world, while 
: his untiring zeal and wonderful gifts are 
a. wonder unto many. The most re- 
niarkable probably of his productions, 
that on "The Apocalypse," which occu- 
pied him nearly fifteen years, is trans- 
lated into German, and several of his 
other works into the Swedish language 
T— others are republished in Europe. In 
disposition Dr. Seiss is exceedingly 
amiable, but in the maintenance of his 
views most determined. Like an iron 
column he moves not — saying what he 
, means and meaning what he says. The 
.whole burden of his sermons is: Mar- 
anatha—The Lord is at hand. But best 
pi all he is a child of faith, glowing 
with hope and active in charity. — Rev. 
A,.Stuckert in '' Pulpit Treasury" April, 1886. 



This distinguished clergyman is well 
known by reputation to thousands of 
C'hristians on both sides the Atlantic. 
As a preacher, a lecturer and an author 
Dr. Seiss occupies a position which en- 
titles him to the highest respect. Gifted 
with oratorical talents of a high order, 
he has drawn around him, wherever he 
has labored, congregations who have 
hung upon his lips with rapt attention, 
and have been blessed through his in- 
strumentality. The numerous works 
also which have issued from his pen 
have been the means of awakening and 
enlightening innumerable readers in 
this and other lands. 

There has been nothing of an excit- 
ing or unusual character in his life; it 
has been the simple, quiet life of a 



Christian minister, varied only by change 
of place and scene and characterized 
wherever it has been passed by uninter- 
mittent labor of tongue and pen. Such 
lives, though unmarked by the thrilling 
events which make up the experience 
of missionaries to the heathen in foreign 
lands, and of evangelists who labor 
among the heathen at home, are emi- 
nently useful and necessary to the wel- 
fare of the church and of society. 
There are many such lives being spent 
in the Lord's service among us, by men 
who might in commerce, or at the bar, or 
in politics, win wealth and honor, but 
who are content to spend, and be spent 
for others, satisfied if souls are saved 
and the Master glorified by their work. 

Rev. Joseph Augustus Seiss, D. D., is 
a native of Maryland. He was born 
near Graceham, a Moravian town in 
Frederick County, on March 18th, 1823, 
and is therefore now, ( 1883 ) sixty years 
of age. As a boy he was remarkable 
for his studious disposition and for the 
ease and rapidity with which he ac- 
quired the rudiments of knowledge. 
Happily for him his early education was 
confined to the hands of one who was 
able not only to teach him secular lore, 
but to lead his young miild to the source 
of that true wisdom which could make 
him wise unto salvation. It was a 
Moravian pastor at Graceham who first 
instructed the future orator, preacher 
and writer and opened up to him the 
paths of knowledge. When fully pre- 
pared for college the young man in 
1839 entered Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg, where he remained about 
two years. At the conclusion of his 
college course he spent a few months 
in the work of tuition, becoming prin- 
cipal of a select school in Westminster, 
Maryland. 

But "the Lord had need of him," and 
God, who selects and prepares the in- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



705 



struments for carrying on His work in 
tlie world, made it clear to the young 
teacher that a life of labor for the Sav- 
iour was the path it was his duty to 
tread. Accordingly he entered into 
communication with the leaders of his 
church, and in the year 1842, he being 
then a young man of nineteen, he be- 
came a licentiate of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Virginia. During 
the following year his duties were of an 
itinerate character. He visited many 
towns in Rockingham and Augusta 
Counties, Virginia, preaching in the 
churches, visiting the sick, and doing 
such Christian work as he had oppor- 
tunity. But it was not to be expected 
that he would long spend his time in 
that roving manner. He was gaining 
experience, his mind was opening by 
contact with the minds of his older 
colleagues whom he met and assisted 
in their labors, and his sermons were 
awakening attention and doing good. 

In 1843 he accepted the pastorate of 
Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, Va., 
and labored there with many tokens of 
blessing for four years. At the end of 
that time he was led to accept the pas- 
torate of the English Lutheran Church 
of Cumberland, Md. He was succeeded 
by a minister with whom he has since 
been brought into close and intimate 
association in many departments of 
Christian work. That was the Rev. C. 
P. Krauth, D. D., who by a singular 
coincidence was born on the same night 
of the same year as Dr. Seiss, studied at 
the same time at the same college, and 
was successively pastor of the same four 
congregations in three states of the 
union. They have worked editorially, 
sometimes together and sometimes in 
succession; they have often ministered 
jointly to the same congregation, and 
have been occasionally at one time in 
the pulpit. It is unnecessary to say 
89 



that they are warm personal friends 
and cherish a strong fraternal regard 
for each other. Dr. Krauth became 
Professor of Intellectual and Moral 
Philosophy in the University of Penn- 
sylvania in 1868, and was subsequently 
made its Vice-Provost and Professor of 
Logic. He took a prominent and active 
part in the American Committee on the 
Revision of the Old Testament, which 
co-operates with the English committee. 

During the pastorate of Dr. Seiss at 
Cumberland he was urged to remove to 
New York. He was at that time only 
twenty-six years of age, and the call, 
which was pressed with some impor- 
tunity, is an evidence of the popularity 
and ability of the young preacher. It 
was, however, declined, and in doing so 
Dr. Seiss gave evidence of his modesty 
and his freedom from ambitious aspi- 
rations. He continued to labor on 
quietly at Cumberland, doing much 
good and winning the love of his people. 
A second call came to him, unsolicited, 
from Frederick, Md., but that, too, he 
declined, preferring to complete the 
work which he was doing among the 
people he loved. 

In 1852, however, an opportunity for 
increased usefulness was opened before 
Dr. Seiss, and certain providential cir- 
cumstances attending it, led him to be- 
lieve that God was calling him to that 
sphere of labor. It came from the 
Second English Lutheran Church of 
Baltimore, Md., and thither he removed 
in 1852. There, as at Cumberland, he 
was encouraged by many tokens of 
God's blessing. The church prospered 
in all ways under his ministry, and for 
six years he continued his labors there. 

It was in 1858 that Dr. Seiss com- 
menced his pastorate in Philadelphia, 
with which city his name was destined 
to be ever afterwards identified. The 
call came to him from St. John's Luth- 



706 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



eran Church to succeed the Kev. Dr. 
Mayer, and to the deep regret of his 
Baltimore congregation, who, like those 
to whom he had previously ministered, 
were loath to lose a pastor under whom 
they had benefited and who became 
every year, by experience and study, 
better able to instruct and edify them. 
For sixteen years Dr. Seiss continued 
the pastor of St. John's, and under his 
ministry the church grew so largely that 
it was deemed wise, especially as the 
city became more widely extended, to 
establish another church. That was 
done, and when the Church of the Holy 
Communion was built, Dr. Seif-s had to 
decide to which portion of his people 
his services would be the more useful, 
and which portion had the greater claim 
upon them. He ultimately decided to 
take charge of the new church, and from 
1874 to the present time he has been the 
pastor of the Church of the Holy Com- 
munion in Philadelphia. 

Such has been the ministerial and 
pastoral life of Dr. Seiss. It has been 
one of unostentatious labor, signally 
blessed of God; and the Christian 
Church everywhere, but especially his 
own church, prays that it may be long 
continued, and that in the Providence 
of God many years of usefulness may be 
granted to him. He is widely esteemed 
by his brethren in the ministry, among 
whom he has the reputation of being 
one of the most eloquent and earnest 
pastors of the Lutheran Church. They 
have recently chosen him as President 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium 
of Pennsylvania, and President of the 
Board of Directors of the Theological 
Seminary at Philadelphia. 

But Dr. Seiss's reputation and useful- 
ness as a pastor is eclipsed by his fame 
as an author. The number of works he 
has published, the majority of them re- 
markable for their research and pro- 



found learning, would have suggested 
the inference that their author had no 
other occupation than that of the pen, 
and few who did not know, would credit 
the fact that during the whole time that 
they have been teeming from the press 
their author has been one of the most 
active and zealous preachers and pastors 
in the country. It is in this department 
of labor that Dr. Seiss has become 
known by reputation to thousands upon 
thousands of the Christian public in all 
parts of the world. It may be doubted 
if any writer in America has done so 
much as he to elucidate those parts of 
the Word of God which are dark and 
enigmatical to the superficial and un- 
learned reader, but which so abundantly 
repay earnest and careful study. Dr. 
Seiss most steadfastly believes that it is 
the Christian's duty to study the 
prophecies of the Bible, and he has 
labored unceasingly to assist those who 
are desirous of fulfilling that duty. 
Many a student to whom the books of 
Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and the 
Apocalypse were a labyrinth of confu- 
sion, grand and majestic in their 
imagery, but utterly uninstructive and 
incomprehensible, has been guided into 
light by Dr. Seiss, who has furnished 
him with a key which has opened to 
him a mine of intellectual and spiritual 
wealth. Those who have had the privi- 
lege of listening to his lectures in Phil- 
adelphia have been but a small portion 
of the immense audience whom Dr. 
Seiss has thus laid under obligation. 
His published works have had an enor- 
mous circulation in this country, and a 
still larger circulation in Europe. Stu- 
dents have gone to them for light; and 
they have found it. 

Dr. Seiss possesses beyond most men 
the faculty of rendering his ideas 
realistic alike to hearer and reader. 
Logical reasoning, brilliant scene-paint- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



707 



ing and powerful appeals are found in 
combination in his works. The visions 
which the Holy Spirit spread before the 
eyes of God's servants, the prophets, 
and which und^r His guidance they 
wrote for our edification, glow with new 
light and meaning as Dr. Seiss presents 
them on his pages. As the great painter 
Dore comprehended the conceptions of 
Dante and Milton and Tennyson, and 
portrayed on canvas the scenes they de- 
scribed, so that the reader whose imagi- 
nation could not follow their brilliant 
flight, saw in picture that which he 
failed to see in all its grandeur in words, 
so Dr. Seiss in expounding prophecy 
has given to the events of the future, 
life and shape and realism as vivid as 
the greBt historian, Macaulay, gave to 
the events of the past. He has thus 
taken his readers by the hand, and, lead- 
ing them through the most wonderful 
picture-gallery in the literature of the 
world, painted by the finger of God 
Himself, has shown them the beauties 
of those pictures and the lines of thought 
which make of many isolated scenes one 
harmonious whole. Dr. Seiss has shown 
that the God of History is the God of 
Prophecy, and that the future of the 
human race is only a continuation of its 
past, a culmination of the action cf 
potent forces which God holds in His 
hands, which have throughout the ages 
been working in the world, and which are 
now approaching their final development. 
Among his published writings are: 

Lectures on the Gospels; Lectures on 
the Epistles; Thirty-three Practical 
Sermons; Uriel, or some Occasional 
Discourses; Blossoms of Faith; Petros,or 
the Wonderful Building; Plain Words; 
The Sigh of Humanity Interpreted and 
Directed; A Sermon on the Parable of 
the Talents; Kemarks on Infidelity; 
Orthodoxy and Practical Godliness; 
Witnessing for Jesus; Paul and Luther; 



Life after Death; Christ's Descent into 
Hell; Our Dead; God our King; Govern- 
ment and Christianity; Works and 
Workers; Five Discourses on Benefi- 
cence; The Wonderful Testimonies; 
The True Theology; Popular Lectures 
on the Epistle to the Hebrews; Holy 
Types; Parable of the Ten Virgins; 
Voices from Babylon; The Apocalypse; 
The Last Times; The Day of the Lord; 
The Day and Hour; A Question in 
Eschatology; The Prophetic Times; Our 
Blessed Hope; History and Prospects 
of the Jews; The Church's Hope; The 
Lord at Hand; Millennial Concordance; 
Ecclesia Lutherana; The Lutheran 
Church; Reflection on the Lutheran 
Church; Luther and Reformation; Ad- 
di"ess; Our Temple; A Miracle in Stone; 
The Gospel in the Stars; The Training 
of Little Ones for Christ; The Claims 
of Sabbath Schools; Thoughts on Edu- 
cation; Motives to the Pursuit of Wis- 
dom; The Arts of Design; Right Life; 
The Children of Silence; Truth made 
Plain; Child's Catechism; Studies in 
the Catechism; How shall we order our 
Worship?; A Book of Forms; Church 
Forms for the Performance of Ministerial 
Acts; The Golden Altar; « The Evangel- 
ical Psalmist; Psalms and Canticles for 
the Lutheran Church; Church Song; 
Sunday School Book; Recreation Songs; 
The Baptist System Examined; The 
Javelin; Jus Ecclesiasticum ; General 
Council and Close Communion ; Twenty- 
Four Propositions on the Galesburg 
Declaration; Eulogy on the Life and 
Character of Henry Clay; The Assassi- 
nated President; A Word from God to 
a Nation in Mourning; Funeral Ad- 
dresses; Not Dead, but Sleeping; In 
Memoriam; The Empire of Evil; Satanic 
Agency and Demonism ; The Threatening 
Ruin; The Merchant; Ravages of Intem- 
perance; Old Paths; Words of Counsel 
to the Serious; The Jubilee; etc. 



708 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 




EEV. J. Z. SENDERLING, D.D. 



We quote the following from the 
History of Hartwick Synod: 

In presenting an obituary of this 
highly-esteemed and venerable Chris- 
tian gentleman and faithful minister of 
Jesus, nothing more touching or appro- 
priate could be offered than the follow- 
ing very chaste tribute from the pen of 
Rev. L. D. "Wells, of Canajoharie. This 
tribute brother Wells read as chairman 
of the obituary committee of Hartwick 
Synod, at its forty-eighth annual con- 
vention, at Stone Arabia, in 1878: 

Your obituary committee would re- 
spectfully offer the following: 

"In the president's report of a year 
ago, under the item sickness, we read 
that 'Rev. Dr. J. Z. Senderling expects 
to be prevented from attending Synod 
by sickness, not so much his own. as 
that of his wife;' and then follows the 
doctor's touching request, 'It would be 
very soothing to her oft-troubled heart 
if the dear brethren would remember 
her in their prayers.' At that time two 
were grinding at the mill, still keeping 
in feebleness the post of duty and 



fidelity. But now the one haS been 
taken and the other left, and after the 
manner of an oft-repeated surprise that 
to our wondering question, why? makes 
no answer, so in this instance the 
stronger was called away from the ser- 
vice, and the weaker was commanded to 
tarry. 

''The one for whom our prayers were 
requested still lingers, bearing the cross 
of human infirmity; while he who gave 
such promise of hearty old age was sud- 
denly stricken down, and welcomed to 
the land untouched by the breath of 
the destroyer. 

"He reigns in peace, and needeth not our prayers. 
Who sits enthroned as one of Christ's joint heirs." 

'How is the strong staff broken and the 
beautiful rod.' The subject of this 
notice. Rev. J. Z. Senderling, D.D.., was 
suddenly called from the threshold of 
his earthly home to his rest and reward 
in the heavenly mansions on Dec. 20, 
1877, in Johnstown, N. Y. On the pre- 
vious day he had been seen upon the 
streets, apparently in the enjoyment of 
his usual health and spirits; so unex- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



709 



pectedly came the summons for his de- 
parture. On the Monday following his 
death tlie funeral services were held 
and largely attended in the Lutheran 
church of which he had been the be- 
loved pastor for several years. His 
pastor, Rev. Dr. Felts, conducted the 
services, and preached an appropriate 
discourse npon John v, 35. The resi- 
dent pastors of the village and several 
of our own denomination were present, 
to bear their respective tributes of 
Christian regard and affection for the 
memory of the sainted father in Israel. 
It was a day of public sorrow, for Dr. 
Senderling was one beloved by all who 
respected and revered the Master. From 
an obituary notice prepared at the time 
by Dr. Felts, and published in one of 
the village papers, I am permitted to 
make the following extracts: 

" 'The Doctor was born in the city of 
Philadelphia, Nov. 12, 1800, and had 
therefore passed the age of seventy- 
seven years at his demise. He was 
baptized and confirmed according to the 
usages of the Lutheran Church by Dr. 
Philip Mayer, who, for more than fifty 
years, was pastor of St. John's Church 
of Philad Iphia. His pastor, observing 
his youthful thirst for knowled^ge and 
desire for Christian usefulness, advised 
him to prepare for the gospel ministry 
— this advice was promptly accepted, 
and its preparatory work begun. In the 
autumn of 1817, he entered Hartwick 
Classical and Theological Seminary, in 
Otsego county, N. Y., where he s^Dent 
seven years. He was a diligent student 
in the seminary, and graduated with 
honors. Immediately thereafter he w^as 
licensed to preach the gospel, and at 
once took charge of a small church in 
Clay; Onondaga Co., N. Y. In 1826, 
two years after his entrance into the 
ministry, he accepted a call to Centre 
Brunswick, Rensselaer Co., N. Y. 



'"About this time he was married to 
the daughter of a Moravian clergyman, 
wdio, as to piety and culture, was well 
qualified for the responsible j)osition 
thereby assumed; and there were passed 
twenty-five of the most eventful years 
of his busy life. After his resignation 
of the pastorate at Centre Brunswick, 
he made the city of Troy his home for 
three years, spending the most of his 
time among the churches in efforts to 
create an enlarged interest in the cause 
of Foreign Missions. In him the heathen 
had an unwearied advocate and a warm, 
sympathetic friend. 

This Synod cannot forget the eloquence 
of his tears, which easily flowed along 
with his persuasive appeals when the 
subject of Foreign Missions was before 
the house. For a number of years he 
was Corresponding Secretary of the 
Board of Foreign Missions of his church, 
and in this, as in every other station 
he was called to fill, he was a faithful 
and efficient worker. In the spring of 
1850, he received and accepted a unani- 
mous call as pastor of St, Paul's Luth- 
eran Church, of Johnstown, N. Y. His 
pastorate there extended over a period 
of eleven years. Under his faithful 
supervision the church grew in numbers 
and in spiritual might. He not only 
preached the gospel from the pulpit, but 
carried it to the homes of the people 
also; thus fulfilling the divine injunction, 
"As ye go, preach." He has left the 
record of 3,349 pastoral visits dur- 
ing his eleven years of service in 
Johnstown. In the spring of 1867, he 
resigned the charge of St. Paul's, and 
thereafter, until his death, lived a retired 
life, preaching occasionally for the 
brethren of his own and of other churches. 
He loved his calling as an ambassador 
of Christ, and on the Lord's day, when 
not in the pulpit, was a regular and 
devout hearer of the Word. But he 



710 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



worships no more in temples made by 
hands. The servant has been called to 
stand nearer his Master. Using his own 
words, we confidently echo his faith: 
"Home, home at last, with glorified 
millions in the presence of Jesus, in 
the new and heavenly Jerusalem." ''We 
a little longer wait, but how little none 
can know." In the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, crowned 
with that sweet rest which faithful 
service receives, he now looks down npon 
us, and through the medium of his 



works which follow him, says to each 
and all, "Be faithful, and hope to the 
end for the grace that is to be brought 
unto you at the revelation of," etc. "The 
memory of the just is blessed." May 
that memory be to us one of the precious 
joys of our remaining pilgrimage, and 
when, one after the other, we drop out 
of the ranks, may it be with us as it was 
with him, loins girded, sword in hand, 
the vision of faith unclouded, ready to 
answer : Lord^ here am I, for Thou didst 
call me." 




EEV. J. D. SEYEEINGHAUS, D.B. 



From Germany, that fountain source 
of the renewal of the true religion of 
Jesus Christ, that old original place of 
the Eeformation, came the subject of 
this sketch. He was born in Hanover, 
July 22d, 1834, a land of level and of 
undulating fields, delightful stretches 
of varied cultivation down to the music 
of the North Sea, and of thickly strewn 
cities and villages, old in culture and 
in opulence, the scenes of the origin of 



the present English dynasty. In this 
German land, where the Brocken up- 
lifts the figure of man's immortality 
upon the morning mists, a tendency to 
elevated and religious thought would 
seem almost natural, even before the 
promptings of inspiration. The parents 
of J. D Severinghaus were pious people, 
and members of the Lutheran Church. 
He was educated after coming to Amer- 
ica, at Springfield, O. He was ordained 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



711 



by the Miami Synod of the Lutheran 
Church, 1862; and the same year was 
married to Maria E. Knode. Rev. 
Severinghaus received the degree of 
D. D, from Wittenberg College, and is a 
member of the Wartburg Synod of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, of which 
he has been president. His fields of 
labor have been at Richmond, Ind., 
Oswego, N. Y., and Chicago, 111. In 
this last central metropolis of the United 
States, he holds the important positions 
of professor and president of the Ger- 
man Theological Seminary. His fav- 
orite work has been preaching, editing, 
and teaching; and he is the author of a 



number of books and pamphlets. He 
is at present editor of the Lutherischer 
Hausfreund, a semi-monthly published 
at Chicago. Dr. Severinghaus aims to 
be practical in his preaching and teach- 
ing, seeking to impress truths in a form 
and manner which will most avail to 
forward the interests of the Church and 
the diffusion of the Gospel. The Master 
first and self last, seems to be the motto 
of this divine, who stands among those 
that cause us to be thankful that the 
ranks of American Lutheranism have 
been strengthened and enriched by ac- 
cessions from the fatherlands. — W. S. 




REV. GUSTAVUS SEYFFARTH, D.D. 



Prof, Gustavus Seyffarth, the Egyp- 
tologist, was a member of the Lutheran 
Church, and was born at LTebigau, 
Saxony, on July 13, 1796. He studied 
in the Gymnasium at Leipzig and after- 
ward at the university in the same city. 
In 1820 he went to Paris, and studied 
for two years with Champollion, the 
French Egyptologist, and Dr. Robert 
Young of the British Museum. Prof. 
Seyffarth always insisted that he was 
the first to decipher the hieroglyphics 
on the Rosetta stone, and his claims 
have been recognized and defended 
against those of Champollion by Brugsch 
and other German scientists. In 1823 
he published his celebrated work "Clavis 
Hieroglocarum Egyptiacorum." In 
1825 he was appointed Professor of 



Oriental Archaeology in the University 
of Leipzig, and held this chair for thirty 
years. 

In 1855 he emigrated to America, and 
was appointed to the chair of Archaeol- 
ogy and Exegesis in the Lutheran 
Concordia Seminary at St. Louis. In 
1857 he published a work on Biblical 
chronology, which has been translated 
into several languages. Since 1871 he 
has resided in New York, and has de- 
ciphered numerous Egyptian manu- 
scripts in the collection of the Histori- 
cal Society, as well as those upon the 
obelisk in Central Park. Notwithstand- 
ing his great age he enjoyed excellent 
health until a comparatively short time 
previous to his death, which occured 
Nov. 17, 1885. 




712 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. J. F. SHAFFEE, D D. 



His grandfather, Isaac Shaffer, was 
born in Lancaster Co., Pa., in 1768. 
From thence he emigrated to Fairfield 
County, State of Ohio, in 1"98, before 
the County was laid out, while the now 
state was still a teritory. There were 
but few white people and a great number 
of Indians. He settled near where the 
seat of justice of this county now is. 
He was often heard to say, that he 
suggested the name of Lancaster as 
the name oE the County-seat, and look- 
ing into "How's History of Ohio," I find 
this remark: 'In the fall of 1800, E. 
Zane laid out Lancaster, and by way of 
compliment to a number of emigrants 
from Lancaster Co., Pa., he called it 
Lancaster.' And this is the name to 
this day. Isaac Shaffer moved a few 
miles south of Lancaster on a farm, and 
there remained until he died, in 1850, 
aged eighty-two years. He was indus- 
trious and frugal. He was married to 
Julia Eeem from the same place in 
Pennsylvania that he was from. To 
them were born and raised three boys 
and three girls. He had accumulated 



enough to give each a farm of two hun- 
dred acres. 

His father's name was John S. Shaf- 
fer, the youngest son. He was born 
January 20, 1807. He was raised on 
the farm. At the age of twenty-one he 
married a Miss Koontz, who bore him 
two boys, who both died when young 
men. His first wife died three years 
after their marriage. A few years after 
he married Miss Sarah Stuckey, by 
whom he bad ten children; six of these 
are still living, three boys and three 
girls. Of these ten children the subject 
of this sketch was the third. His father 
inherited the industrious and frugal 
habits of his father, and met with equal 
success. 

John S. Shaffer died April 20, 1875. 
Father Shaffer was born in Fairfield 
Co., O., in 1807, and while yet a young 
man he became a member of the Luth- 
eran church, not a mere nominal mem- 



ber, but an active. 



worker. 



Mainly through his labors a congregation 
was collected together at the little town 
of Hamburg in the above mentioned 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



713 



county, a church built, the one-sixth of 
which expense he assumed. So likewise 
did he of his pastor's salary and all 
contingent church expenses. He was a 
trustee of the church, an elder, s\(perin- 
tendent of the Sunday School, all these 
for the space of about twenty years. 
And during this same period he, by 
his untiring efforts, kept alive a weekly 
prayer-meeting. 

His exemplary Christian life won for 
him the respect of all who knew him. 
In the hands of God he was instrumental 
in leading souls to Christ, two of whom 
are to day in the ministry — one in our 
own town, and another in a sister de- 
nomination. 

Dr. Shaffer was born on his father's 
farm, March 28, 1837. His mother, Sarah 
Stuckey, and her parents for generations 
back, were Lutherans. She was baptized 
in infancy by Kev. Wagenhals, the 
father of the Rev. Dr. Wagenhals of Ft. 
Wayne, Ind., who also baptized him. 
She was a very pious woman and died 
in 1881 at Carthage, Mo. Until he was 
seventeen he attended each winter a 
country school from three to four months, 
but he studied hard day and evenings. 
When he was seventeen he had passed 
through Ray's Arithmetic three times, 
and did fairly in other common branches. 
In June, 1854, he started to Wittenberg 
College. He was led to this in the 
following way: having a thirst for know- 
ledge, he once said to his father that he 
wished to get an education. He bore 
the matter in mind, and accordingly 
he made arrangements, and sent him. 
He took a regular classical course in 
Wittenberg College, graduating in 1860, 
in a class of ten. At that time the 
professors arranged the graduation 
programe according to scholarship. 
He stood fifth, that is in the middle. 
He was with one exception the youngest 
in the class. 
90 



After graduating he at once entered 
upon a theological course, in the The- 
ological Seminary connected with 
Wittenberg College, at Springfield, 
Ohio. There he studied one year, but 
crowded into that one year a two years' 
course. He was immediately licensed 
to preach the Gospel at St. Paris, Ohio, 
by the Miami Synod. At once tjok 
charge at Xenia, Ohio. The charge 
was about defunct. But under him it 
had healthy growth, numbering at his 
resignation 174 members. The charge 
sent to the last meeting of Synod, that 
he represented over |200, while the 
first year they could send only 117. He 
served this charge nearly twenty years. 
He was married to Eliza Jane Puter- 
baugh of Xenia, Ohio, September 18, 
1862. She died March 2, 1873. 

On October 8th, 1874, he was again 
married. This time to Miss Margarett 
Ellen Barnes, of Xenia, Ohio, who died 
May 23d, 1882. 

He again married July 3d, 18 — ; this 
time to Miss Kate M. Boggs. She was 
the first lady missionary that went to 
the foreign field under the auspices of 
the Woman's Home and Poreign Mis- 
sionary Society of the General Synod. 
After spending several years her health 
failed and she was compelled to return 
home. 

Three times has Dr. Shaffer been 
elected as secretary of Miami Synod, 
and four times as president. He has 
been kept in the position as director of 
Wittenberg College by Miami Synod for 
twenty-two consecutive years, and the 
College Board four times elected him 
its president. He has also represented 
his synod in the General Synod six 
times. Has been on examining com- 
mittee to examine candidates for the 
ministry for twenty-four years. While 
at Xenia, he was examiner of County 
School Teachers for twelve years. (Xenia 



714 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



is a city of about 10,000. ) In March, 
1881, he moved to Springfield in order 
to educate his children in Wittenberg 
College. He however continued sup- 
plying his charge at Xenia, until they 
could elect a successor, which they did 
in the following June, not going a Sab- 
bath without preaching. He also sup- 
plied \\ est Liberty for some time and 
also Tippecanoe city. For four years 
he prepared the comments on the Sun- 
day School lesson for the Lutheran 
Evangelist, from Sept., 1881, to Dec, 
1885. During these four years he wrote 
many articles for the Lutheran Evangel- 
ist and some for other pape rs. For two 
years he was associated with Dr. Ort as 
editor of the Lutheran Evangelist, and 
Dr. Singley as corresponding editor. 
But the real fact was, that with the ex- 
ception of a few articles Dr. Ort wrote 
he had all the work to do, which con- 
sisted of editing the paper, manage its 
finances, keep the books, write the edi- 
torials, etc. ; and at the same time, he 
taught in the Theological Seminary 
connected with Wittenberg College, the 
following branches: Hebrew, Biblical 
Archeology, Sacred Philology, Biblical 
Criticism, Church History, and Cate- 
chetics. But under this terrible pres- 
sure his health began to fail, and his 
soul yearned for the regular work of 
the ministry again. The opportunity 
came to organize a congregation in the 
great Methodist College town of over 
1,000 students, Delaware, Ohio. He 
organized November, 1885, and in eleven 
months was able to dedicate a fine brick 
church house 50x65. It will seat five 
hundred; slant floor, circular seats, 
finely frescoed, beautifully carpeted. 
His church-work here has been phe- 



nominal, having to-day over two hun- 
dred members in a town of ten thousand. 
The church property is worth to-day, 
118,000. In June, 1887, the Board of 
Wittenberg College, at the recommen- 
dation of the Faculty of said college, 
saw fit to confer upon him the degree 
of D. D. 

With the exception of Dr. Stucken- 
berg, he had more to do than any other 
man in bringing into existence the 
Woman's Home and Foreign Mission 
Society of the General Synod. 

Among the published writings of J. 
F. Shaffer we mention the following: 

Sermon on Dancing, delivered at Mt. 
Zion church, Greene Co., O., Dec. 15, 
1867. Published in pamphlet form at 
the earnest request of many Christian 
friends; The Teacher's True Work, ex- 
tract of a sermon delivered in Trinity 
church, Aug. 8, by request, for the teach- 
ers attending the Normal School; A 
Word to Parents; A Second Word to 
Parents; A Third Word to Christian 
Parents; Niagara Falls; Letters from 
the West; The True and False Aspect 
of the Sunday School and Our Duty 
Respecting the Same. An address de- 
livered before the Xenia Sunday School 
Association; Young America; Old Fogy; 
The Duty of the State in Relation to the 
Liquor Traffic. Published in pamphlet 
form at the request of many friends; 
The Relation of the Common School to 
Temperance. An address delivered at 
Alpha, Jan. 18th, 1878, before the W. 
C. T. U. of Greene Co.; Fourth Word 
to Parents; Fifth Word to Parents; A 
Christmas Sermon; Letters from the 
West; Military Evolution. A speech be- 
fore George B. Torrence Post, G. A. R. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



715 



REV. PROF. H. K. SHANOR. 



Prof. Shanor was born in Butler, Pa., 
March 9, 1853, of the parents, Daniel 
and Sophia Shanor, nee Mechling. His 
childhood and youth he spent on the 
farm. He received his academic edu( a- 
tion at the Witherspoon Institute, But- 
ler, Pa. While studying he taught 
several terms of public school and also 
assisted one year in Witherspoon Insti- 
tute In 1875 he entered the junior 
class in Washington and Jefferson Col- 
lege, whence he was graduated in 1877. 
The ensuing year he spent teaching in 
West Alexander Academy, West Alex- 
ander, Pa. In 1878 he was elected to 
the principalship of Witherspoon Insti- 
tute, Butler, Pa., where he remained a 
year when he resigned on account of 
financial. difficulties of the school. He 
studied theology at the seminary in 
Philadelphia, and was ordained by the 
Pittsburg Synod in 1882. He took 
charge at once of Freeport charge and 



served it for six years. Finding a num- 
ber of young people desirous of pursuing 
more advanced studies than public 
schools furnished, in connection with 
his pastoral work he established and 
carried on an academy, preparing quite 
a number of young men and women for 
teaching and college. In September, 
1888, he accepted a call to an instructor- 
ship in Thiel College, Greenville, Pa., 
where he had charge of the preparatory 
department and Latin. Sept. 1, 1889, 
he resigned to accept the Professorship 
of Latin in Gustavus Adolphus College, 
St. Peter, Minn. In 1890 he was trans- 
ferred to Chair of English Language 
and Literature. He received the 
honorary degree of A.M. from Thiel 
College, 1889, and from Washington 
and Jefferson College, 1890. He was 
married in 1878 to Miss Maria A. Fisher, 
of Butler, Pa. 




REV. AV. P. SHANOR, 



The Pittsburg Synod of the General 
Council has long been noted for its en- 
terprising spirit, its energy in mission 
work, and its zeal in advancing the 
cause of the Master and in extending 
the boundaries of His kingdom. Among 
its many tireless and devoted workers 
none were more typical of its spirit of 
progress than the late Rev. W. P. 
Shanor. A natural leader, of fine ex- 
ecutive ability, he, by his untiring zeal, 
his boundless faith, his persistent per- 
severance and excellent judgment, to- 
gether with his loftiness of purpose and 
stability of character stands first among 
those who have systematized and ex- 



tended the mission work of that Mis- 
sionary Synod. 

Rev. Shanor was the son of Absolom 
and Mary Shanor, of Prospect, Pa. He 
was born Jan. 16, 1855. Having com- 
pleted the course in the public schools 
of that place he received his academic 
education in the Connesquenessing 
Academy, Zelienople, Pa., then under 
the principalship of Rev. Prof. J. R. 
Titzel. He matriculated as a student 
in Thiel College, Greenville, Pa., in 
1873; but, in 1875, he entered the 
sophomore class in Muhlenberg College, 
Allentown, Pa., from which institution 
he graduated with honor in 1877. 



716 



AMEKIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



When he entered college his purpose 
was to study medicine, but soon after 
recognized a call into the vineyard of 
the Master, and thereafter turned all 
his efforts in the direction of prepara- 
tion for the ministry. After his gradua- 
tion, his health not allowing his 
continued confinement in the class 
room, he spent the succeeding three 
years at home, where he studied theology 
privately. In the fall of 1880, being re- 
stored to health, he entered the Luther- 
an Theological Seminary, remaining 
one year. He was ordained to the office 
of the gospel ministry June 9, 1881, in 
the First Lutheran Church, Pittsburg, 
and on July 3d, following, he was in- 
stalled as pastor of Mt. Zion Lutheran 
Church, Allegheny. His success in that 
charge was unusual. His efforts gave a 
stimulus to the mission work of the city, 
and, in fact, to the Synod. He organ- 
ized a Sunday school in the outskirts of 
the city. This soon developed into a 
congregation and, for its home, he 
erected the Memorial Lutheran Church. 
It stands to-day, a memorial not only of 
the anniversary of the reformation but 
of the life and labors of its first pastor. 
During this pastorate he was repeatedly 
called to other and easier fields of labor, 
but, believing his work was not finished 
there, he declined all. 

His endowments as an executive offi- 
cer secured for him in 1885 his election 
as Missionary President of the Pittsburg 
Synod, and twice was he chosen to that 
position. The last election, however, he 
was obliged to decline on account of 
physical weakness. During his incum- 
bency of this position he did a work of 
organization'and inspiration among the 
churches of Western Pennsylvania, the 



fruits of which will be reaped for years 
to come. But the strain of this life of 
activity was too great for his weak con- 
stitution, and in 1888 he was compelled 
to resign his charge and seek the resto- 
ration of his health in the mountains of 
the West. He was so successful that he 
felt able to undertake the supervision of 
a mission organizing in Salt Lake City. 
But the labors of this position, and the 
unfavorable atmosph.re of Salt Lake 
Valley, compelled him to again seek the 
pure air of the mountains. But it was 
too late. The disease had advanced to 
the fatal stage, and whilst on his way 
home th-. end came, at North Platte, 
Neb., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 1889, he 
was called home to receive his reward. 

Rev. Shanor was married on Dec. 2, 
1886, to Miss Annie, daughter of C. C. 
Heckel, of Allegheny City, who, with an 
infant son, were left to mourn the loss 
of their husband and father. 

Of fine personal appearance, and pos- 
sessing a well stored mind and a voice 
of peculiar pathos and winsomeness, 
Eev. Shanor was a preacher of rare 
power. His social qualities were most 
excellent. His manner was most win- 
ning, and, by his great sympathy and 
kindliness of heart, he won a place in 
the hearts of all who knew him. 

Of him we can say as was said of the 
Master whom he served: "The zeal of 
the Lord's house hath eaten him up." 
He died almost in the harness, and, 
though called away in the full bloom of 
his manhood, his work was great and 
lasting. In him verily the comforting 
words of the voice from heaven were 
realized: "He rests from his labors and 
his works do follow him." 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



717 



REV. NICHOLAS G. SHARRETTS. 



Rev. Nicholas G. Sharretts. the eldest 
son of Major F. and Catharine Sharretts, 
was born at Selinsgrove, Union Co., 
Pa., Nov. 20, 1802. The faithful efforts 
of his parents to imbue his mind early 
with the knowledge and spirit of true 
religion were eminently successful ; and, 
at the age of fifteen, he made a public 
profession of his faith, and was admitted 
to the church in Carlisle, whither his 
parents had, before this time, removed. 
He very early expressed a desire to be- 
come a minister of the gospel; but, his 
father, having a large family, without 
any ample means of supporting them, 
felt scarcely able to incur the expense 
of his son's education for the ministry, 
and therefore persuaded him to learn a 
trade. Still, however, the aspirations of 
the young man towards the sacred office 
were not quenched — he could not resist 
the impression that he was called of 
God to preach the unsearchable riches 
of Christ. The Rev. Benjamin Keller, 
who was at that time his pastor, having 
ascertained the state of his mind, con- 
sulted with his parents, and finally se- 
cured their consent to the gratification 
of Nicholas' wishes. The young man 
immediately entered upon a course of 
study, under the direction of Mr. Keller, 
preparatory to entering college, and, in 
due time, became a member of the 
freshman class in Dickinson College, 
then under the presidency of the Rev. 
Dr. John M. Mason. During his whole 
college course he was distinguished for' 
the most correct and orderly deportment, 
for diligence and success in study, and 
for a consistent and elevated Christian 
character. 

Shortly after his graduation, in 1825, 
he commenced his theological studies 
under the direction of the Rev. Dr. J. G. 



Sch mucker, then of York, Pa.; but he 
completed them at the Theological 
Seminary at Gettysburg, which had in 
the meantime been established. He 
was licensed to preach the gospel by the 
Synod of West Pennsylvania, convened 
at Berlin, Somerset Co., in the fall of 
1826; and immediately accepted an ap- 
pointment to a mission in the north- 
western part of the state. He visited 
the counties of Clearfield, Venango and 
Indiana, and dispensed the Word of 
Life to the scattered members of the 
Lutheran Church. Having preceded in 
his tour as far as Indiana and Blairs- 
ville, a company of piously disposed 
persons prevailed on him to settle among 
them as their pastor. Although they 
were few in number, and were scarcely 
able to furnish an adequate support, 
yet, after much reflection on the sub- 
ject, he was constrained to believe that 
that was the field which the Providence 
of God marked out for him. Accord- 
ingly he accepted the call, and from 
July 1, 1827, until he finished his 
earthly course he continued to labor 
here with great diligence and success. 
During his connection with this charge 
he was invited, not less than eight times, 
to accept a more prominent position in 
the Church, where his services would 
have been more amply remunerated; 
but nothing could reconcile him to the 
idea of parting with a people to whom 
he had become so much attached, and 
to whom his labors had proved so rich a 
blessing. And his attachment to them 
was most fully reciprocated. If any 
were prejudiced against him at first, he 
uniformly succeeded in removing their 
prejudices, and sometimes in bringing 
them into the number of his most de- 
voted friends. All looked up to him 



718 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



with confidence, reverence and affection. 
Mr. Sharretts' death occurred on the 
31st of December, 1836, in the thirty- 
fifth year of his age. During a tour 
which he made for collecting funds to 
liquidate the debt which rested on the 
Indiana church, he was attacked with a 
fever, from which he partially recovered ; 
but the disease remained in his system, 
and periodically returned, until it had 
completely destroyed his constitution, 
and all medical aid proved unavailing. 
His last hours were full of tranquility 
and humble, affectionate confidence. 
The Saviour whom he loved, ministered 



to him in the dark valley. Those who 
witnessed his triumphant departure, as 
well as those who had observed his emi- 
nently devoted life, felt assured that for 
him to be absent from the body was to 
be present with the Lord. 

His remains were interred in front of 
the church he had been instrumental in 
building. The funeral sermon was 
preached by the Rev. C. F. Heyer, from 
II Kiugs iv, 26. 

Mr. Sharretts was married Oct. 9, 
1827, to L H. Spotswood, of Carlisle, 
who survives him, with three small 
children . — Sprague. 




REV. M. SHEELEIGH, D.D. 



The family name is of German origin, I 
although now appearing in a disguised 
form, for which some earlier hand is I 
responsible. The orthography of this I 
patronymic was at first Schillich, and is 
still so written and spoken in the vicinity 
of the early settlement in America. 

Our subject's ancestry, in its several 
branches, came over the ocean between 
160 and 130 years ago. The paternal 
great great-grandfather arrived at Phila- 
delphia, 1732, in the midst of the extended 
influx of Palatine refugees. He settled 
down in that part of Philadelphia 
County which in 1784 was included in 
the formation of Montgomery County. 

Dr. Sheeleigh was born in Charlestown, 
Chester Co., Pa., ( twelve or fifteen miles 
west of the ancestral colony,) December 
29, 1821. His parents were Jesse and 
Mary Sheeleigh, and his mother's maiden 
name was Orner. With five sisters, he 
was in his ninth year left an orphan to 
his mother's care. When a little past 
seventeen years of age, he was catechised 
and confirmed by a well-known faith- 



ful pastor — Rev. Frederick Ruthrauff. 
Often on alluding to his training in the 
Catechism, he has spoken of it as both a 
blessed preparative to full membership 
in the church and es^en subsequent 
theological study. 

A good common-school education was 
supplemented in a select school at West 
Chester. For several years, during 
intervals, he taught school in Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey. Preparation for 
the ministry was pursued at Gettysburg 
in Pennsylvania College and the Luth- 
eran Theological Seminary. 

Induction into the sacred office oc- 
curred, October 4, 1852, at Pottsville, in 
the Synod of East Pennsylvania. The 
pastorates served have been the follow- 
ing: Nalatie, N. Y., five years; Miners- 
ville. Pa., two years; Philadelphia, Pa., 
five years; Ste warts ville, N. J., five 
years; and the united congregations of 
Whitemarsh and Upper Dublin, Mont- 
gomery Co., Pa., his present charge, 
over twenty-one years. His residence 
is in the pleasant village of Fort Wash- 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



719 




EEV. M. SHEELEIGH, D. D. 



ingtoD, on the North Pennsylvanici rail- 
road, fifteen miles north of the centre of 
Philadelphia, in a region rich in scenery 
and historical interest. 

Our subject is known as an earnest 
student, and his large and varied library 
testifies to his literary habits. A good 
degree of success has attended his minis- 
try. His preaching is known to be 
characterized by close adherence to what 
is revealed, also by sharp analysis, and 
earnest presentation. The strictly pas- 
toral work he has ever held to be of great 
account, both to the people and the 
minister himself. Among his parish- 
ioners his manner is gentle and sym- 
pathizing. The degree of Divinitatis 
Doctor was conferred upon him in 1 885, 
by Newberry College, S. C. 

The church has called Dr. Sheeleigh 
to serve in various prominent and re- 
sponsible positions. He has been Presi- 



dent and Secretary of district Synods; 
three times Secretary of the General 
Synod ; a member of the Lutheran Board 
of Pubiicatiou, Philadelphia, twenty- 
eight years, in two of which years he 
was the president, twelve years corres- 
ponding secretary, and eight years a 
member of the committee to examine 
productions offered for publication; has 
been a Director of the Theological Sem- 
inary at Gettysburg twenty-six years, 
and was once the president of the Board, 
etc., etc. On five or six different occa- 
sions, prominent men strongly urged 
him to accept the presidency of as many 
of our higher educational institutions, 
but all such calh he chose to decline in 
favor of the pastoral work. 

For some time he acted as corres- 
ponding editor of church periodicals. 
Next he was elected by the Lutheran 
Board of Publication, to initiate, with 



720 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the beginning of 1860, The Lutheran Sun- 
day-School Herald, an illustrated monthly 
paper for the young, the earliest of all 
Lutheran Sunday-school papers, which 
he still edits. He has also for twenty- 
one years been editor of that old annual, 
"The Lutheran Almanac and Yfear- 
Book," which has now reached its forty- 
first year. 

Occasional sermons of his have been 
committed to print. In 1867, he issued 
fifteen original Hymns for the Seventh 
Semi-Centennial of the Great Refor- 
mation. In 1883, a book of his poems 
was published, with the title, "Luther: 
a Song-Tribute, on the Four Handreth 
Anniversary of the Reformer's Birth," 
comprising forty-five original poems, 
and nine others translated by him from 
the German, Danish, and Latin. 

As a member of the examining com- 
mittee of the Board of Publication, he 
read, corrected, and edited numerous 
books; and himself prepared twelve little 
illustrated volumes. One book, a volume 
in the "Fatherland Series," he translated 
from the German. He read six Biennial 
Reports to the Publication Society, at 
meetings of the General Synod. He 
has contributed to the Lutheran Quarterly 
Review and other periodicals. Hundre<ls 
of his miscellaneous articles, prose and 
poetry, have appeared in different publi- 
cations. 

Several literary addresses and poems^ 
delivered by request, have been printed. 
Among the poems read was one at the 
jubilee of the General Synod, at Day- 
ton, Ohio, 1871; a second, at the jubilee 
of the Theological Seminary at Gettys- 
burg, Pa., 1876; a third, at the unveil- 
ing of the Luther Statue, Washington, 
D. C, 1884; etc., etc. He addressed 
the Lutheran Historical Society, 1875, 
in Baltimore, on "The Conseryation of 
Our Church's History," in 1878, read 
a paper before the Second Lutheran 



Free Diet, held in Philadslphia, on 
"The Worth and Defects of the Sun- 
day-School System;" in 1880 he de- 
livered the Alumni address at the Theo- 
logical Seminary, Gettysburg, the sub- 
ject being, "The Bible the Minister's 
Manual;" and in 1889, he gave a lecture 
en "Poetry" before an academy at 
North Wales, Pa; etc., etc. He has 
written a thousand poems, half of which 
have been printed. Four hundred are 
sonnets, which are to appear in a book ; 
fifty are hymns, some having gone into 
hymn books, and several being set to 
music. Numbers of poems he has 
translated from about half a dozen dif- 
ferent languages. 

Of the literary productions of our 
church in America, now in the valuable 
library of the Lutheran Historical So- 
ciety, a large proportion was gathered 
by Dr. Sheeleigh, for his own use, dur- 
ing a period of forty years. A few 
years ago, on earnest solicitation, he 
transferred his fine collection to that 
central depository of our Church in 
America, located in the Theological 
Seminary edifice at Gettysburg. Hav- 
ing acquainted himself extensively with 
the interests of the Lutheran Church 
in this country, he has been much ap- 
plied to, from far and near, for particu- 
lars coming within the sphere of the 
historian and statistician. In matters 
pertaining to parliamentary usage, 
points in church government and dis- 
cipline, and kindred questions, his views 
and advice are frequently sought. 

Biographical and literary sketches 
concerning Dr. Sheeleigh have been 
given in a dozen works; prominently, 
Allibone's great Dictionary of Authors, 
Philadelphia; Appleton's Cyclopedia of 
American Biography, New York; Cata- 
logue of the Harris Collection of Amer- 
ican Poetry, Providence, R. L; Men of 
Montgomery County, Pa., Norristown; 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



721 



and Poets and Poetry of Chester County, 
Pa., Philadelphia. 

He was married, May 3, 1859, to Miss 
Sabina M. Diller, of Lebanon, Pa., who 
is also of Grerman descent, the ancestors 
coming over a century and a half ago, 
and settling at New Holland, Pa., where 



the family is related to those bearing 
the names Luther, E-ingwalt, Rowland, 
etc. A circle of five children, two sons 
and three daughters, participate in the 
daily blessings of the home, on which 
the young folks have settled the special 
name "Friedeniieim." 




REV. GOTTLIEB SHOBER. 



Rev. Gottlieb Shober, son of Andrew 
and Hetwig Regina Shober, was born in 
Bethlehem, Pa., Nov. 1, 1756. His par- 
ents were exemplary Christians in con- 
nection with the Moravian Church, who, 
with other members of their communion, 
removed to the South to a new settle- 
ment that had just been commenced by 
the Church in Bethabara. Under the 
influence of a careful Christian educa- 
tion, his mind early became impressed 
with a sense of the infinite importance 
of religion, and the desire to gain satis- 
factory evidence that he had been born 
from above. He states that on one 
occasion when he was lying in his bed 
at night, his thoughts were much occu- 
pied with his spiritual condition, and 
his probable future career. He wished 
to know what was before him, and 
whether he would finally be happy in 
the world to come. Whilst thus engaged, 
he fell asleep, and during the night had 
a remarkable dream, which left upon 
his mind a strong and enduring im- 
pression. His future life seemed to 
open clearly before him, and he saw 
how his difficulties, from without and 
within, were all to be referred to an ar- 
dent and unyielding temper. Yet he 
thought that the more distant prospect 
lookedbright and peaceful . "How often," 
says he, in referring to this dream, 
"I mie:ht have been preserved, and how 
91 



many vexations I might have escaped, if 
I had not been so headstrong and in- 
clined to follow the promptings of my 
own nature, regardless of the conse- 
quences. It is certain that he who is in 
disposition a child, who loves like a 
child, believes everything, hopes every- 
thing, and puts the best construction on 
everything, spares himself many un- 
happy hours. But I was always anxious 
to live a life devoted to the Lord, and I 
know that He often made Himself mani- 
fest to me, and afforded me extraordinary 
consolation. From this time I could 
say, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall 
want nothing.'" He united with the 
Church when he w^as in his seventeenth 
year, and partook of the Lord's Supper, 
for the first time, on Nov. 23, 1773. 
After this, however, he suffered severe 
inward conflicts, and there were times 
when he was subject to temptations that 
brought him to the borders of despair. 
He felt a strong sense of obligation to 
serve God in the best way he could; and 
as he had no prospect of entering the 
ministry, owing to his straitened 
worldly circumstances, he set himself to 
the diligent cultivation of music, that 
he might in that way at least contribute 
to the sustaining of public worship. 

For several years young Shober was 
engaged in teaching a school; but, as 
his income from this employment was 



722 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



inadequate to the support of a family, 
lie sought and obtained a place as a 
clerk in a store, and continued in it for 
three years. After this he devoted some 
time to learning a mechanical trade; 
and, at a later period still, he built a 
paper mill in the vicinity of Salem (the 
first establishment of the kind south of 
the Potomac), and also opened a book 
store, serving at the same time as post- 
master of the place. Subsequent to this 
he studied law, and was engaged for 
some years in the practice— being 
prompted to this chiefly by the desire to 
assist his Moravian brethren in the suits 
in which they were involved in respect 
to a portion of their property. He was 
also repeatedly elected to, the state legis- 
lature, and was a prominent member of 
that body. 

During all this time Mr. Schober was 
living an eminently godly life, and en- 
deavoring to make every employment in 
which he engaged subservient to the 
advancement of the cause of Christ and 
the best interests of his fellow-men. At 
length, having passed his fiftieth year, 
and lost all relish ior secular business, 
he resolved to devote what remained of 
his life to the ministry of the gospel. In 
entering upon this work at so advanced 
an age, he was only obeying an impulse 
which had followed him from his youth, 
and had strengthened with increasing 
years. Having determined to enter the 
ministry in connection with the Luth- 
eran Church, he offered himself, in due 
time, to that body and was received 
with great joy. 

In the spring of 1810 Mr. Shober, in 
company with the Rev. Mr. Stork, visit- 
ed South Carolina, and while there 
preached his first sermon. The next 
autumn, at a meeting of the Synod of 
North Carolina, he was solemnly set 
apart to the work of the ministry, and 
immediately became pastor of the church 



in Salem and several other churches in 
that neighborhood. Here he continued 
laboring with great zeal and fidelity 
until a few years before his death. As 
Providence had so far prospered him in 
his worldly affairs that his family were 
provided for, he refused all pecuniary 
compensation for his services, rejoicing , 
that it was in his power thus to testify 
his gratitude and devotion to the Saviour 
who had died for him. 

When he had reached the age of sixty 
he was prostrated by a severe and pro- 
tracted illness, which both himself and 
his friends expected would terminate 
his life. He was altogether happy in 
the prospect of dying, while yet he was 
not impatient to quit the service of his 
Master upon earth; but it pleased a 
Gracious Providence to restore his 
health and prolong his life for upwards 
ol twenty years. He continued his 
active services in connection with his 
pastoral charge until the infirmities of 
age unfitted him for any further public 
service. He had the most humble esti- 
mate of the results of his own labors, 
while yet he greatly rejoiced in the 
privilege of having been permitted to 
preach the gospel. After he retired 
from the active duties of the ministry 
no small part of his time was devoted to 
the immediate preparation for his ap- 
proaching change. Just before his last 
illness he said, with great cheerfulness, 
to one of his brethren, "When you hear 
of my death, you may be sure that I 
have gone to my Saviour." He died 
full of faith and peace, at Salem, the 
place of his residence, on June 27, 1838, 
in the eighty-second year of his age. Of 
those who commenced the building of 
that iDlace he was the last survivor. 

Mr. Shober was one ot the founders 
of the General Synod of the Lutheran 
Church, and was its President, in 1825, 
when it met at Frederick, Md., and was 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



723 



also placed upon the committees ap- 
pointed to prepare a Hymn Book for the 
Lutheran Churches and to publish the 
translation of Luther's Catechism. He 
also took deep interest in the establish- 
ment of a seminary for the training of 
young men for the ministry, and was 
appointed one of the first directors of 
the Institution by the General Synod 
of 1855, which adopted- the incipient 
measures for the formation of the Semi- 
nary at Gettysburg, Pa. In his last 
will and testament he remembered this 
school of the Prophets, and left it three 
thousand acres of land; and, though the 
land did not increase in value as the 
donor exj^ected when the bequest was 
made, yet the act was an evidence of 
his deep interest in the prosperity of 
the institution. He was much devoted 
to the Sabbath School enterprise, and 
it was chiefly through his instrumen- 
tality that an auxiliary to the American 
Sunday School Union was established 
in North Carolina. 



Mr. Shober prepared two volumes for 
the press, the one translated from the 
German of Stilling, entitled "Scenes in 
the World of Spirits," the other en- 
titled "A Comprehensive Account of the 
Else and Progress of the Christian 
Church, by Dr. Martin Luther; Inter- 
spersed with Views of his Character 
and Doctrine." The latter work was 
written by request of the Synod of 
North Carolina, and, after an ex- 
amination of the manuscript, was highly 
approved and recommended to tiie 
public. 

In the year 1782 Mr. Shober was 
married to Maria Magdalena Transu, 
with whom he lived most happily for 
more than half a century. He had 
seven children, three sons and four 
daughters; three of whom, with their 
mother, died before him. Three of the 
daughters were mnrried to clergymen. 
— Sprague. . 



111»$^— 



PEOF. OTTO A. SIEMON, Ph.D. 



Prof. Otto A. Siemon, Ph. D., was 
born May 25, 1856, at Fort Wayne, 
Indiana. He was a son of the late A. 
F. Siemon, founder of the well-known 
book firm of Siemon & Bro. With the 
eyes of his childhood and youth accus- 
tomed to books and manuscript, the 
study of their contents became, almost 
as by second nature, a ready aptitude; 
and his appearance in college halls the 
result of a tendency. 

Otto A. Siemon studied at Concordia 
College, Fort Wayne, Ind., 1867-73; 
and Concordia Theological Seminary, 
St. Louis, Mo., 1873-76. Having re- 
ceived these advantages of education in 
the Mississippi Valley, he proceeded in 



the direction of the more mature insti- 
tutions of the East. The Centennial 
year, 1876, he entered the University of 
the city of New York. He had already 
reached a spot which began to reflect 
the past more than the present, for though 
the University may be alive to the times 
in its curriculum, the bulk of material 
solidity and fashion which formerly 
surrounded its shaded square or pro- 
menaded under its - trees, has removed 
far up the avenues of Manhatten Island. 
To a western student entering this 
University of New York, a farther course 
at a European University would seem 
almost suggested by the situation as it 
were, the American antique. In 1877 



724 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Otto A. Siemon crossed the Atlantic, 
and the same year entered the University 
of Berlin. The education here received 
was not simply a superstructure on that 
for which he had laid the foundations 
in the American West and built upon io 
the American East; by the side of, and 
connected with this, it planted broader, 
deeper, more solid foundations from 
which arose more massive walls and 
higher towers. This university of the 



capital of the German Empire conferred 
on Otto A. Siemon the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy. With this distinction 
from abroad he has returned to the place 
of his nativity, gracing with his acquire- 
ments Concordia College, the scene of 
the commencement of his progressive 
learning. He his a member of the 
Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and 
other states. — W. 5. 



.#''|ly(Vi-''^^^f^<:, 




REV. W. SIHLER, Ph.D. 



Dr. Sihler was one of the founders of 
the Missouri Synod. He was born the 
12th of November, 1801, near Breslau, 
Schlesia, where his father was an officer 
in the Prussian army. In holy baptism 
he received the name Wilhelm. Hav- 
ing finished his college course before 
he was sixteen years, he entered the 
Prussian army, where, after two and a 
half years, he was promoted to the 
position of lieutenant. Later he studied 
at the military high school in Berlin, 
together with the famous General 
Moltke. But military life did not suit 
his taste, and in 1825, with the consent 



of his father, he applied for and received 
dismission from the army, when he took 
courses in philology and philosophy at 
Breslau and Berlin. Having received 
the degree of Ph. D., he received an 
appointment in 1830 as professor in the 
gymnasium (college) at Dresden, where 
his colleague was the renowned theolo- 
gian Dr. Philippi. While at Dresden 
he took up the study of theology which 
he prosecuted for a number of years 
alongside his work as teacher in the 
school. In 1837 he removed to Lifland, 
Russia where he served as tutor for 
three or four years. In 1841 Pastor 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



725 



Wyneken's appeal for men and means | 
in the American mission fell into his | 
hands, and, taking this to be a divine 
iudication as to his future field of labor, 
he was examined by Dr. Rudelbach, 
from whom he also received a written 
testimonial, and on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, 1843, he sailed for America. He 
first became acquainted with the leaders 
of the Ohio Synod, especially Prof. 
Lehmann, and upon his recommenda- 
tion he was called as pastor to a con- 
gregation in Pomeroy, Ohio. He was 
thereupon ordained and received as 
member of the Ohio Synod, accepting 
in the same year a call to Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, as successor to Pastor Wyne- ' 
ken. With the assistance of Pastor 
Lohe he founded, in 1846, the seminary 
in Fort Wayne of which he served as 
theological professor until 1861, when 
the seminary was removed to Sb. Louis, 



Mo. In 1847 he assisted in the organi- 
zation of the Missouri Synod, whose 
first vic9-pr3sident he became, Dr. 
Walther being its first president. In 
1853 he was elected president of the 
Ohio and Indiana district. In 1846 he 
married Miss Susanne Kern, daughter 
of a Grerman farmer in Ohio. Eleven 
children was the result of this union. 

This great and good man died in his 
eighty-fourth year, October 27th, 1885. 

For a more complete history, see his 
autobiography published in two volumes 
by the Concordia Publishing Co., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Dr. Sihler was a prolific writer. He 
is the author of two volumes of ser- 
mons, one on the Gospels and the other 
on the Epistles; Wider d. Gewohn- 
heitstrinken ; Gespraeche; Ueber den 
Methodismus; Sklaverei. 




REV. W. H. SINGLEY, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Johnstown, Cambria Co., Pa. His 
ancestors, on his father's side, were of 
ScotL-h Presbyterian stock: those on his 
mother's side were of the Pietistic Ger- 
man Lutheran stock. His parents were 
members of the English Lutheran 
Church in Johnstown of which his 
father was a deacon up to the fall of 1856 
when the family moved to Appanoose 
Co., la., where they still reside. From 
early childhood to the age of nineteen 
his life was that of the pioneer on the 
wide uncultivated prairies of Iowa. 
During this period his parents gave him 
every possible advantage of education 
in winter with plenty of farm work 
during other portions of the year. 

At the age of thirteen he entered a 



store as clerk in Centerville, Iowa, when 
his employer gave him the privilege of 
attending the academy during the fore- 
noons. While there he conceived the 
idea of thorough preparation for com- 
mercial life. At fifteen he entered 
Bryant & Stratton's Business College in 
Davenport, Iowa, where he graduated 
with a class of forty. There were over 
four hundred students in attendance at 
that time. After graduating he began 
teaching in the common school in the 
family neighborhood; he also taught 
writing school at night. 

His first school closed the day before 
he was seventeen. While thus engaged 
he made a public profession of religion. 
His neighbors at once urged the Chris- 
tian ministry upon him. He seriously 



726 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




KEY. W. H. SINGLEY, D.D. 



considered the subject, and finally 
yielded to the call of duty and convic- 
tion, gave up business life, and decided 
to prepare for the ministry. The church 
to which his life should be devoted must 
now be chosen. The local churches 
were kind and solicitous; they pointed 
the young man to their colleges and 
seminaries; but the wish and teachings 
of his parents could not be easily put 
away. Twelve years had gone by since 
this only Lutheran family in that re- 
gion had looked upon the face of a 
Lutheran preacher. The church was 
known in the neighborhood only to be 
divided and misrepresented. While 
this conflict was going on, between the 
solicitude of neighbors on the one 
hand, and his parents' wishes on the 
other, strange to say, Rev. A. M. Tan- 
ner, the first Lutheran preacher whom 
they had met since leaving Pennsyl- 
vania, happened that way. He very 
adroitly induced him to visit in Tipton, 
Iowa, during the pastorate of Rev. 
Daniel S. Aultman, by whom he was 
confirmed in this visit. He had been 



baptized in infancy in the Lutheran 
church »t Johnstown. He accompanied 
these brethren to the Iowa Synod con- 
vened at Lisbon, Iowa, in August, 
1868. The kindly welcome and en- 
couragement of the Synod made a most 
favorable impression upon him. He 
took Rev. Mr. Aultman's advice and 
entered Wittenberg College, Spring- 
field, Ohio, at the fall term in 1868. 

In 1878 he graduated, having com- 
pleted the entire course, and also the 
one year's course in theology which he 
pursued at favorable times during the 
last three years and in vacations. At 
this time the theological course required 
only one year. In the spring of 1873 
he represented .his literary society in a 
public debate given in the city. During 
the senior vacation he supplied the 
Lutheran pulpit at Darrtown, Ohio, and 
in the fall entered regularly the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Yale, New Haven, 
Connecticut, and in addition thereto 
heard Dr. Porter's lectures on mental 
philosophy. After the theological de- 
partment at Wittenberg was reorgan- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



727 



ized and extended, he returned and 
finished the course at his Alma Mater, 
at the same time serving as senior editor 
of the Wittenherger^ the college journal. 
He served but a short time as pastor of 
the Osborn, Ohio, charge, when he was 
called to the Lutheran church, Balle- 
fontaine, Ohio, where he still remains, 
a popular and efficient pastor and 
preacher. 

During this pastorate the member- 
ship has grown from a small and dis- 
couraged band to one of the strongest 
congregations in the city. In addition 
to increased spiritual and social in- 
fluence, it has built up a large and 
handsome property. The debt has been 
lifted from the parsonage, the building 
enlarged and decorated. A new brick 
church has been erected, 96x56, slate 
roof, tower and steeple, stained windows, 
and all the conveniences of a modern 
building. It was dedicated in 1881. 
The first pipe organ ever brought to the 
county was put up in this church in 
1883. The auditorium has recently 
been enlarged and decorated and a 
large new pipe organ built in; it is now 
one of the handsomest auditoriums in 
the state. During his pastorate the 
congregation has never been deficient in 
benevolent apportionment. 

In 1883 the degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity was conferred upon him by Wes- 
tern College, located at Toledo, Iowa, 
before whose students and faculty he 
had preached and lectured the year 
before. 

A multiplicity of labors seems to be 
most congenial to him. He joined a 
company of brethren in an effort to es- 
tablish a western church paper. On the 
fifth day of January, 1877, the Lutheran 
Evangelist, a weekly, on the basis of the 
General Synod, was started, and has 
never missed aa,issue from that day to 
this. He was elected secretary of the 



company and assistant editor. The 
paper was published in Bellefontaine, 
Ohio. In a little less than three years 
he succeeded Dr. J. H. W. Stuckenberg 
as editor, and some years afterwards be- 
came sole proprietor of the paper. For 
about thirteen years he has shared 
very largely in the struggles, labors and 
expenses, incident to the establishment 
of a church paper. In 1878 he started 
and edited a monthly Sunday-School 
paper. The Sunshine and Shadow, which 
still thrives. For six or seven years he 
has done some liceum lecture work tak- 
ing from ten to fifteen engagements a 
year. He is president of the board of 
school examiners for Logan Co., of 
which he has been a member twelve 
years. He is also clerk of the board of 
education in Bellefontaine, which he 
has served nine years. He has served 
his Synod and Alma Mater several years 
as a director of the college. He is one 
of the most popular and useful of men 
in the city and county. He belongs to 
a strong and vigorous family, and for 
so young a man has accomplished much 
good. He also ranks high in the com • 
munity as a business man. 

His family consists of a wife and two 
children. Mrs. Singley is a cultured 
lady and quite a talented artist. 

Dr. Singley preaches and delivers his 
lectures, addresses and speeches entire- 
ly without manuscript and has more 
calls on miscellaneous public occasions 
than he can fill. He has versatility of 
talent and is always ready and pleasing 
as a public speaker. His splendid elo- 
cutionary and oratorical powers never 
fail him. He is especially successful 
at church dedications and is often in- 
vited to officiate in other denominations 
than his own. He is thoroughly pro- 
gressive in his ideas of church finance. 
He is a zealous advocate of the temper- 
ance reform, and has spoken on the sub- 



728 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ject throughout the entire country. In 
company with others, he threw himself 
into a vigorous campaign a few years 
ago, at a time when there were seventy- 



seven open saloons in the county. 
Now there is but one. His position on 
this question is not that of the fanatic 
but of the sound reformer. 




EEV. J. P. SMELTZER, D. D. 



Rev. J. P. Smeltzer, D.D., was born 
ill Frederick county, Md., Sept. 10, 1819. 
He received a liberal education, and 
about the time he reached manhood was 
ordained a minister of the Lutheran 
Church. He was for several years prin- 
cipal of a well-known and popular 
educational institution at Harper's 
Ferry, Ya., and was at different times 
pastor of the churches at Shepherds- 
town, W. Ya., and Salem, Ya. In 1861, 
so great had become his reputation as 
an instructor, that he was elected presi- 
dent of Kewberry College, South Car- 
olina. He removed to South Carolina, 
and conducted the affairs of this institu- 
tion with signal ability when the college 
was located at Newberry, and after its 
removal to Walhalla u:^til 1879, when 
the college was again taken back to 
Newberry. In that year he resigned 
the presidency of the institution, and 
established at his mountain home the 
Walhalla Female College, of which he 
was the head until 1885. 

During his labors as a teacher. Dr. 
Smeltzer did not discontinue his work 
in the pulpit. Last spring, his health 
having given way under the ceaseless 
toil of many years, Dr. Smeltzer came 



to Charleston, where he spent the last 
few months of his life. Dr. Smeltzer 
was a very forcible preacher. He was 
possessed of profound powers of analysis, 
and preached with great effectiveness. 
For his theological learning the degree 
of doctor of divinity was con ferred upon 
him by Erskine College. 

He was one of the oldest as well as 
one of the ablest and most impressive 
preachers of his age. 

Soon after the death of his wife, he 
resigned his position in Walhalla Female 
Seminary, South Carolina, and having 
received a call, he took charge of the 
Springhill, S. C, charge, and this charge 
being in connection with the Evangelical 
Lutheran Tennessee Synod, he received 
an honorable discharge from the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran South Carolina Synod, 
and was received into the said Tennessee 
Synod, October, 1886. 

He died at the residence of his son, 
Mr. John B. Smeltzer, of Charleston, 
S. C, October 31, 1887; aged 68 years, 
1 month, and 21 days. His funeral 
services were conducted by Rev. Dr. 
Muller and Rev. Dr. Horn. His remains 
were conveyed to Walhalla and interred. 
— Hist, of Tennessee Synod, 




AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



729 




REA^ EDGAE F. SMITH, D.D. 



In the able Faculty which to-day 
graces Wittenberg College and gives 
strength and popularity to her as an 
institution of learning, the name of Dr. 
Edgar F. Smith, Professor of Natural 
Science, is justly conspicuous. Few 
men can anywhere be found who, while 
yet so young in years, have attained to 
such ripeness of scholarship and to srch 
acknowledged eminence in the special 
department of the physical sciences, to 
which, with the ardor of an enthusiast, 
he has consecrated his time and thought. 

Dr. Smith is the eldest son of Mr. 
Gibson Smith and Susan E. (Fahs) 
Smith, now resident in York, Pa. He 
was born in West Manchester Township, 
York Co., Pa., May 23, 1854, and is now, 
therefore, only in the thirty-third year 
of his age. 

When yet a mere boy, Edgar F. Smith 
was enrolled as a pupil in the Academy 
at York Pa., an institution which will 
soon celebrate its centenary, and which 
in these ten decades of its history has 
had upon the pages of its successive 
catalogues the names of many who in 

• 92 



their later life became illustrious either 
in church or state, and reflected high 
honor upon the school which in their 
early education had so well laid the 
foundation of their final distinction and 
success. The principal of this famous 
old Academy, at the time when Dr. 
Smith was one of its students, was Dr. 
George W. Ruby, a second Arnold of 
Rugby, a born teacher, scholarly, thor- 
ough, magnetic, a masterly disciplin- 
arian, and marvelously gifted in power 
to quicken his students into the con- 
sciousness of their own ability and into 
habits of self-reliance and self-help. 
As the writer of this sketch has often 
himself heard this eminent teacher 
attest, Edgar F. Smith was one of the 
very best students he ever had under 
him, and one of whom he always spoke 
with joyous pride; and Dr. Smith, as 
the writer also knows, gratefully ac- 
knowledges his indebtedness to this 
grand old teacher of his early years, 
and holds in highest veneration and 
love his memory. 

In the fall of the year 1872, Mr. Smith 



730 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



entered the junior class of Pennsylvania 
College at Gettysburg, when, because 
of his preference for such studies, and 
because of the presence there at that 
time of a professor of the natural sciences 
*of eminent ability, he made this branch 
of knowledge a specialty and graduated, 
two years later, as Bachelor of Science. 
His college life at Gettysburg was 
characterized by enthusiastic and intense 
devotion to study, by rapid progress in 
knowledge, and by such fine mastery of 
the prescribed course as gave clear 
promise of his future eminence and 
success. 

Immediately upon his graduation at 
Gettysburg, in 1874, he departed for 
Goettingen, Germany, where, under such 
world-renowned instructors in the phys- 
ical sciences as Huebner, Woehler, Yon 
Waltershausen, Listering, and others, 
he prosecuted his scientific studies, un- 
interruptedly and ardently, during two 
years, graduating after rigid exaaiination 
and presentation of thesis, as Ph. D., 
in 1876. His graduating thesis was. 
"Ueber Tristubstituirte Benzolverbin- 
dungen und die Einwirkung von Chlor 
auf Benzyltrichlorid^'— a thesis which 
possibly the reader may know all about, 
but of which the writer of this sketch 
frankly confesses he is as intensely 
ignorant as is a sleeping Egyptian 
mummy. But Dr. Smith knew, and the 
learned Goettingen Faculty knew, and 
hence conferred upon him t^e deserved 
degrees both of Artium Magister and of 
Philosophioe Doctor. 

Returning from Germany to his native 
land, Dr. Smith at once entered upon 
his chosen life work of scientific in- 
struction, for which he had patiently 
and thoroughly qualified himself, and 
in which he has ever since been steadily 
and successfully engaged. From 1876 
to 1881 he was assistant in Analytical 
Chemistry in the University of Penn- 



sylvania, in Philadelphia. From 1881 
to 1883 he was the Asa Packer Professor 
of Chemistry in Muhlenberg Colllege 
at Allentown, Pa. In 1883 he accepted 
the chair of Professor of Natural Science 
in Wittenberg College, a position which 
he now fills with eminent credit to him- 
self, and with such marked advantage 
and honor to the institution that every 
friend of it may well wish that his 
connection with it. should continue 
during all his life. In each of the 
positions which Dr. Smith has thus 
filled, he has, as an instructor or profes- 
sor, been recognized by his colleagues 
and by the students under him as a man 
of rare gifts and attainments, and as a 
teacher fully qualified for his work. 
His wide range of scientific knowledge, 
the thoroughness of his researches, the 
originality of his investigations, his 
flaming enthusiasm and love for the 
goddess "star-eyed Science," his patient 
personal interest in his pupils, his 
aptness to teach and magnetic ability 
to quicken into activity the latent powers 
of all who sit under his instructions, 
together with a native modesty and 
beautifal unconsciousness of his superior 
talent and power, render him, all in all, 
one of the very highest or first rank of 
teachers. Besides, Dr. Smith is a 
Christian scientist, finding God every- 
where in iSTature as he finds Him in 
Bevelation, knowing of no conflict 
between Science and the Bible, but 
regarding both as the tablets upon which 
the one divine Author has written, in 
entire harmony with each other, His 
two great records of truth, and hence 
he is eminently worthy of a place in the 
Faculty of an institution so positively 
and avowedly Christian as is Wittenberg 
College. 

In addition to the degrees of Bachelor 
of Science and Doctor of Philosophy, 1 
conferred respectively by Gettysburg j 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



731 



and Goettingen, Dr. Smith has been 
honored with fellowships in various 
scientific associations and academies of 
learning both in xlm erica and Europe, 
thus receiving the highest possible 
recognition of his scholarship and abil- 
ity. He was elected a member of the Phil- 
adelphia Academy of N^atural Sciences 
in 1877; member of the French Chemical 
Society, Paris, in 1879; member of the 
Academy of Science at Berlin; honorary 
member of Society of Chemistry and 
Natural Hifetory of Lehigh University, 
in 1882; member of American Associa- 
tion for Advancement of Science, in 
1884 ; fellow of English Chemical Society, 
London, in 1886; member of Society of 
Chemical Industry, England, in 1887; 
etc., etc. These are certainly high 
honors, but deserved as they are high, 
and they indicate the conspicuous place 
which Dr. Smith has already secured 
for himself in the ranks of the savants 
of the scientific world. 

It is seldom that one still so young- 
has, upon matters of science, written so 
much, and at the same time has written 
so accurately and well, as has Dr. Smith. 
The best testimonial to the value of his 
recent work, "Yon Richter's Inorganic 
Chemistry," which could possibly be 
given is the adoption and use of the 
work as a text-book in institutions of 
such high order as Dartmouth, Yale, 
Cornell, Johns Hopkins LTniversity, 
University of Pennsylvania, University 
"of Michigan, Ohio Uuiversity, University 
of California, and many others, 

AYe append the following list of Dr. 
Smith's successive publications : Analysis 
of a Calculus found in a Deer; Detection 
of Iron by means of Salicylic Acid; 
Products Obtained by the Nitration of 
Metachlor Salicylic Acid; On a New 
Base; New Results in Electrolysis; The 
Electrolytic Method Applied to Cad- 
mium; Synthesis of Salicylic Acid; 



Scheme for the Detection of Organic 
and Inorganic Acids; Classen's Quanti- 
tative Analysis; L^eber Trisubstituirte 
Benzolverbindungen und die Einwirk- 
uug von Chlor auf Benzyltrichlorid. 
Inaugural Dissertation at Goettingen, 
August 14, 1876. Upon some New 
Chlorine Derivatives of Toluene. Upon 
Dichlorsalicylic Acid; A New Method 
for the Decomposition of Chromic Iron; 
Precipitation of Copper by Sodium 
Carbonate ; Determination of Phosphorus 
in Cast Iron; Upon a New Monochlord- 
iuitrophenol and Alpha-Monochlordin- 
itrophenol Aniline; Beryllium Borate; 
Uber eine neue Dichlorsalicylsseare und 
einige Derivaten der bei 172 degrees, 
C, schmelzenden Metachlorsalicylsseure; 
On the Electrolytic Estimation of Cad- 
mium; edited with Dr. Marshall Chem- 
ical Analysis of Urine; Corundum and 
Wave lite. Determination of Boracic 
Acid; Electrolysis of Bismuth Solutions; 
Minerals from Lehigh County, Pa ; 
Minerals from Berks County, Pa., w th 
Dr. Schoenfeld and Prof. D. B. Brunner. 

Since at Wittenberg he has published 
the following: 

Mineralogical Notes; Electrolysis of 
Molybdenum Solutions, with Prof. W. 
S. Hoskinson; Substitution Products 
from Salicylic Acid, with E. B. Knerr; 
Electrolytic Determinations and Separa- 
tions, with E. B. Knerr; edited a 
Scheme for Qualitative Analysis, trans- 
lated, edited and published Yon Richter's 
Inorganic Chemistry; Translated and 
edited Yon Richter's Organic Chemistry. 

His various papers appeared in pro- 
ceedings of American Philosophical 
Society, American Chemical Journal,, 
Berichte der Deutschen Chem. Gesell 
schaft. Bulletin de la Societe Chimique 
de Paris, etc., 

AYe close this short sketch of Dr. 
Smith by adding that, as a man, in his 
personal character and social relations, 



732 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



he is no less worthy of esteem than he 
is worthy of admiration for the splendor 
of his mental gifts and attainments. A 
man of warm, kindly heart, transparent 
and open in his nature as the day, un- 
suspicions and charitable in his judg- 
ment of others, true in his loves and 
friendships as is the needle of the pole, 
governed in all things by a high sense 
of honor and supreme loyalty to con- 



science, with loving interest in all and 
kind regards for all, he merits, as he 
also receives, the profound respect and 
cordial affection of multitudes whose 
pleasure it is to know him. May his 
health and life long be spared, and his 
coming years be crowned with ever in- 
creasing honors and usefulness. — Hist. 
Witt. College. 




REV. PETER N. SOMMER. 



Rev. Peter Nicholas Sommer was born 
in Hamburg, Germany, Jan. 9, 1709. 
Of his early life nothing is now known 
beyond the fact that he had the benefit 
of a decidedly religious training, and 
had his attention early directed to 
the Christian ministry. He received a 
thorough education, both classical and 
professional; and, on the completion of 
his course, was licensed as a theological 
candidate, to be ordained as soon as he 
was ready to assume the charge of a 
congregation. He was yet a resident of 
his native place, awaiting the indica- 
tions of Providence in respect to a field 
of labor, when an opportunity of useful- 
ness was presented to him on this side 
the Atlantic. 

A detachment of the colony of Ger- 
mans, sent over to this country from the 
Palatinate in 1710, under the protection 
of Queen Anne, settled in the valley of 
Schoharie in 1712; and, as most of them 
had been educated in the Lutheran 
faith, their early associations and habits 
still clung to them. Though they were 
for some time without the services of a 
minister of the gospel, they were accus- 
tomed to assemble for purposes of re- 
ligious improvement in private houses, 
and they were also occasionally visited j 



by the Rev. Mr. Berkenmeyer, of Loon- 
en burgh (now Athens), who preached to 
them and administered the sacraments. 
In 1714 this little company was or- 
ganized as a church, but they seem to 
have remained for many years without 
a regular pastor. An effort to obtain 
one was at length made, through the 
Lutheran Consistorium in London, and 
it resulted in a call to the Rev. Mr. 
Sommer. He accepted the call, and on 
Oct. 24, 1742, left his native land, and, 
after some detention in London, em- 
barked for New York, where he arrived 
April 21, 1743. After remaining here a 
few days, he proceeded to Albany, and 
thence, on May 25, to Schoharie, to en- 
ter upon his labors. The congregation 
whom he had come to serve, gave him a 
most hearty welcome, and, on the 23d of 
July, he administered the Lord's Sup- 
per to one hundred communicants. In 
this field of usefulness he continued for 
nearly half a century, eminently devote i 
to the spiritual interests of his flock, and 
greatly honored and revered by all who 
came within the range of his influence. 
His stated field of labor was very exten- 
sive, but, in addition to that, he acted 
as an itinerant minister for the whole 
surrounding country, gathering into 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



733 



congregations the scattered members of 
tlie chnrch, and preaching and admiois- 
teridg the Sacraments at stated periods 
ill d-^'s^itute Lutheran settlements. In 
the various places in which he labored 
he left an impression highly favorable 
in respect to both his ability and fidelity. 
It was no light matter to travel thirty, 
forty, and even fifty miles, through a 
new country, with scarcely a public road 
or any accommodations for travelers, 
and withal exposed to the attacks of In- 
dians and wild beasts, — as he often did 
in the performance of his missionary 
work. But he halted at no difficulties, 
shrank from no dangers that he found 
in the path of duty. He lived during 
the period of the French war and the 
War of the Revolution, and cheerfully 
shared with his people the manifold 
trials and deprivations to which they 
were subjected. Many of them fell vic- 
tims to the tomahawk and seal pi ug- 
knife of a savage foe, but the church 
was still preserved under the labors of 
this devoted minister. 

In the year 1746 a company of volun- 
teers, members of his church at Scho- 
harie, previous to their departure to join 
an expedition against Canada, assembled 
in the house of God, where Mr. Som- 
mers addressed them in reference to 
their peculiar circumstances, and then 
administered to them the Lord's Supper. 
They went to war in reliance on the 
strength of the Lord of Hosts. Whilst 
the battle of Darbach was in progress, 
he was within five miles of the scene of 
action, and within sound of the firing, 
engaged in holding Divine service in a 
private house. All who assembled with 
him expected to be captured by the 
enemy, or massacred by the Indians. 
But he endeavored to inspire them with 
courage, and, with a view to this, read 
to them the ninety- first Psalm. He 
fully sympathized in our Revolutionary 



struggle, and heartily rejoiced in its 
glorious issue. Notwithstanding the 
hostile attitude often taken by the In- 
dians, he was deeply interested for their 
spiritual welfare, and was instrumental, 
by his faithful labors, of bringing not a 
small number of them under the regen- 
erating influences of Christianity. 

In the year 1768 Mr. Sommer was 
called to experience a sore affliction, in 
being suddenly smitten with blindness. 
For many years he was not permitted to 
behold the light of the sun, or to look 
upon the countenances of his own fam- 
ily, or of the members of his congregation. 
Still, however, he continued in the 
faithful discharge of his ofiicial duties, 
being conducted to the pulpit by one of 
his sons or the chorister of the church, 
who gave out the hymns and read the 
lessons from Scripture, while he preached 
the gospel and conducted the devotional 
service. After this afiiiction had con- 
tinued about twenty years, and his 
ministry had almost come to a close, his 
vision was suddenly restored to him. 
He awoke, on a beautiful Sabbath morn- 
ing, and, to his great amazement and 
delight, found that the darkness in 
which he had been enshrouded so long 
had passed away. The first object that 
greeted his eye was his church, endeared 
to him by many hallowed associations; 
and he speedily repaired thither, and, 
on bended knees, offered up devout 
thanksgivings to God for having gra- 
ciously interposed to deliver him from 
so great a calamity. 

In 1788, much to the regret of his 
congregations, whom he had served 
forty-nine years, Mr. Sommer, almost an 
octogenarian, and bowed under bodily 
infirmity, retired from the active duties 
of his ministry, and removed to Sharon, 
Schoharie Co., to spend his last years 
with his children and children's children. 
Here he remained till his death, which 



734 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



took place, amidst the calm triumphs of 
faith, on Oct. 27, 1795, in the eighty- 
seventh year of his age. His remains 
were interred on his farm, whence, after 
sixty-five years, they were removed to 
the cemetery at Schoharie, where the 
old church once stood, and in which he 
had, for so long a period, faithfully dis- 
charged the office of an Ambassador of 
God. Appropriate services were held 
on the occasion, conducted partly by the 
Rev. Dr. Lintner, who had been pastor 
of the church for thirty years, and partly 
by the present pastor, the Rev. Edmund 
Belfour, — the latter delivering: a dis- 



course from the words, "The Memory of 
the Just is Blessed." 

Mr. Sommer was married on May 10, 
1744, to Maria, daughter of Jonathan 
Kaiser, of Stone Arabia. They had 
several children, who settled in Sharon, 
and whose descendants still live in that 
region, exhibiting a character worthy of 
their revered ancestry. 

Mr. Sommers held a high rank in Jiis 
denomination as an able, earnest, labo- 
rious and successful minister. His 
memory is still fragrant throughout the 
region in which he lived. — Sprague, 




REY. PROF. A. SPAETH, D.D. 



The land of Brentz and Jacob An- 
dreae has been represented in our semi- 
nary from its very inception in the 
person of the eminent professor of 
Hebrew. The incumbent of the chair 
of New Testament Exegesis, the Rev. 
Dr. Adolph Spaeth, is also a native of 
the kingdom of Wuertemberg, having 
been born in the town of Esslingen, on 
the 29th of October, 1839. A very 
thorough course of classical training- 
prepared him for the study of theology 
at the University of Tuebingen, where 
he was graduated in 1861. His first 
experience in the active ministry, to 
which he was ordained in October, 1861, 



was had in the position of a Yicar, to 
which he was appointed on the death of 
a pastor, whose family shared in the 
benefits of this arrangement, being 
thus enabled to remain in their old 
homes and retain a portion of their 
former income. Previous to his de- 
parture for America, Dr. Spaeth spent 
some time in Scotland engaged in teach- 
ing. The Marquis of Lome, so well 
known to Americans a few years ago as 
the G overnor-General of Canada, was 
his pupil. This sojourn also led to his 
marriage to a daughter of Dr. Duncan, 
of Edinburg. In the year 1863 a call 
was extended him by the congregations 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



735 



of Zion's and St. Michael's of Philadel- 
phia, to aid Dr. Mann in his arduous 
Tabors. When St. John's GerniaiTtitlT 
theran church was established as an 
outgrowth of Zion's, Dr. Spaeth took 
charge of the new enterprise, and has 
held the pastorate ever since. It is 
universally acknowledged that by rea- 
son of his power of thought and his 
mastery of the German language, as 
well as his eloquence, no man in the 
German pulpit of this country is his 
superior. Another sphere of activity, 
implying much additional labor and 
great responsibility, cognate in its 
nature and yet although distinct from 
his pulpit work, was opened up when 
the New York Ministerium offered to 
endow a chair in the Seminary, whose 
history is just at present attracting the 
cordial attention of her sons and friends. 
Dr. Spaeth assumed the duties of his 
new position in the year 1873, and has 
been constant in his attention to the 
demands made upon him as professor 
of New Testament Exegesis and Cate- 
chetics. The proper discharge of all 
the duties gf his double calling, as pas- 
tor of a large congregation, with all its 
labors in and out of the pulpit, and of 
professor in important departments of 
the Seminary, would seem to be all that 
should be required of one individual. 
But, like so many of our ministers who 
are able and willing to work, as there 
seems to be hardly any limit to the 
work expected by the Church, one 
burden after another has been laid up jn 
Dr. Spaeth's shoulders. In the year 
1880 he was elected to the presidency 
of the General Council of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church in North 
America, and continued to hold this 
distinguished place until the meeting 
in Minneapolis in the year 1888. But 
one of his predecessors in the chair of 
the General Council served for a i^rreat- 



er number of years, the Rev. Dr. 
Charles P. Krauth,' himself so closely 
identified with the seminary from the 
day of its foundation until the day of 
his departure from earth. In the year 
1887 Dr. Spaeth was deputed by the 
General Council as delegate to the 
General Conference of the Lutheran 
Church of Germany, which met in the 
city of Hamburg, and where Dr. Spaeth 
was accorded an opportunity to present 
the status of the Lutheran Church of 
America, in the presence of the most 
distinguished Lutheran theologians of 
the fatherland. From time to time the 
General Council has charged Dr. Spaeth 
with important interests. In connec- 
tion with others he has served on the 
committee having charge of the great 
work of Foreign Missions. He has 
been esi)ecially active in the liturgical 
and hymnological work of the Council, 
associated with the late Dr. B. M. 
Schmucker, whose untiring zeal in these 
departments is yet fresh in our memory, 
and who was also identified with the 
work of the Seminary from its begin- 
ning until his sudden removal from our 
midst. 

Dr. Spaeth has shown a special in- 
terest in woman's work in the church. 
He has visited the institutions devoted 
to these labors of mercy in Germany, 
where this activity in its evangelical 
spirit originated, and he may well be 
termed the father of the movement in 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
this country. His pen and his voice 
have ever been ready to promote a 
cause, which promises to be productive 
of so much good in stirring up the 
church to the active exercise of charity 
in the alleviation of suffering. The 
address on Phoebe, the Deaconess, pub- 
lished in German and English, 1885, 
sounded the keynote of a movement to 
which a layman, worthy of all honor 



736 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



for his kind liberality, Mr, John D. 
Lankenau, has consecrated thousands 
of dollars, in the erection of a monu- 
ment that will, for years to come, re- 
mind the church and the world of the 
power that dwells in Christian love. As 
a writer, Dr. Spaeth has been untiringly 
active. Since the death of that inde- 
fatigable worker, the Rev. S. K. Brobst, 
another member of the noble band of 
brethren, who labored and prayed for 
the welfare of our Seminary, he has 
been in editorial charge of the Jugend 
Freund. With rare exceptions every 
weekly issue of the Her old und Zeit- 
sehrift brings an article from him, rich 
in comments on the Gospels of the 
Church year. The Lutheran Church Re- 
view, of whose editorial corps he is a 
member, contains quite a number of 
articles from his pen. 

Dr. Spaeth's fondness of hymnology, 
and his admiration for the great Re- 
former of his Church, shows itself in 
his "Luthei im Lied seiner Zeitgenos- 
sen," published in 1883; address before 
the General Council, 1888; Heimath 
Grusse; Lieder Lust; Hausgottesdienst; 
Having and not Having; in Memoriam 
of A H. Schnabel; Brosamen; Luther 
in Liedern; Antrittsrede ; Phoebs: Fun- 
eral of C. S. Schaeffer, D. D.; St Paulus; 
Der Ruf Zum Grossen Abendmahl; 



The General Council; Luther der Got- 
tes-Held; Amer. Beleuchtung; Luth- 
er our Ensample; Theses on Gales- 
burg Declaration; Sermon on Trinity 
Sunday; Address at Brooklyn; Luther's 
Mnety-five Theses; Program of Luther 
Jubilee; Jugenfreund Lieder; Litur- 
gische Andachten; Predigt ueber Math. 
9; Abraham Lincoln; Gutachten ueber 
Gnadenwahl; Faith and Life; Die Ersten 
im Weinberge; Reply to Dr. Valentine; 
Gedaechtniss-feier William IV; The 
Nation and the Gospel ; Christtag An- 
dacht; Das Konigliche Hochzeitsmahl; 
Von d. Seele bis auf Fleisch; Reforma- 
tion und Reformirung. 

Dr. Spaeth has also gathered con- 
siderable material for a biographical 
memorial of his father-in-law. Dr. 
Krauth, to be entitled: The Life, Cor- 
respondence and Works of Charles P. 
Krauth. The University of Pennsyl- 
vania, in the year 1875, formally recog- 
nized his abilities by conferring upon 
him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
Dr. Spaeth is still in the prime of life, 
and celebrates his own semi-centenial, 
almost simultaneously with the quarter- 
centenial of the theological school to 
which he has devoted so much of his 
time and his strength. May he live to 
witness the semi-centenial celebration 
of our Alma Mater. — Indicator. 




REV. DAVID SPARKS. 



Rev. David Sparks died in Christ and 
in peace, February 14, 1881, at his resi- 
dence near Del Roy, Carroll county, O., 
in the sixty-third year of his age. 

He was born in Tuscarawas Co., O., 
February 22, 1818, and was confirmed 
in the Lutheran Church while in his 
youth, and was early impressed with the 



duty of devoting himself to the work of 
the gospel ministry. Although "weak 
in body," — suffering from a spinal atfec- 
tion — and being greatly "bowed down," 
he zealously applied himself to the work 
of preparation, and in the year 1843 he 
was permitted to enter the Lutheran 
ministry, having been ordained by the 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



737 



English Synod of Ohio. In this minis- 
try he labored for a period of thirty- 
seven years, devoting himself with all 
his powers to its duties. During this 
time he served different congregations 
in Jefferson, Harrison, Adams, Tuscara- 
was, Coshocton and Carroll counties, 
Ohio. At the time of his death he was 
pastor of Emanuel's and the church at 
New Cumberland, Carroll Co. In the 
latter church he preached his last ser- 
mon Jan. 23, 1881. On returning from 
this service he contracted a cold which 
terminated in his death. 

In the year 1846 he was married to 
Miss Nancy Redman. Their union was j 
blessed with* nine childreu — seven sons 
and two daughters -all of whom, with a 
single exception, yet survive. At the 
time of his death Bro. Sparks was a 
member of the Pittsburg Synod, with 
which body he had connected himself in 
1872, on the dissolution of the English 
Synod of Ohio. Although, because of 
physical infirmities, he was able to at- 
tend but few conventions of the Synod, 
lie was deeply interested in her welfare 
and always did his full share in sup- 
porting all her enterprises. He was 
thoroughly indoctrinated in the faith of 



the Church, and had clear views of her 
teaching on all doctrinal subjects. He 
stood up as a strong wall ao^ainst fanati- 
cism and radicalism, and put forth his 
best efforts to develop the pure faith of 
the Church in the lives of her members. 
He had unbounded confidence in the 
scriptural means used by the Lutheran 
Church in bringing men to the knowl- 
edge of the truth. On his death-bed he 
expressed great sorrow of heart that 
catechization was not more popular and 
that family instruction was so sadly 
neglected. 

He had an insatiable thirst for knowl- 
edge, as his large and well selected 
library of standard works will attest. 
Although not called to labor among our 
large and influential congregations, he 
performed no less important work; for 
among the congregations in which he 
labored are to be found those who have 
reason to thank God for his faithful in- 
structions and firm adherence to the 
doctrines of the divine word. The 
workman is dead, but his work lives and 
is exerting its influence in the hearts 
and in the lives of those who sat under 
his faithful preaching. — D. M. K. 




REV. GEORGE F. SPIEKER, D D. 



Rev. George Frederick Spieker, D. D., 
was bom in Elk Ridge Landing, Howard 
Co., Md., Nov. 17, 1844 He was gradu- 
ated at Baltimore City College in 1863, 
and studied in Gettysburg Theological 
Seminary and in the Lutheran Semi- 
nary in Philadelphia, where he was 
graduated in 1867. In the same year 
he was ordained to the ministry by the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. in 1887 from 
93 



Roanoke College, Salem, Va. In 1864 
he took charge of the German depart- 
ment in Pennsylvania College, which 
post he occupied until 1866. 

Immediately after his graduation from 
the seminary at Philadelphia he was 
called to the pastorate of the Lutheran 
congregation at Kutztown, Pa. At the 
same time he became Professor of Ger- 
man in the Keystone State Normal 
School at Kutztown, which position he 



71^8 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




BEV. GEOEGE F. SPIEKEE, D. D. 



held for one year, and then resigned in 
order to devote his whole time to the 
ministry. His pastoral charge was en- 
larged by the addition of the Moselem 
and Pricetown congregations. In 1876 
when it was decided to build a new 
union church at Kutztown, he withdrew 
and, with a number of the members of 
the old church, established the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran congregation of the 
Holy Trinity. From this field he was 
called in 1883 to the pastorate of St. 
Michael's Lutheran congregation at 
Allentown, Pa., which now numberc* 
more than 900 members. He has been 
Professor of Hebrew in Muhlenberg 
College, Allentown, since 1887; Presi- 
dent of its Board of Trustees since 1886, 
and examiner in doctrinal theology of 
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania since 
1882. 

He is a constant contributor to peri- 



odicals, together with Rev. Dr. Repass 
furnishing most of the editorials of the 
Church Messenger. He was associated 
with Drs. Jacobs and Weidner in the 
publication of the Lutheran Church Rtview, 
Philadelphia, from 1883 to 1885, for 
which he has furnished several articles, 
and very many reviews of books. He 
has published "Questions and Answers 
I on Luther's Small Catechism," in Ger- 
1 man, and is now preparing an English 
version; "Hutter's Compend of Luth- 
; eran Theology," translated with Dr. 
Henry E. Jacobs; "Wildenhahn's Martin 
Luther," translated from the German; 
also a tract in German on "The Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church," besides a 
"Sermon on Conversion," in English 
and German. 

He has preached continuously in both 
the German and English languages, and 
believes that the best way to meet the 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



739 



demands of our Lutheran churcli in its 
transition period, is to train men in our 
own institutions who are able to minis- 
ter in the mother-tongue, be it German, 
Swedish, Norwegian, or any other used 
among us, and in English as well — the 
Lutheran Church has a special call to 
encourage the study of language. He 
has always preached without using a 
manuscript. His parents, Hermann 
Henry and Margaret Elizabeth Spieker, 
both natives of Hanover, Germany, were 
earnest members of Holy Trinity Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church of Baltimore, 
and he was confirmed by the late Kev. 
John Weinmann, a devout and faithful 
laborer in the vineyard, whose life was 
ended at sea in the burning of the 
steamer Austria, some thirty years ago. 



His youngest brother, Edward H. 
Spieker, Ph.D., has for a number of 
years been connected with the John 
Hopkin's L^niversity at Baltimore, and 
is an Associate Professor of the Greek 
Language in that institution. 

The subject of this sketch was married 
Oct. 12, 1869, to Hannah Hoch, of 
Maxatawny, Berks Co., Pa. 

Rev. Spieker is now and has been 
since his ordination at Lebanon, in 1867, 
a member of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania. He at 
one time intended to read medicine, but 
the Lord turned his thoughts from the 
study of the bodily interests of man to 
the study of their spiritual needs and 
the blessings of the gospel of grace. 



REV. CHRISTIAN SPIELMANN. 



Rev. Christian Spielmann, one of the 
last living links uniting the present 
with the beginning of the Joint Synod 
of Ohio, was born in Sherzheim, Grand 
Duchey of Baden, Germany, April 12th, 
1810. At the age of twenty-one he came 
to America. The following year he en- 
tered the Evangelical Lutheran Semi- 
nary, Columbus, Ohio, and, after a two 
and a half year's theological training 
under Prof. Wm. Schmidt, he, in ac- 
cordance with his life-long desire, en- 
tered the ministry of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church, April 1835. 

He labored with zeal and not a little 
of the divine blessing in the pastoral 
oflSce, and with equal success when 
called to serve the church in positions 
of wider influence and greater prom- 
inence. 

August, 1839, he was chosen finan- 
cial agent of the Theological Seminary 
at Columbus, serving in this capacity 



until April, 1811. He secured subscrip- 
tions to the amount of thirty thousand 
dollars, and meeting with the members 
of the scattered congregations enlisted 
their increased interest and co-opera- 
tion in the work of the church. No 
doubt his success and the widely ex- 
tended influence he exerted in after 
years was greatly aided by the exten- 
sive intercourse he thus had with min- 
isters and congregations within and be- 
yond the bonds of his own Synod; how- 
ever, the severe exposures and the con- 
stant mental and physical strain to 
which he was subject d during this 
agency, had much to do in laying the 
foundation for his extreme nervous 
prostration and general ill health in 
after years. 

In 1843 he was one of two delegates 
sent by his Synod to the Ministerium of 
Pennsylvania to secure a union of the 
two Synods for the mutual support of 



740 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. CHEISTIAN SPIELMANN. 



the educational institutions at Colum- 
bus, and the Lutheran Standard and 
Lutherische Kirehenzeitung^ the official 
papers of the respective synods. This 
plan, promising so much for the good 
of the church, and which had been so 
earnestly hoped for, was favorably re- 
ceived by the Pennsylvania Synod, but 
finally failed of its realization, because 
of unexpected difficulties and misunder- 
standings. At this juncture he was 
called by the Pennsylvania Synod as 
editor of the Lutherische Kirehenzeitung, 
and at the same time by the Ohio Synod 
as editor of the Lutheran Standard. Both 
these calls he felt constrained to decline. 
However, being urged again in 1845 to 
take charge of the Standard, he was 



connected with this paper as editor, 
associate editor and business manager 
for twelve years. 

He was called to the Presidency of 
Capital University in 1854, when com- 
plicated difficulties had arisen causing 
a rupture in the faculty, and the with- 
drawal of some members of Synod to- 
gether with financial embarrassment 
that threatened the very life of the in- 
stitution. His already enfeebled condi- 
tion and the serious responsibilities of 
the office in the existing discourage- 
ments and embarrassments, led him to 
decline the call. Again it was urged 
upon him, and yielding to the solicita- 
tion of his friends, he accepted it, serv- 
ing until 1857, when he was compelled 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



74] 



to seek retirement and rest. His ex- 
ecutive and financial abilities, united 
with untiring zeal for the Lutheran 
Church, bore rich fruit for the Uni- 
versity and did much in again prepar- 
ing the way for that degree of pros- 
perity and material advancement now 
enjoyed by it. In this work he was 
ably assisted by his very dear friend 
and colleague, Prof. W. F. Lehmann, 
who became his successor in the presi- 
dential ofiice. 

He was afterwards pastor of St. 
Peter's Lutheran congregation, Lancas- 
ter, Ohio, from 1860 to 1864. 

Perhaps no other member of his Sy- 
nod enjoyed such an extensive acquain- 
tance with, and was as universally es- 
teemed by the earlier ministers, or was 
so conversant with the internal condi- 
tion and wants of the church. He was 
also prominently identified with every 



important movement which concerned 
the interest and prosperity of the Ohio 
Synod, and her Institutions and was 
largely instrumental in grounding and 
moulding her in her confessional faith 
and practice. Even in his later and 
advanced years, his zeal and interest 
in the work and the welfare of Zion is 
manifested by communications for the 
church papers, and his valuable out- 
line of the origin and the early history 
of the Joint Synod of Ohio, etc. (1805- 
1846). 

Now, staff in hand, he stands at the 
eighty-first milestone of his earthly 
pilgrimage, blessing God, as he beholds 
how the little Luther band of his early 
ministry has grown to a mighty host, a 
million strong, still bearing aloft the 
martyr-sealed and victorious banner of 
the Reformation. 




REY. G. W. SPIGGLE. 



Rev. G. W. Spiggle was born near 
Salem, Roanoke Co , Ya., Dec. 4, 1855. 
In September, 1874, he entered Roanoke 
College, where he spent four years. One 
year was spent at East Tennessee Wes- 
leyan University. In September, 1879, 
he entered the theological seminary of 
the Southern General Synod and grad- 
uated June 9, 1881. His ordination 
took place at the hands of the Southwest 
Yirginia Synod in August, 1881. His 
first regular pastoral work was in the 
Craig Mission, Craig Co., Ya. This he 
served for fifteen months. The Giles 
charge being vacant he was called there, 
and entered upon his work in December, 
1882. Here he labored hard but suc- 
cessfully for twenty-seven months. 
Showing energy and push in his work 



the Board of Missions of the General 
Synod ( North ) called him as missionary 
to West Point, Neb. This work he be- 
gan April 1, 1885. When he took 
charge the mission had neither church 
building nor Sunday school. Aiter a 
few months of hard labor the corner- 
stone of a new church was laid; and in 
August of the same year a neat frame 
church was dedicated. A Sunday school 
was immediately organized and the work 
went on encouragingly. But the pastor's 
wife was not physically able to endure 
the rigorous changeable climate. Her 
physician advised a return to Yirginia. 
Just at this juncture the old historical 
Mt. Tabor congregation in Augusta Co., 
Ya., extended him a call to become its 
pastor. This call was accepted, and he 



742 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



entered upon the work in October, 1885. 
This congregation had been pastorless 
for some time and was in a demoralized 
condition. The membership had fallen 
off till only some 125 could be counted 
as communicants. 

A correspondent of the Lutheran Visitor 
of Nov. 30, 1890, says of Eev. G. W. 
Spiggle and his work: '"The Mt. Tabor 
congregation has, under Bro. Spiggle's 
judicious leadership, become the largest 
congregation, numerically, in the Vir- 
ginia Synod. . . When Bro. Spiggle 
entered upon his work here some five 
years ago, he found a membership of 
only 124, if I mistake not, and now there 
are 333 communicant members; having 
added 209. 



And now how did he do it? It is 
important for us all to inquire. He is a 
worker we are told by his people, and 
results prove as much. 

He preaches the Word earnestly and 
faithfully. He holds special services 
each year, the chief object of which is to 
have those who are unsaved brought to 
realize that they are lost already and 
under the condemnation of the law, and 
then they fly for refuge to the dear hope 
set before them in the gospel, and are 
added to the number of those who are 
saved. 

May God raise up many more who 
shall be as earnest and as successful." 



EEV. SAMUEL SPRECHEK, D.D., LL.D. 



It is not permitted one to speak with 
the same unreserve of those still with us 
as Dr. Sprecher, as of those that have 
departed. The important interests in- 
volved and the relationships in which 
the occupant of a position like the presi- 
dency of a college in a critical time, 
stood and acted, can hardly be rightly 
apprehended and fully discussed till 
after some years have elapsed, and when 
the occupant himself has passed from 
the scene. It will be much easier to | 
him who shall survive the subject of 
this sketch and who shall be equal to 
the undertaking, to write of him then 
not only in fit phrase, but in unre- 
strained fullness of apprehension, and 
in full as well as just, measure of award. 
It is competent at present only to touch 
a few keys and to leave it to him who 
shall come after to compass the whole 
range of the notes and bring out all the 
chords. The necessary brevity of these 
sketches also precludes the present 



naming of others who bore a brave part 
in the early days of establishing this in- 
stitution. But their work will not be 
forgotten. 

Samuel Sprecher was born Dec. 28, 
1810. near Williamsport, Washington 
Co., Md. He was educated at Gettys- 
burg, at the same college and seminary 
with Keller. He left the seminary in 
1836, and in June of that year became 
pastor of the English Lutheran church 
at Harrisburg. There he remained till 
1839 when ill-health compelled him to 
give up his charge. Afterward he was 
principal of the Emmaus Institute at 
Middletown, Pa., but resumed the active 
ministry in 1842, at Martinsburg, Ya. 
Thence he was called and removed to 
Chambersburg, Pa., in 1843, where he 
remained till he accepted the call to 
Wittenberg College. He came to 
Springfield in 1849. He continued at 
the head of the institutic n till 1874, 
when his request, which had been made 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



743 




EEY. SAMUEL SPRECHER, D. D., LL, D. 



several times before, to be relieved of 
the presidency, was at length granted 
He then remained Professor of Sj^stera- 
atic Theology till 18^4, when his 
resignation of that chair also was reluct- 
antly accepted. He was then made 
Professor Emeritus of Systematic Di- 
vinity, which relationship to the 
institution he now holds. In the autumn 
of 1885 he went to California, and re- 
mained on the Pacific coast through the 
winter and altogether about ten months, 
to the very great improvement of his 
health, not only while there, but meas- 
urably so since his return. He had 
intended remaining several months 
longer, but when the announcement 
reached him that the new college build- 
ing was completed and that it would be 
dedicated at the approaching commence- 
ment, the desire to be present at that 
important epoch in the history of the 
school with which he had been identified 
the greatest part of his life, was too 



strong to allow him to remain away. He 
arrived in time and bore an appropriate 
part in the event of the day. He is now 
at home and apparently in the enjoy- 
ment of firmer health than several 
years ago. 

Mr. Sprecher was called to the presi- 
dency of Wittenberg College after the 
death of Dr. Keller, because that was 
the obviously right thing to be done. 
Several things clearly indicated him as 
the fit and proper one for the place. He 
was a man of recognized ability. Al- 
ready as a student he was noted for rare 
mental and moral endowments. He 
was an original thinker, fertile in intel- 
lectual resources, eloquent, capable of 
much enthusiasm himself and of kin- 
dling it in others. When he left the 
seminary to enter the active ministry, 
high expectations followed him, and he 
did not disappoint them. The writer 
has often heard di.fi'erent persons, some 
of whom were members of the legislature 



744 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



while he was minister at Harrisburg and 
who have themselves since become emi- 
nent in the national councils, speak in 
memorable terms of the freshness and 
power of his preaching. 

During his ministry at Chambers- 
burg he became felt in the churches for 
weight of doctrine and influence in 
evangelical work. The writer remem- 
bers having heard, when a boy, from 
lips of ministers and laymen, high com- 
mendation of articles in the Lutheran 
Observer by Mr. Sprecher upon what 
were very warm and important questions 
at that time. He came to be looked 
upon as one of the rising, strong men, 
whose spirit showed that he was* of the 
lineage of those who had foun<le(l the 
union of churches in the General Synod; 
that he was an exponent of the quick- 
ened and aggressive faith that was both 
cause and consequence, in some measure, 
of that union, and that he was one of 
the foremost in spirit and ability of 
those who were rejoicing and working 
in that period of awakening, of revival 
in our churches. So, these things con- 
stituted another reason why, when Keller 
was called away, Sprecher was sum- 
moned to take his place; for Wittenberg 
College was begotten of the revival 
spirit of that period, which, albeit with 
some sporadic outward irregularity, was 
renewing the inward life of our churches 
and opening a larger future; the spirit 
that we trace through the Schmuckers, 
the Lochmans, Ruthrauff, Baetis, Hel- 
muth, Muhlenberg, to Halle and thence 
back to that elder Wittenberg, where 
the Word of the Lord went forth as a 
lamp that burneth and his righteousness 
as the waves of the sea. It was while 
Mr. Sprecher was at Chambersburg that 
the intimacy was formed between him 
and Dr. Keller. They had not been 
very special friends at college; indeed, 
some friction had arisen at one time be- 



tween them as they had been pitted 
against each other in public debate by 
the two literary societies ; but after they 
had both been in the ministry for some 
years, not only their respect for each 
other's personal worth, but their deep 
sympathy with each other in active, 
evangelical work, drew them into very 
active spiritual oneness. At this point 
all who have read Dr. Sprecher's intro- 
duction to the liffc of Dr. Keller, will 
recall the statement of how, when the 
latter made his last visit east the sum- 
mer before he died, and having visited 
Mr. Sprecher, he asked of him a pledge, 
under most solemn circumstances, of 
faithfulness to the revival sjiirit and the 
evangelical doctrine in which they had 
both stood fast, but from which he 
thought some others had shown signs of 
departure since he had been in the West. 
The history of these two men at this 
point is very interesting, especially to 
the thoughtful historian. They were 
neither physically nor mentally alike. 
There had been other things of a charac- 
ter to make their relationships diverse. 
But they had found spiritual renewal, 
had been converted under like presenta- 
tions of the truth ; were educated at the 
same institutions, under the same teach- 
ers, at the same time; breathed the same 
spirit which then swayed both college 
and theological seminary. The signifi- 
cance of all this is great to those who 
know what spirit prevailed in those ir- 
stitutions when those young men were 
there. It helps to understand why two 
men, though so different in endowment, 
should have been so thoroughly of one 
spirit; and why both, though naturally 
conservative, should have been so radi- 
cally aggressive in their method of 
handling the gospel, should both have 
been so set upon getting men converted, 
upon getting their hearts right in the 
sight of God, confident meanwhile, that 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



745 



then all churchly things would not only 
be conserved, but gathered into right 
form. In this faith Keller died; and 
this faith Dr. Sprecher has kept till 
this hour. 

Looking back along the line of things 
thus briefly traced, it is clearly apparent 
why Sprecher was chosen to succeed 
Keller, as though he had been his lineal 
heir. The same spirit determined the 
selection of both. 

But Mr. Sprecher, in accepting the 
responsible position, assumed a great 
burden. He had anticipated that and 
shrunk from it; had refused the prof- 
fer* d place and directed the Board else- 
where, but at last yielded to the repeated 
solicitations that he thought ought not 
to pa- s unheeded. When he consented 
to take charge of the institution he took 
it to his heart. He did not enter upon 
his duties with the idea of abandoning 
the post if it should prove a very trying 
one or should not seem to go. He had 
come to make it go and to endure the 
trials. He had this satisfaction, that he 
had not fallen heir to a series of mis- 
takes. Keller had made no mistakes. 
He had begun right in the planting of 
the college; his successor had nothing 
to undo. Sprecher could and did begin 
where his predecessor left off. 

It would carry this sketch too far to 
recount in detail the history of Dr. 
Sprecher's administration. When he 
took charge only the east wing of the 
building had been erected and the money 
had yet to be raised for the erection of 
the remainder. This was accomplished 
and the building completed in the next 
two years. Generally, the amounts 
needed to meet the bills of each week 
were secured after the week's teaching 
was done, by going out on Saturday into 
the churches and raising it. Dr. 
Sprecher was not the only one that 
operated in this way, but he was the 
94 



[principal one, and he had peculiar 
' power in bringing the claims of the in- 
stitution home to the hearts of the 
people Although Dr. Sprecher is chiefly 
noted for other qualities, yet it was un- 
; der his leadership and principally by his 
personal efforts that the large sums 
were i aised which constitute the endow- 
ment, the material strength of the 
school to-day. 

It is not too much to say that for 
many years the reputation of Dr. 
Sprecher was the reputation of Wit- 
tenberg college. The moral bearing of 
the man, the fineness of his intellectual 
features and the evident dignity of his 
character were an attraction wherever 
he went. And then when called to speak, 
especially upon extraordinary or albeit 
unexpected occasions, all the promise 
of the outer man was more than ful- 
filled. Indeed, there were times when, 
while speaking, new fountains seemed 
to break up and open into the stream 
of his discourse, till, like a river, "rapid, 
exhaustless, deep," it poured itself re- 
sistlessly along. The one thing that 
was left as a defect was the thinness of 
his voice, which never recovered its 
force and volume after ,the illness that 
overtook him in his early ministry. 
And yet this was generally forgotten in 
the great attractiveness of his matter 
and manner. 

A feature of his character under 
attack may as well be spoken of here 
as elsewhere. To those who did not 
know him the thought might occur from 
the gentleness of the man that he might 
have been easily opposed or assailed 
with impunity. Well, he did not seek 
moral or intellectual conflict, as many 
have done or do, but to whomsoever it 
occurred to try and push him from his 
position, it soon became evident that 
he would have to fight for his own, and 
that the longer it was continued the less 



746 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



likely it was that he should get out of 
the encoujiter whole. 

It was, however, in the class-room, 
probably, that Dr. Sprecher made the 
deepest and most lasting impression 
upon his students. The impact of his 
mind upon the minds of others was 
such as to give them a different motive 
ever after. A soul of deep insight him- 
self he opened to others the inner point 
of seeing. He did not take you strug- 
gling across from spoke to spoke of the 
great wheel of the universe, but, lead- 
ing you inward to where all the radii 
converge, would show you, or instruct 
you to study things from the interior, 
and, if possible, from the central point 
of their origin; and sometimes, indeed, 
he. would open to you such glim^pses 
into the heights and dejDths of the im- 
material world as would forever enlarge 
the bonds of your thought. To him 
the Creator gave a large endowment of 
the speculative reason. His capabilities 
in this respect bore the insignia of 
genius. He had a liberty and sweep of 
intellectual motion from side to side in 
the handling of a deep or obtruse sub- 
ject that would loosen it on every quar- 
ter from its intricate attachment and 
set it out distinct and clear in your 
conception. He had great facility in 
bringing together, out of his mental 
stores, things new and old for the il- 
lumination of a subject. 

As a teacher, his simple aim was the 
truth. He did not argue to force con- 
viction of the correctness of his own 
views. He led the student's mind into 
the study of a subject, or pointed him 
to the right places of observation, set 
him in the right attitude or drew aside 
the veil that he might look in and see 
for himself. That this method general- 
ly led his pupils into his own convic- 
tions, there is no doubt. But whether 
so or not, his end was gained if his stu- 



dents learned to think at all, to think 
normally, deeply, searchingly, rever- 
ently. 

He did not shrink from any question 
of difficulty in morals, science or theol- 
ogy that might be raised in class, pro- 
vided it was prompted by a spirit of 
honest inquiry. At the college, in the 
presence of the teacher, was the place, 
he thought, to meet and seek light on 
such questions; so, when the graduate 
went out into the world and met with 
the actual questions in practical life, he 
should not be a novice. 

He didn't pretend to know everything. 
He confessed his limitations. When 
he did not know he had the courage to 
say so, and did not attempt to get past 
the point by raising a cloud of dust. 

Though he was a teacher that did not 
strive to force conclusions on his stu- 
dents, he nevertheless rested in most 
inexorable conclusions himself. And 
this was the most noteworthy because 
of his speculative mental endowment 
and habit, his familiarity with the whole 
range of metaphysical inquiry, and es- 
pecially with the daring and Titanic 
systems of the Germans. But he had 
found rest for the sole of his feet. The 
writer will never forget the impressions 
made upon his mind and heart when 
the vast realms of the transcend al 
metaphysics has been entered and in 
the first months of the study, under the 
mighty impact of the tremendous 
schemes of thought, the rooted hills 
seemed to have been unseated and all 
things to be approaching original chaos; 
and when insolvable questions had cast 
their dark shadows over the way, how 
in all that time as ever before. Dr. 
Sprecher was as simple, and trustful, 
and steady in the faith of the Son of 
God as if all the while he had been 
standing by the Master's side. It was 
forever a revelation of how metaphysic- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



747 



al speculation and scientific inquiry 
may be pursued for what they, in vari- 
ous ways, are worth, and yet how, 
while they afford no certain conclusion 
to the logical understanding, there may 
be, deep down in the soul, a sure word 
of testimony and an abiding confidence 
which the Great Apostle has forever ex- 
pressed in his: "I know in whom I have 
believed." That Dr. Sprecher was even 
an unwavering and, doubtless, an un- 
conscious example of this, even in the 
years of his most enthusiastic lectures 
in metaphysics, no student who was 
under him and who has thought of the 
matter will ever question. 

There were doubtless some callow and 
would-be metaphysics produced under 
the warmth of Dr. Sprecher's teaching, 
but there was this consolation, that 
they had the disease at home and under 
the care of home nursing, and could go 
out into the world with that piece of 
profitable experience behind them. The 
result of such experience, while yet 
under the eye of their teacher and of 
such tuition, was in various ways ex- 
cellent. It specially was influential in 
keeping his students, after they had 
gone out into the world, from being 
dazed or disturbed by any new system 
of scepticism or scheme of ontology 
that rose portending pestilence or the 
blotting out of the Son of Righteous- 



ness. Graduates of other schools, far 
more famous, have be3n known to be 
considerably shaken up, and to have 
stood "gazing," to use Luther's graphic 
expression, "like a cow at a new gate," 
when some unexpectied thing came in 
their way. Dr. Sprecher's students had 
already been out under his leadership 
through the wild and desert tracts of 
thought, had seen every form of creature 
and had been at every point of observa- 
tion; and so, while they were aware how 
deep were the possibilities of new 
thought, they could forecast the probable 
form in which it would appear. His 
students, therefore, other things being 
equal, had an unusual imperturbability 
and confidence of faith. 

Here, probably, is the point at which 
to end this article. The space assigned 
has been already overpassed. Moreover, 
to speak of Dr. Sprecher as a theolo- 
gian, of his influence as a theohogical 
teacher, and of his place in the Church, 
would carry the writer into a range of 
thought and of discussion altogether 
beyond the purpose of this sketch. It 
is likewise impracticable, within the 
present limits, to attempt an estimate 
of our subject as a preacher, writer and 
author as well as to speak of him as a 
man. These matters will be treated of 
in due time and in such fullness as their 
subject merits. — Hist. Witt. College. 




748 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. SYLYANUS STALL, AM. 



Eev. Sylvaniis Stall, A. M., the son of 
William L and Caroline Stall, was born 
October 18, 1847, at Elisaville, Columbia 
Co., N. Y. His father having died in 
December, 1862, his mother in March, 
1866, he was early left dependent upon 
his own exertions. In his fourteenth 
year he publicly confessed Christ, and 
joined the Methodist Episcopal Church 
at Baker's Mills, Columbia Co., K Y., 
which was the only church in the little 
village, and with which his father then 
stood connected. His mother was a 
member of the Livingston Manor Luth- 
eran Church, which the father and son 
subsequently also joined. Early in life 
his thought was turned to the gospel 
ministry, but not until the fall of 1867 
did he yield to the sense of duty against 
which he had struggled for a n\imber of 
years. Prior to entering the preparatory 
school at Hartwick Seminary, ho spent 
eighteen months as clerk in the clothing 
store of S. Bachman & Co., in Hudson, 
N. Y., and nearly a year with the firm 
of Lord & Taylor, as clerk, and latterly 
as cashier, in their Grand street store in 
New York city. 

He entered Hartwick Seminary in 



January, 1867, and after one session, on 
account of saltrheum in his face and 
eyes, went to Gettysburg and entered 
the Preparatory department of Pennsyl- 
vania College. In 1871 he was chosen 
Philomathaeau orator at the anniversary 
of that society, and in the following year 
I graduated from Pennsylvania College 

■with the class of 1872. He studied 

I 

theology one year at the Union Theo- 
logical Seminary in New York city, 
during which time he did mission work 
for the Twenty-third Street Presbyterian 
Church, of which Rev. John Hall, D. D., 
was pastor, and during the winter also 
taught in the evenings in the city Gram- 
mar School. On the 29th of March he 
sailed for Scotland, and spent five 
months in traveling through the coun- 
tries of Europe. In the fall of 1873 he 
returned to Gettysburg and entered the 
Theological Seminary, and after one 
year, on the 7th of June, 1874, entered 
upon the work of the ministry as pastor 
of Zion's Lutheran Church at Cobleskill 
N. Y. Mr. Stall found a small member- 
ship of one hundred and thirty-nine 
persons with a very beautiful church, 
burdened with a dept of near $25,000. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



749 



During his pastorate of two years and 
eight months seventy-four persons were 
received into membership with tUe 
church, and $19,000 reduction made in 
the debt on the property. 

Oq September 2, 1874, he was married 
to Miss Kate Danner Buehler, the 
daughter of David A. Buehler, of Gettys- 
burg, Pa., and to them have been born 
Roy Livingston and Fannie Caroline 
Stall. He was ordained by the officers 
of the Hartwick Synod in the church of 
which he was pastor at Coblcskill, 
November 18, 1874. 

From September 9, 1877, to November 
30, 1880, he was pastor of Trinity Luth- 
eran Church of Martin's Creek, North- 
ampton Co., Pa., and ol St. John's at 
Lancaster Pa., from December 1, 1880, 
to May 1, 1887, both of which pastorates 
were blessed with fruitfulness. On the 
1st of June, 1888, he assumed the pas- 
toral duties in the Second English 
Lutheran Church in the city of Baltimore. 
During the first two yeai-s of his pas- 
torate he added 254 persons t ) the lii'^m- 
bership, attracted large audiences, en- 
larged the capacity of the Sunday-sch ) j1 
department, repaired the audience room, 
and made other improvements at a cost 
of over 19,000. 

In 1891 he became associate editor 
with Dr. Conrad of the Lutheran Observer, 
In 1881 he was elected by the General 
Synod a member of the Lutheran Board 
of Publication located in Philadelphia, 
and served for two years. In the early 
part of 1887, Mr. Stall, together with 
four prominent Lutheran clergymen, 
was asked by the Lutheran Board of 
Publication to prepare a plan, together 
with a table of contents, for a Lutheran 



Encyclopedia, which the General Synod 
had instructed the Board to prepare and 
publish, and for which a prize of fifty 
dollars was offered to the successful 
contestant. He submitted a plan con- 
taining 183 doctrinal, 346 biographical, 
and 628 historical subjects for treatment, 
together with the authorities for many 
of the subj 'cts, to be consulted by those 
who should be asked to prepare the 
various articles, and for which the prize 
was awarded the subject of our sketch. 

He was a delegate at tlie conventions 
of the General Synod held in Carthage, 
111., in 1877, and at Altoona in 1881, and 
at the meeting in Harrisburg in 1885 
was elected Statistical Secretary of the 
General Synod, which office he still 
continues to fill. 

In 1876 he first issued his "Pastor's 
Pocket Record" which has gone through 
several editions. ''Minister's Hand- 
Book to Lutheran Hymns in the Book 
of Worship". "How to Pay Church 
Debts, and How to Keep Churches out 
of Debt." "Methods of Church Work", 
has run tti rough several editions and has 
had a wide circulation. "Stall's Luth- 
eran Year-Book" was first issued for the 
year 1884, and continued until the issue 
for 1888, when it had a circulation of 
15,000 copies annually. "The Historical 
Quarterly," published in connection with 
the Year-Book, was first issued in 1887. 
These publications he hopes to continue 
as a Compendium, or Hand-Book, to be 
issued at intervals of five years. Beside 
his books he has also been an occasional 
contributor to the columns of our church 
papers, the Lutheran Quarterly, and also 
to the Sunday School Times, of Philadelphia, 
and the Golden Rule, of Boston. 




750 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



REY. DANIEL STECK, D.D. 



Rev. Daniel Steck, D. D., was born 
near Hughesville, Lycoming Co., Pa., 
Nov. 18, 1819. He was next to the eldest 
of six brothers, two of whom— Jacob 
and Charles — also entered the ministry 
of the Lutheran Church. He was sent 
to a common school in his youth, and 
the progress he made in his studies gave 
promise of future usefulness. He re- 
ceived a Christian training, confirmed, 
in due time, his baptismal vows, and be- 
came a full member of the Lutheran 
Church. Regarding himself called to 
the ministry, he went to Gettysburg, 
pursuing a partial course in the college, 
and the prescribed course in the seminary. 

After completing his studies in the 
theological seminary of the Lutheran 
Church at Gettysburg, Pa., in the autumn 
of 1846, he made application to the 
Synod of East Pennsylvania for a license 
to preach the gospel. He was admitted 
to an examination and voted the license 
for which he applied. This occurred 
Sept. 28, 1864, at Milton, Pa. After 
spending several months in assisting 
various members of the Susquehanna 
Conference, in special or protracted 
meetings, his attention was directed by 
the Rev. R. Weiser and others to Potts- 
ville as a suitable place in which to 
commence efforts for the organization 
and establishment of an English Luth- 
eran Church. Accordingly, on March 
27, 1847, he made his first visit to the 
place. As soon as he arrived he called 
on the Rev. W. G. Mennig, who was 
then pastor of the German Lutheran 
church of Pottsville. He received him 
very cordially, and. Dr. Steck having 
stated the object of his visit, he ex- 
pressed himself well pleased with it, 
and gave it his most hearty sanction, 
assuring him that the Lutheran interest 



in this place, to be well sustained, must 
have preaching in the English language. 
Brother Mennig accordingly made an 
appointment for him to preach in his 
church on Sunday evening, March 28th, 
1847. The time arrived and the sermon 
was preached. At the close of the ser- 
vice a statement was made to the con- 
gregation setting forth the design of his 
visit, and asking the judgment of the 
people in regard to the matter. A sec- 
ond service was held two weeks later, at 
which time it appeared that there was a 
general anxiety for the introduction of 
regular English services. 

Application was accordingly made by 
a number of persons favorable to the ad- 
mission of English, to the vestry of the 
German church, for permission to hold 
English services in their house of wo'r- 
ship. Permission was granted to the 
extent that the present English service 
might be held in the church, provided 
said service did not interfere in any re- 
spect with the regular service. As the 
house was built by the Germans, and 
was designed for their exclusive use, 
this offer was considered to be quite as 
liberal as the Germans, in justice to 
themselves, could be expeeted to make. 
The offer was accordingly accepted, and 
efforts were at once made to secure Dr. 
Steck's services as pastor of the English 
portion of the congregation. Where- 
upon, after due and prayerful considera- 
tion, he agreed to accede to the urgent 
request of the friends of English 
preaching, and took them under his 
pastoral charge May 16, 1847. This is 
the date of his regular entrance upon 
the pastoral office in Pottsville. 

Doctor Steck boarded during the first 
six months of his pastorate at the resi- 
dence of Mr. Nathan Haas, on Schuyl- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



751 



kill Avenue above Third St., afterwards 
for a season at Mr. David Heisler's, on 
the northwest corner of Arch and Centre 
Streets. 

On April 18, 1818, he was married to 
Miss Susan M. Edwards, of Muncy, Pa., 
and took up his residence at 613 West 
Market St., and afterwards successively 
at 706, and 909 Mahantono-o St., the 
northwest corner of Norwegian and 
Sixth Sts., and finally at 803 AVeet 
Market Street. 

Dr. Steck preached regularly, at in- 
tervals, in the German Lutheran Church 
on Sunday afternoons after Sabbath- 
School. He also frequently assisted 
Rev. Mennig in his evening services, 
when there would be some English 
permitted, but no English speaking. 
He also went occasionally with a little 
company of workers to Port Carbon, 
where he founded the congregation still 
in existence. 

On Sunday evenings the Doctor would 
often conduct regular services at the 
houses of the members. Rev. Reuben 
Weiser, who first called Rev. Steck's 
attention to this field, would occasional- 
ly visit and assist him at these services, 
being entertained by members of the 
congregation. During the winter of 
1847, Revs. Steck and Mennig held 
jointly a protracted meeting in the 
German Lutheran Church, mingling 
the German and English promiscuously 
in their effort to save souls. For a 
while all moved smoothly enough until, 
just as might have been expected, the 
vigor of the English participation awak- 
ened the fears of the German pastor, 
who rose in the midst of a hymn started 
in the English tongue, exclaiming with 
considerable asperity, ''Sing it Deutsch, 
nicht English!" 

The harmony was henceforth broken, 
although the English services continued 
for a season in that place. With greater 



frequency Port Carbon was now visited. 
On the way thither on one occasion, in 
the little band of those who accom- 
panied the Doctor, the suggestion was 
made "Now let us strike out for our- 
selves!" It was determined to worship 
no longer iu the German Church, but 
to try to rent one of their own; until 
they should succeed in this, meeting 
only at the houses. Very soon their 
efforts were crowned with success, and 
they rented the two-story frame struc- 
ture midway between West Market and 
West Norwegian Street in Second Street, 
previously used by the Second Presby- 
terian congregation and owned by Mr. 

D. H. Leib — a building not eventually 
removed till under the present pastorate. 

In April, 1851, ground was broken for 
the erection of the present church 
building. The corner-stone was soon 
laid with imj, ressive ceremonies, Rev. 

E. Breidenbaugh, and Rev. John E. 
Graeff assisting in the services. The 
building was so far completed as to ad- 
mit of worship in the lecture-room dur- 
ing the winter. In the following spring 
(of 1852) it was solemnly dedicated to 
the service of the triune God, the pas- 
tor enjoying the presence and assist- 
ance of Rev. B. Kurtz, D. D., who 
preached in the morning the dedicatory 
sermon, Rev. A. C. Wedekind, D. D., 
who preached in the afternoon and Rev. 
E. W. Hutter who addressed the con- 
gregation in the evening. 

Dr. F. W. Conrad, editor of the Luth- 
eran Observer, remarks of this pastoral 
relationship: "Mr. Steck proved to be 
the right man in the right place. He 
entered upon his work with all the ardor 
of youth, prosecuted it with fidelity and 
energy, and is justly recognized as the 
founder of the English Lutheran con- 
gregation in the emporium of the 
Schuylkill coal region. He continued 
his labors at Pottsville ten years, and 



752 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



there laid the foundation of his reputa- 
tion as a preacher and pastor. Although 
he received a number of invitations to 
leave, he usually consulted us, and we 
uniformly advised him to decline them, 
and go on with his work. As the angli- 
cised Lutherans multiplied in Port 
Carbon, Schuylkill Haven and Miners- 
ville, Rev. Steck took the oversight of 
them, and preached to them occasional- 
ly, and sometimes regularly, frequently 
going on foot, and walking eight miles 
on the Sabbath. By these missionary 
efPorts he contributed largely to the or- 
ganization and growth of English Luth- 
eran Churches in these important towns. 
He may therefore be properly styled the 
pioneer of English Lutheranism in the 
Pottsville region." 

Upon leaving Pottsville, Rev. Steck 
became pastor of St. John's Lutheran 
Church at Lancaster. Five years later, 
in the fall of 1862, he took charge of 
the Main Street Lutheran Congregation 
at Dayton, Ohio; whence, in September, 
1868, he was again called to the Potts- 
ville charge. 

After taking his departure from Potts- 
ville, Dr. Steck enjoyed a pastorate of 
five years at JVliddleton, Maryland, aud 
one of six years at Gettysburg, Penn 
sylvania. Here upon Friday, the 10th 
of June, 1881, it pleased the Lord of 
the harvest to call this faithful reaper 
to his everlasting reward . 

The funeral services took place on 
Tuesday afternoon, June 15th, in St. 
James Lutheran Church, on which oc- 
casion Rev. Dr. M. Valentine preached 
an appropriate sermon, and addresses 
were made by Rev. Dr. E. J. Wolf, of 
the Seminary, and Rev. Mr. Demarest, 
of the Pastoral Association. Revs. D. 
Schindler and D. C. Foulk also took 
part in the exercises. His remains were 
deposited in Evergreen Cemetery, and 
were followed by a large number of 



I relatives, friends and parishioners, who 
I united in this last sad tribute to his 
I memory. 

Doctor F. W. Conrad, editor of the 
Lutheran Observer, remarks: "Dr. Steck 
was endowed with more than ordinary 
talent, and gifts of speech, by, the culti- 
vation of which he became an instruct- 
ive and edifying preacher, and took 
rank among our most popular pulpit 
orators. He was devoted to pastoral 
work, and prosecuted it with energy and 
success. He had good judgment, and 
proved a wise counselor on Church 
matters. 

He had a generous disposition and a 
kind keart. He was a warm friend and 
cheerful companion, a devoted husband 
and fond father. Decided in his theo- 
logical convictions and devoted to his 
own Church, he cherished at the same 
time the most fraternal relation with 
his pastoral colleagues of other ortho- 
dox denominations. We called to look 
upon his face once more, and to bid him 
a last farewell; but his physical debility 
was so great at the time, that we were 
constrained to forego that melancholy 
gratification. He continued to grow 
weaker from day to day. The day be- 
fore he died he exclaimed a number of 
times: "O the richness of the mercy of 
God!" On the morning of his last day, 
when his son, who had watched with 
him, said to him, "Father, you have 
been sinking during the night," he re- 
plied, "Then let me to myself; I wish to 
be alone." These were his last words. 
Soon after his wife approached him, but 
the power of speech was gone, and at 6 
o'clock on the evening of the 10th of 
June he calmly fell "asleep in Jesus," 
And as we mourn his loss as that of a 
brother beloved, and a true yoke-fellow 
in the ministry of the gospel, we rejoice 
in the opportunity of paying this imper- 
fect tribute to his memory."— ^is^ of 
Pottsville Church. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



753 



EEV. JOHN M. STECK. 



Eev. John Michael Steck was born at 
Germantown, Pa., October 5, 1756. He 
studied theology under Dr. Helmuth, 
and was afterwards admitted a member 
of the Lutheran Synod of Pennsyl- 
vauia. In 1784 he took charge of the 
congregation at Chambersburg, and the 
congregation connected with it in Frank- 
lin County, Pa. In 1785 he was mar- 
ried to Esther, daughter of John Haff- 
nor, of Franklin County. In 1789 he 
was called to the congregations in Bed- 
ford and Somerset Counties, and, after 
minii^tering to them three years, in 
1792, accepted a call from the congre- 
gations in Westmoreland County, and 
took up his residence at Greensburg, 



when that 'part of Pennsylvania was 
yet a wilderness. At this period he 
performed a great amount of mis- 
sionary labor, and formed many new 
congregations in the surrounding coun- 
try, exposing himself to a great variety 
of perils and hardships; but, in his 
later years, he confined his labors chiefly 
to the congregations in and about 
Greensburg. Though his health had 
been gradually declining for three years, 
he died at last, suddenly, of dysentery, 
on the 14th of July, 1880, in the seven- 
ty-fourth year of his age. He was an 
earnest, faithful and successful minister. 
— Sprague. 




EEY. MICHAEL J. STECK. 



Rev. Michael John Steck was a son 
of the Rev. John Michael Steck, and 
was born in Greensburg, Pa., on the 1st 
of May, 1793. Under the advantage of 
a careful Christian education, he very 
early discovered a serious and thought- 
ful turn of mind, and was very particu- 
lar in the choice of his companions, and 
correct in all his external deportment. 
He also evinced a great love of study, 
and never seemed more happy than in 
the company of his books. His father, 
therefore, determined to give him as 
good advantages for education as were 
within his ability; and, accordingly, he 
sent him to the Greensburg Academy, 
where he continued a most diligent and 
successful student for several years. 
Having resolved to become a minister 
of the Gospel, he commenced, soon after 
leaving the Academy, the study of theo- 
95 



logy, under the direction of his father. 
But as the father's time was too much 
occupied by the duties of an extensive 
charge to allow hhn to do justice to his 
son as a theological student, the son 
went to reside at Pittsburg, and con- 
tinued his studies under the Rev. Jacob 
Schnee, then pastor of the German 
Church in that city. Here he applied 
himself with great diligence, and his 
improvement was proportionally rapid. 
He was licensed to preach, by the 
Synod of Pennsylvania, in the spring 
of 1816. He began his labors by be- 
coming a temporary assistant to his 
father, performing services in the most 
distant parts of his charge. While he 
was thus engaged, he received and ac- 
cepted a call to Lancaster, O., which, 
at the time, was considered as one of the 
most important positions in the Luth- 



754 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



eran Church in the west. He entered 
-upon his duties here on the 15th of 
December, 1816, greatly fearing that he 
had not the requisite qualifications for 
the place. But the result, by no means 
justified his misgivings. He remained 
in this field for twelve years, laboring 
indefatigably, and with the most grati- 
fying tokens of the Divine blessing. He 
was the pastor not only of the congre- 
gation in Lancaster, in which he offi- 
ciated in English as well as German, 
but also of several churches in the 
neighborhood. Besides his stated labors 
in connection with his own charge, he, 
frequently, by appointment of Synod, 
made extensive missionary tours, gath- 
ering, hero and there, the scattered 
members of the Church, and dispens- 
ing to them the Word and Ordinances. 
His congregations appreciated most 
highly his self-denying and arduous 
labors, and testified, in many ways, their 
strong attachment to him; while he, 
in turn, felt toward them an affection 
almost parental. Under these circum- 
stances, the dissolution of this' relation 
was the occasion of the deepest mutual 
regret; but a call for Mr. Steck's ser- 
vices came, which he lluew not how to 
resist. His excellent father, on account 
of the increasing infirmities of age, 
found himself in need of an assistant; 
and there was no one to whom he so nat- 
urally looked as to his own son; and the 
son felt constrained, by a seuse of filial 
obligation, to comply with his wishes. 
Accordingly, in 1829, Mr. Steck removed 
to Greensburg, as his father's assistant; 
and, on the death of his father, in 1830 
he succeeded to the sole pastorship 



Here he labored without interruption 
till thb close of life. Some idea may 
be formed of the amount of his labors 
from the fact that he ministered regu- 
larly tofeleven churches, besides, preach- 
ing at three or four stations, some of 
which were distant thirty miles from 
his residence. During several of his 
last years his labors greatly overtaxed 
his physical constitution; and the marvel 
was that it held out so long under such 
enormous burdens as were laid upon it. 
When he was finally arrested by the 
malady that terminated his life, he was 
engaged in ministering to the sick and 
dying. He was himself attacked with 
typhoid fever, which was at that time 
epidemic in his neighborhood, and, after 
lingering for several weeks, and often 
enduring much acute suffering, he 
passed on to his rest on the 1st of Sep- 
tember, 1848, in the fifty-sixth year of 
his age. The services at his funeral 
were conducted by the Rev. N. P. Hacke, 
of the German Reformed Church, and 
the Rev. Messrs. W. S. Emery, J. 
Mechling, W. A. Passavaut, and J. 
Rugan, of the Lutheran Church. Fun- 
eral sermons were also preached in 
several churches in the country which 
had been under his care, and one at 
Green sburg, by the Rev. W^. A. Passa- 
vant, of Pittsburg, was published. 

In 1818 Mr. Steck was married to 
Catharine Elizabeth, daughter of 
William and Elizabeth (Cope) Penn, 
by whom he had eleven children, four 
sons and seven daughters. Two of the 
daughters are married to Lutheran 
clergymen. Mrs. Steck survived her 
husband . — Sprague. 




AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



755 




REV. PROF. FREDERICK W. STELLHORN. 



Frederick William Stellhorn was 
born October 2, 1841, at BrueniDg- 
horsteclt, a small village of the former 
Kingdom of Hanover, Germany. His 
parents were poor, but universally re- 
spected peasants, well acquainted with 
the doctrines of the Lutheran Church 
and deeply attached to them. At the 
age of about six years the boy was sent 
to the parochial school of his native 
village, where, besides religion in the 
form of Catechism, Bible history, and 
the inestimable hymns of the German 
Lutheran Church, reading, writing, and 
a beginning in arithmetic formed the 
only subjects of instruction; but in his 
thirst for knowledge he devoured all the 
books he could get hold of. The his- 
torical portions of the Bible he knew 
by heart at a very early age. 

AVhen he was nearly thirteen y^ars 
old the family emigrated to America. 
At Fort Wayne, Indiana, in September, 
1854, the father died of cholera, just a 
week after the arrival there, leaving a 
delicate widow and two minor children 



to mourn his loss. An older brother 
provided for the wants of the poor 
bereaved new-comers. Next spring 
William was confirmed by the late well- 
known Rev. Dr. W. Sihler, having at- 
tended his catechetical instruction and 
the congregational school during the 
winter. In the fall he entered the 
preparatory department of the Practical 
Theological Seminary of the German 
Lutheran Synod of Missouri and other 
states, then still at Fort Wayne. His 
teachers there, to whom he owes much 
in every respect, were Dr. Sihler, Rev. 
Prof. A. Craemer, late director of the 
same institution, removed since to 
Springfield, 111., 'and Rev. F. W. Foehlin- 
ger, now pastor at Yonkers, N. Y. In 
the fall of 1857 he was transferred to 
Concordia College at St. Louis, Mo., 
now at Fort Wayne, Ind., where he en- 
joyed the instruction of the late Profs. C. 

F. W. Walther, D.D., A.Biewend, A. Sax- 
er, J. Goenner, and Profs. R. Lange and 

G. Schick, now at St. Louis and Fort 
Wayne respectively. Five years after, 



756 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



1862, lie was admitted to the Lutheran 
Theological Seminary at St. Louis, Dr. 
Walther being the president and soul of 
the institution. In 1865 he graduated 
and became assistant pastor of the Ger- 
man Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel's 
Congregation at St. Louis, the late Rev. 
J. F. Buenger, the Missouri an Francke, 
being first pastor. This call he accept- 
ed because he regarded it his duty, 
though the oppressively hot summers 
of St. Louis had never agreed with him. 
Having labored here for somewhat more 
than a year, also in a literary capacity, 
he was prostrated by a sun stroke. At 
first his life was despaired of; yet, after 
some weeks rest in the country, he man- 
aged to instruct a large class of cate- 
chumens during winter, and to render 
some other assistance to kind Father 
Buenger. When Easter had come his 
strength was so far exhausted that he 
had to repair to a rural retreat for half 
a year. In the fall, not yet feeling able 
to do justice to the duties of his present 
position, he resigned it against the 
wishes of the congregation, and accepted 
a call to a small congregation in De 
Kalb Co., Indiana, where he recuperated 
slowly but surely, and found ample time 
to continue his studies, especially in 
Exegesis. In the fall of 1869 he en- 
tered upon the duties of a professor at 
the Northwestern University, Water- 
town, Wisconsin. Here he passed five 
most pleasant and instructive years, 
teaching Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Ger- 
man, and History. In 1874 he deemed 
it his duty to accept a similar posi- 
tion, urgently offered to him by his 



Alma Mater, Concordia College, Fort 
Wayne, Ind. 

When the well-known Predestination 
controversy broke out in the Synodical 
Conference, his conscience constrained 
him to take sides with Rev. Prof. F. A. 
Schmidt, D. D., against Dr. Walther 
and the Missouri Synod. At the Pas- 
toral Conference at Chicago, 111., 1880, 
he was one of those who especially had 
to bear the brunt of battle, the over- 
whelming majority of about 350 pas- 
tors and professors present, finally 
adopting the views of their old leader 
and champion. Dr. Walther. The un- 
pleasant situation resulting from this 
made it the easier for him to leave the 
Synod of his love and labor, by accept- 
ing a call as Professor of Theology and 
of the German language and literature 
at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, 
in which capacity he has been laboring 
since May, 1881, being at the same 
time editor of Lutherisehe Kirehenzeitung 
and Theologisehe ZtitUaetter, both piib- 
lished by the Evaogelical Lutheran 
Joint Synod of Ohio and adjacent 
states. During the heat of the Predes- 
tination controversy, he published sever- 
al tracts against the position of Dr. 
Walther. In 1886 his Kurzgefasstes 
Woerterbuch zum Griechisehen Neuen 
Testament was published at Leipsic, 
Germany. A Brief Commentary on the 
New Testament (in English) is now be- 
ing published by Lutheran Book Con- 
cern, Columbus, Ohio. The first volume, 
embracing the four Gospels, has just 
appeared. 




AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



757 




REY. JACOB STIREWALT. 



Capt. John Stirewalt, Ihe father of 
the subject of this sketch, was born, 
October 11, 1769, in Pennsylvanin. 
Having visited North Carolina early in 
life, he married Miss lilizabeth Reiulle- 
man, and then became a citizen of that 
state. Being possessed of a sound judg- 
ment, wonderful ingenuity, and unyield- 
ing industry, he accumulated consider- 
able wealth by his assiduous attention 
to the development of the agricultural 
resources of his section. To him were 
born three children. Rev. John N., 
Saloma (Bostian), and Rev. Jacob 
Stirewalt, whom he faithfully reared in 
the nuture and admonition of the Lord. 

Rev. Jacob Stirewalt was born, near 
Salisbury, Rowan Co., N. C, on Saturday, 
August 17, 1805. Little is known of his 
early youth, except that, blessed with 
pious, educated, and industrious parents, 
who deemed idleness the parent of 
mischief, be acquired that firmness of 
Christian character and those habits of 



persevering and systematic labor which 
marked his entire life. 

He entered into the holy state of 
matrimony with Miss Henrietta Henkel, 
the daughter of Elias Henkel, at New 
Market, Virginia, January 8, 1833. This 
union was blessed with ten children, six 
daughters and four sons. Seven of his 
children survived him. Two of his sons, 
John N. and Jerome Paul, are now 
actively engaged in ihe work of the 
gospel ministry. His home relations 
were peculiarly pleasant. 

He was ordained Deacon, September 
14, 1837, and in the minutes of the 
eighteenth session of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Tennessee Synod, convened 
in Salem Church, Lincoln County, N. 
C. , we find that, various petitions having 
been laid before that body, recommending 
that Jacob Stirewalt and A. J. Fox were 
both morally and intellectually qualified 
to perform every ministerial function, 
and praying that they be promoted to 



758 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



the office of pastor, it was, on Tuesday, 
September 11, 1838, "resolved, that they 
be examined, on to-morrow morning, 
with regard to their qualifications to 
bear the office of the ministry, and, if 
considered competent, they be ordained." 
Accordingly, on Wednesday, they having 
presented themselves, upon the invitation 
of the president, the forenoon session 
was taken up with their examination, of 
which the minutes contain the following 
description: "It was conducted by dif- 
ferent members of Synod ; every member 
being permitted to propose such questions 
as he thought proper. The candidates, 
during the examination, evinced, by 
their pertinent and judicious" answers, 
that they had made considerable pro- 
ficiency in the acquisition of theolog- 
ical knowledge; so much so that they 
gave general satisfaction and were con- 
sidered fully competent to perform every 
ministerial function. Therefore, on 
motion, it was unanimously resolved, 
that they be ordained pastors on to- 
morrow." On Thursday, the 13th day 
of September, 1838, they were accord- 
ingly ordained. 

On Friday, September 14, 1838, the 
Synod "resolved, that Eevs, A. Henkel, 
Jacob Killian, and Jacob Stirewalt, be 
requested to compile a Liturgy for the 
use of our church, and present it to the 
next session of the Synod for examina- 
tion." This duty was performed; the 
Liturgy was adopted, published, and is 
yet extensively used in the Church. He 
did much of the writing for the Liturgy. 
Many of the prayers and forms are of 
his composition. 

As evidencing the energy and devotion 
with which he discharged the duties of 
his office of pastor, it may not be im- 
proper to state that, in the thirty-two 
years of his ministry, he preached 3132 
sermons, of which 560 were funeral 
discourses; and his efficiency is attested 



by the confirmation of 708 persons, and 
the baptism of 1259; and he united in 
marriage 171 couples in the same period. 
A.S if to complete the circle of his life, 
just three months before his death, he 
preached his last sermon in the same 
county and near the same place, at which 
he preached his first. A life of such 
protracted usefulness, and crowned with 
sach fruits, may well lead us to ponder 
upon the character and habits of the 
man, and studying the means by which 
he accomplished so much, we may find 
in his example many useful hints to 
ourselves. 

His character, like his features, was 
clearly defined, and individual. With 
nothing erratic or sensational in his 
composition, he would have impressed a 
stranger with his personal independence 
and his dissimilarity from others. Reg- 
ulating his own life, ev^en in its minor 
details, by the sternest and most critical 
rules of the severest discipline, he always 
had a charitable word for the faults and 
errors of others. Proclaiming the enor- 
mity of sin and the eternal punishment 
of the ungodly with terrible distinctness, 
he delighted most in picturing the 
absolute perfection of the character of 
Christ, and wooing by the sweet in- 
clinings of a Saviour's boundless love. 
He never denounced the evil without 
presenting the remedy; never threatened 
with punishment that he did not more 
forcibly ofiPer the rewards which attend 
the good. To him the Christian religion 
was an active, controlling principle in- 
dispensable toman's happiness, not only 
in the world to come, but in the every 
day affairs of life — a sweet guide to live 
by as a staff to lean upon when the 
shrinking feet should go down to the 
river in the dark valley of the shadow. 
He lived the doctrines which he taught 
in words, and trusting always in the 
merits and promises of Christ, he died 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



759 



as if he had lived with reference to that 
hour, and obeyed the last earthly call 
with the same submissive resignation 
with which he always prayed, "Thy will 
be done." 

Energetic by nature, of a nervous 
temperament, and zealous in the ad- 
vancement of everything in which he 
was interested, he was never in a hurry. 
The very tenacity with which he adhered 
to his opinions when found, induced him 
to thoroughly examine and carefully 
and prayerfully study a subject in all 
its aspects before he came to a conclu- 
sion. The Bible and the works of Luther 
were his almost daily study, and the 
churches to whom he ministered listened 
as he preached, with that confidence 
and inclination to belief which generally 
follows the knowledge that the preacher 
has given to his subject the full benefit 
of all his ability, energy, and research. 
That there is no excellence without 
great labor, and industry precedes suc- 
cess, were to him maxims of practice in 
the work of the ministry, as in secular 
affairs. He thought it a sin to be indo- 
lent, lazy, or careless in the work which 
the Master gave him to do. He measured 
the effect of his sermons not by the 
compliments which men paid his elo- 
quence or declamation, but by the fruits 
with which the Holy Spirit crowned his 
labors. To him the applause of men 
was an empty sound, compared to the 
approval of his own conscience when he 
felt that he had planted with all the 
powers at his command and that God 
would give the increase. His sermons 
were not written. He never used manu- 
script. He usually preached from notes 
or else extemporaneously. He was an 
impressive speaker. 

He was a ready writer, and his style 
of writing was clear, concise and forcible. 
He became the author of a work entitled, 
"Grades in the Ministry, with remarks 



on the Ministerial Office and Ordina- 
tion." His efforts in this direction were 
crowned with succe&s. They elicited 
many complimentary remarks by critics 
and well qualified judges. He com- 
pleted his book in manuscript on March 
6, 1869, just three months and a half 
before his departure from time into 
eternity. It was published in 1881. 

Now that he no longer walks among 
men, they wonder that they feel their 
loss more sensibly in the painful vacan- 
cies created than they appreciated the 
worth of the living. If, as a friend, he 
was unselfish; as a citizen, honest; as a 
parent, affectionate; as a husband, de- 
voted; and as a minister, pure and effi- 
cient; his entire character, encircled by 
the pure crown of Christian humility, 
shone the brighter for its want of pre- 
tense, and will be cherished by all who 
knew him, as a model and example 
worthy of imitation. Life to liim was 
valuable because it was the theatre of 
active duty, it was beautiful in that it 
afforded the opportunity of laboring in 
the Master's vineyard. The cry of the 
distressed never passed him unheeded, 
and want found his hand ever open. 
Loving the true, the beautiful, and the 
good, because, by grace, his mind and 
heart were attuned in harmony with 
them, he taught and practiced that 
which he loved, and hundreds can attest 
that the world is better that he lived. 
His faults were known to himself better 
than to his neighbors, and he alone was 
troubled by them. Our good opinions 
cannot reach him in the grave but at- 
tention to his virtues may benefit the 
living. Compliments to the undeserv- 
ing may, like the glare of the sunshine 
upon the iceberg, show but glittering 
inequalities, but the memories of the 
good will come to us as soft and sweet 
as the tender moonbeams that sleep 
upon their graves. Whatever difference 



760 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



of opinion there may be as to those 
heroes of war, whose fame is founded 
upon the skeletons of thousands of the 
tools of their ambition, there can be 
no question that God loves the heroes 
of peace, who do their duty because 
they love their God, and whom adver- 
sity, nor prosperity, nor joy, nor sorrow, 
nor things present, nor things to come, 
cannot sever from the glorious work of 
ameliorating the condition of humanity, 
guarding the purity of society, and 
prompting his kingdom on earth. Such 
a hero was the subject of this rude 
sketch. 

The sainted subject of this sketch 
died on the evening of Saturday, the 



21st day of August, 1869, at his home 
in New Maiket, Shenandoah County, 
Virginia, at the age of 64 yrars and 4 
days. 

He now sleeps with the fathers. His 
eyes are closed; his heart is still; the 
labors of his life are done. Bowing, as 
he bowed, in humble submission to that 
Supreme Will, which doeth all things 
well, and which seeth not as man sees, 
we may take comfort iu the knowledge 
that: "Blessed are the dead which die 
in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from Iheir 
labors and their works do follow them." 
—Rev, 14, 18. 




BEY. GEORGE F. STEELING, D.D. 



Rev. George F. Stelling, D.D., was 
born at Stalzenau, Hanover, Germany, 
Nov. 19, 1829. His parents emigrated 
in 1833; in 1837 settled in Central Ohio, 
where George received his primary edu- 
cation. In 1857 he graduated from 
Wittenberg College, which institution 
subsequently conferred upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity. He 
studied theology at the seminary at 
Springfield, but did not take the full 
course, however. His first charge was 
at New Philadelphia, O., and his second 
at Canton, O. He was called to the 



First Church, Harrisburg, Pa., in 1865, 
where he ministered nine and a half 
years. He was located at Bed Hook, 
N. Y., from 1875 to 1877. From the 
spring of 1877 to the fall of 1881 he was 
pastor of Main Street Church, Dayton, 
O., when he removed to Omaha, Neb., 
where he labored until his death. 

Bev. Stelling was married March 26, 
1857, to Cornelia Jane May, who, with 
nine children, survives him.' He died 
of congestion of the brain Jan 8, 1884, 
at Omaha, Neb., and was buried at 
Massillon, Ohio. 




AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



76] 




EEV. GEORGE SCHOLL, D.D. 



Rev. George Scholl, 



D. D., was born 
April 22, 1841, near Connersville, Ind., 
being next to the youngest in a family 
of ten childreD. The names of his par- 
ents were Jacob and Elizabeth, whose 
ancestors came from Germany about 
A. D., 1750. They removed from 
Schuylkill county, Pa , in 1833. They 
were strictly pious and brought up their 
large household under the reign of law 
as well as of the gospel, administering a 
discipline which our subject has com- 
pared to that of West Point. They 
were really the founders of the Luth- 
eran Church in Indiana. They were 
liaidworking, thrifty farmers and the 
education of their children was limited 
to three months a year. After a course 
of thorough instruction in the catechism 
by Rev. Solomon Weils, George was 
confirmed at an early age, and the seeds 
of parental and pastoral nurture have 
yielded a rich and perennial harvest. 

Not content with the meagre and 
elementary training of the common 
schools, he pursued advanced studies in 
96 



several high schools or academies, after 
which he enjoyed the incomparable 
benefit, which is the boast of many great 
men, of teachiug school for several 
terms. During the winter of 1860-61 
he took a commercial course in Cincin- 
nati; and was for some time employed 
in a large business house in that city. 
His heart was set on entering the legal 
profession and a year was consumed 
upon Blackstone, when, to complete his 
preparatory course, he entered Miami 
University, at Oxford, O., where he 
acquired his first knowledge of Latin 
and Greek under the tuition of Prof. 
David Swing, now of Chicago. But the 
Head of the Church had planned auother 
career for young Scholl, and led him by 
unexpected paths to an institution of 
his own Church. In 1864 he entered 
the freshman class of Wittenberg Col- 
lege, Spriogfield, O., and four years 
later he carried off the first honors of 
his class. His fellow-students showed 
the recognition of his logical bent of 
mind, and his cogent, lucid style of 



762 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



speech by appointing him the debater 
of the Excelsior Society in their literary 
contests. 

Mr. Scholl's theological course under 
Dr. Sprecher was brief, but with such a 
teacher and such a pupil time becomes 
an indifferent factor. The impress of 
the learned and gifted professor was 
left upon the alert and thoughtful mind 
of the scholar, and the latter was a 
theologian when he left Springfield, 
although he by no means entertained 
the idea that his studies were completed. 

His first pastoral charge was at New 
Philadelphia, O., an old congregation 
which had enjoyed the services of dis- 
tinguished preachers. He began his 
labors here March 29, 1869, and on 
relinquishing it after two years and 
seven months, left, as a monument of 
his energetic and successful pastoral 
administration, a handsome church 
erected at a cost of $15,000. 

In November, 1871, he became the 
first pastor of the newly organized Sec- 
ond Church of Altoona, Pa. His fine ex- 
ecutive ability came here especially into 
requisition, and foundation work was 
done so wisely and solidly that in a 
pastorate of less than three years a vig- 
orous and flourishing congregation was 
developed and an impetus was given to 
the steady growth which it has main- 
tained ever since. He was instrumental 
while here in building a large church 
costing 125,000, and in opening foun- 
tains of liberality which continue to 
this day to pour out streams of refresh- 
ing upon the Church at large. Dr. Scholl 
has proven by a number of instances 
his extraordinary capacity for stimulat- 
ing the grace of giving. 

On the removal of Dr. Wolf to the 
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 
Mr. Scholl became his successor in the 
Lombard St. Lutheran church, Balti- 
more, a church which had enjoyed the 



ministrations of such divines as Krauth, 
Seiss, and others well known throughout 
the Church, but which, notwithstanding 
the unfavorable changes in that locality, 
never had a period of healthier or larger 
prosperity than under Dr. Scholl's self- 
sacrificing and clever leadership. He 
remained in charge of this congregation, 
a post of unusual demands and trials, 
for nearly ten years, a period longer 
than any to which his distinguished 
predecessors had attained. 

From Baltimore he removed to Han- 
over, where he was pastor of St. Mark's 
for three years. 

Western Maryland College surprised 
him with the title of Doctor of Divinity 
in 1884, an honor which, so far from 
seeking, he was strongly disposed to de- 
cline. No one questioned his desert 
of this honorary degree. 

Dr. Scholl became a member of the 
Foreign Missionary Board, 1877, serv- 
ing for seven years in the capacity of 
Recording Secretary. In 1884 he be- 
came Corresponding Secretary, taking 
charge of all the clerical business, and 
in 1886 he was elected to fill this posi- 
tion on a salary and to relinquish his 
pastoral work, an ofiice which he has 
filled from Jan. 1, 1887, till the present. 
The Church has few trusts of greater 
importance or more delicate administra- 
tion, and it would be hard to find 
another man in the General Synod who 
could administer it with greater efii- 
ciency or more general satisfaction. Dr. 
Scholl's sturdy common sense, clear 
understanding, business tact, his happy 
address and clear presentation by mouth 
and pen of all the interests of our vast 
foreign mission fields, his influence with 
men, and his command of the absolute 
confidence of the Church, in his devotion 
and his discretion, have combined to 
create and sustain a general, lively and 
growing sympathy with the cause he 



I 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



763 



represents. Whether we look at the 
steady increase of contributions, some 
rising into the denomination of thou- 
sands, or at the constant enlargement of 
the work in India and Africa, every- 
where the evidences of wise administra- 
tion and Divine favor cheer the friends 
of Foreign Mission. 

Dr. Scholl is in the best sense an able 
preacher of the Word. He impresses 
his audience as a thinker, a reasoner, a 
teacher, and an exhorter. He has a 
clear grasp of the gospel; his thought 
is luminous, striking and practical; his 
manner easy, graceful and winning ; and 
his sermons are stimulating and sugges- 
tive, not easily disregarded by the 
hearer, nor soon forgotten. AVith un- 
common tact they are adapted alike to 
the cultured and the unlearned. 

He also wields a graphic pen which 
alike in the Missionary Journal, of which 
he is the Foreign Mission editor, and 



the Church weeklies, confines its pro- 
ducts mostly to the discussion of for- 
eign mission issues, while in the Luther- 
an Quarterly it expatiates on other topics 
of ecclesiastical or scientific import. 
The Church has reorganized his admin- 
istrative virtues and -clear-witted under- 
standing by frequent elections to posi- 
tions of trust and he has at different 
times represented the Allegheny Synod, 
the Maryland, and that of Wept Penn- 
sylvania in the Board of the Seminary 
of the General Synod at Gettysburg. 
He excels in social qualities, and the 
gentle, peaceful, joyous tributes of a 
living faith, and a grateful spirit form 
largely the secret of his popularity. 

Dr. Scholl was married on Dec. 1, 
1869, to Miss Emma Barr, of Spring- 
field, O., which union has been blest 
with four children, of whom two, a 
daughter and a son, are living. 




REV. J. PAUL STIREWALT, A.M. 



Jerome Paul Stirewalt was born in 
New Market, Shenandoah Co., Va., on 
April 11, 1850. He is the ninth child, 
and fourth son of Rev. Jacob Stirewalt 
and his wife, Henrietta Stirewalt. He 
was trained by his pious parents to 
habits of industry, morality and holy zeal. 

He became a student in the Polytech- 
nic Institute at New Market, Ya., where 
he pursued his literary studies for sev- 
eral years with considerable progress. 
In this institution he enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of able instructors, from whom 
he acquired a knowledge of the English, 
German, Greek and Latin languages. 

He became a student of theology in 
1870, in the Lutheran church, and was 
accordingly received under the care and 



training of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Tennessee Synod on Nov. 8, 1870. Hav- 
ing made commendable progress in the 
study of theology, and having sustained 
a most rigid examination in the differ- 
ent departments of theology, he was 
ordained to the office of pastor Dec. 9, 
1873, by authority of the Tennessee 
Synod, of which he has always been a 
member. He has missed only two or 
three of her annual conventions and has 
been a member of some of her most im- 
portant committees. He has been the 
Synod's treasurer, and for a number of 
years has been recording secretary of 
the Synod, and was this year the Census 
Enumerator of Statistics for the Elev- 
enth Census of religion in the United 



764 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. J. PAUL STIKEWALT, A. M. 



States. Several years he served as a 
member of the Mission Board of the 
Synod. He has been the executive 
committee of missions in the Virginia 
Conference of the Tennessee Synod for 
years — in fact the only executive com- 
mittee of missions the Conference has 
ever had. Consequently he has done a 
great deal for the Church in a mission- 
ary point of view. 

He has always had a regular pastorate, 
and is now pastor of one of the largest 
and most influential pastorates in the 
Synod. His style of preaching is exe- 
getical. He believes in this style be- 
cause it seems to be more instructive 
and edifying to the people, many of 
whom regularly attend his services. He 
either preaches from notes or else ex- 
temporaneously. He does not use man- 
uscript or written sermons. 



He is a ready writer, in a clear, con- 
cise style, and has written a great deal 
for the press, mostly for the religious 
press. He contributed material for 
"The Lutherans in America," by Rev. 
E.J. Wolf, D.D.. He has written a 
number of sermons, and has one now in 
the hands of the printer on ''The Doc- 
trine of the Trinity," which is being 
published in pamphlet form. It will 
soon make its appearance before the 
public. He also has an able sermon on 
"Future Punishment," which deserves 
publication in a permanent form. It 
would make a neat little volume. His 
writings have been greatly appreciated, 
as has been fully attested in the many 
handsome compliments paid him. 

He received the degree of Master of 
Arts from his Alma Mater at the tenth 
Annual Commencement in May, 1880. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



765 



KEV. M. L. STOEVER, Ph.D., LL.D. 



Prof. Martin Luther Stoever, Ph. D., 
LL.D., V as born in Germantown, a 
district of Philadelphia, February 17, 
1820. His preliminary education was 
received in the Germantown Acaderay, 
iu his native place. But in 1833, at 
the age of thirteen, he went to Gettys- 
burg, Pa , and entered the preparatory 
department of Pennsylvania College. 
In 1834 he was admitted to the Fresh- 
man class in that institution. At the 
very beginning of his course he took 
high rank as a student, and maintained 
this until his graduation, in 1838, his 
graduation appointment being the La- 
tin Salutatory. In ihe fall of 1838 he 
took charge of a school in Jefferson, 
Maryland, where he made many friends, 
and was looked np to as authority in all 
matters. At the earnest request of the 
board, in the fall of 1849, he returned 
to Gettysburg, and assumed the charge 
of the Preparatory department of Penn- 
sylvania College. At different times, 
subsequently, he taught almost every 
branch of study in the college while 
exercising a general oversight as prin- 
cipal of the Preparatory department. 

During the presidency of Dr. Krauth, 
Prof. Stoever lived m the college build- 
ing, and acted as president pro tem. 
During the last ten or twenty years of 
his life, his attention was devoted to in- 
struction in Latin, in the teaching of 
which branch he was entirely at home, 
and felt a deep interest in the progress 
of his pupils. He died July 22, 1870, 
in Philadelphia, at the close of a college 
year of excessive work, and at the end 
of the thirty-first year of his connection 
with the institution as instructor. Out- 
side of college duties, his literary labors 
were almost entirely confined to the 
Evangelical Quarterly Review, in every 



number of which, from its inauguration 
in 1849, with the exception of two 
issues, one or more articles from his pen 
appeared. Associated in its editorship 
for several years with Drs. Reynolds 
and Krauth, he became sole editor and 
proprietor in 1862, and closed its life 
with his own with its twenty- first volume 
in 1870. He published also memoirs 
of Revs. H. M. Muhlenberg, D. D., and 
P. F. Mayer, D. D., and several address- 
es delivered on special and public oc- 
casions. He received the degree of 
Ph. D., from Hamilton College, N. Y., 
in July, 1866, and that oi LL. D., from 
Union College, New York, in July, 
1869, both of which came unexpectedly 
to the recipient, his friends having se- 
cured these honors unknown to him. 

Prof. Stoever was several times asked 
to take charge of female seminaries, but 
these he declined ; also the invitation to 
the presidency of Girard College, in 
Philadelphia, and the professorship of 
Latin in Muhlenburg College, Allen- 
town, Pa., tendered to him in 1869. He 
was prominently connected with the 
Christian Commission during the late 
civil war, was well known among all 
denominations, and had many friends 
all over this country, and in England, 
Scotland and Ireland. He was beloved 
by all his friends. 

The distinctive traits of Dr. Stoever 
were: His genial, kind-hearted, unef- 
fected, and I may call it, beautiful 
disposition; his open-handed, generous 
hospitality; his accurate scholarship in 
his department; his assiduity in keep- 
ing afloat the Review; in traveling in 
its interests he did much for Pennsyl- 
vania College by securing students; 
the church owes him a debt of gratitude 
by drawing out thereby much valuable 



766 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



literary material; he rescued frora 
oblivion many an important and interest- 
ing biographical and historical fact; 
his extensive acquaintance in other 
churches where he favorably represented 
our own; his persistent refusal to have 
our church, though repeatedly ap- 
proached with tempting offers from 
institutions in other cliurches; his 
special efficiency during and after the 



battle of Gettysburg and his untiring 
labors in the Christian Commission work 
for some months after the battle; his 
original purpose to enter the ministry 
and his being deterred by his hesitancy 
of speech; his habit of charitably con- 
struing the conduct of others — always 
putting the most favorable construction 
on their actions. This was a strong 
point of his character. — Morris. 




EEV. K. F. F. STOHLMANK D.D. 



Dr. Stohlmanu was born the 21st of 
February, 1810, in Kleinbremen, near 
Buckeburg. His father, who was 
teacher there, soon observed that the 
son was talented and sent him to the 
Gymnasium at Buckeburg. At this 
school he received the necessary educa- 
tion in the classical and modern lan- 
guages to enter the university. His 
professors, having noticed his rare gifts, 
during his ten years' course at the 
Gymnasium, encouraged his father to 
have him enter upon the study of 
theology. The father followed their ad- 
vice and sent him to the University at 
Halle, where he received instruction by 



the pious Professors Tholuck, Guericke, 
Harlesz, and others. It was chiefly 
through his friend and fellow-student at 
Halle, the Eev. Dr. C. E. Coszman, now 
(1890) of Nova Scotia, that he con- 
ceived the idea of coming to America 
after having finished his course at the 
university. On June 20, 1834, his father, 
with a family consisting of seven per- 
sons, emigrated to America, arriving at 
Erie, Pa., in the latter part of Septem- 
ber, 1834. It was not long before young 
Stohlmann was requested, by Germans 
who lived in Erie, to preach to them on 
Sundays, which he gladly consented to 
do. In the meantime he joined tbe 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



767 



Pittsburg Synod and was ordained^ to 
the holy ministry, having accepted a 
call to three small congregations in and 
about Erie, which he had himself or- 
ganized. In 1838 he accepted a call to 
St. Matthew's German Lutheran Church 
at New York. Durin^f his labors 



in 



New York he founded St. Mark and St. ried in 1836, 



Luke, both German Lutheran churches. 
In 1856 Capital University, of Colum- 
bus, O., conferred upon him the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity. AVith marked 
success Dr. Stohlmann labored in New 
York for about thirty years. He died 
May 3, 1868. Dr. Stohlmann was mar- 




REV. CHARLES A. STORK, D.D. 



Rev. Charles Augustus Stork, D. D., 
son of Theophilus and Mary Jane 
(Lynch) Stork, was born near Jefferson, 
Frederick Co., Md., September 4, 1838. 
He received his preparatory training at 
Gettysburg, Pa., andHartwick Seminary, 
N. Y. Graduated from Williams College 
in 1857. Pursued his theological course 
at Andover. Was licensed in 1868. 
Became Professor of Greek at Newberry 
College, 1859-60. Ordained in 1861 and 
took charge of St. James', Philadelphia, 
Pa., 1861-2; and St. Mark's, Baltimore, 
Md., 1862-1881. In 1881 he was elected 
to the chair of Didactic Theology in the 
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and Chair- 
man of the Faculty, which relations he 
sustained until the time of his death. 



Was Director of Pennsylvania College, 
and of the Theological Seminary. Presi- 
dent of the Board of Foreign Missions 
of the General Synod, 1877-1883. Degree 
of Doctor of Divinity was conferred 
upon him by the Pennsylvania College 
in 1874. Published many articles in 
the Evangelical Review, Lutheran Quarterly, 
etc. Co-editor of the Lutheran Missionary 
Journal and of the Lutheran Quarterly, 
published at Gettysburg. He died of 
throat disease, December 17, 1883, at 
the German Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa., 
where he was under the special treatment 
of Dr. J. Solis Cohen. His age was 45 
years, 3 mouths and 13 days. He is 
buried at Andover, Mass. 



768 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



EEV. CHARLES A. G. STORK. 



Rev. Charles Augustus Grottlieb Stork 
was born on the 16th of June, 176i, 
near Helmstadt, in the Duchy of Bruns- 
wick. His father, George Fredrich 
Stork was a merchant of Helmstadt, and 
gave his son the best educational ad- 
vantages which the country afforded. 
His parents were both exemplary Chris- 
tians, and spared no pains to imbue him 
early with the principles and spirit of 
true religion. At the age of fifteen he 
was received into the Church by the 
rite of confirmation, and, about the 
same time, became a member of the 
high school in his native place, where 
he continued for three years. Having 
gone through the prescribed course, 
and been pronounced properly qualified 
by Professor Windeberg, the director 
of the Institution, he was admitted into 
the University of Helmstadt in 1782. 
Here also he remained for three years, 
giving his"" attention principally to the 
science of theology, with an intention 
of devoting himself to the Christian 
ministry. In 1785, his course at the 
university being now completed, he be- 
came tutor to the children of a noble- 
man residing at Hadenburg, an appoint- 
ment which he received through the in- 
fluence of the Rev. Mr. Velthusen, by 
whom he had, in his youth, been con- 
firmed. He continued in this position 
one year, when, in consequence of the 
removal of his patron to Hanover, he 
accepted the situation of private teacher 
in the family of a merchant residing in 
the vicinity of Bremen. Here he re- 
main d two years, and it was while he 
was thus engaged that an application 
was made to him to undertake a mission 
to this Western Continent. A petition 
from a number of members of the 
Lutheran Church in North Carolina had 



been received, accompanied by a com- 
munication from the Rev. Adolphus 
Nussman, who had been sent as a mis- 
sionary to this country in 1733, and 
who had, for several years, been labor- 
ing, in great poverty, earnestly implor- 
ing that additional help might be fur- 
nished to relieve the prevailing spiritual 
destitution. The request was forwarded 
to Mr. Yelthusen, and his attention was 
immediately directed to Mr. Stork as a 
person eminently fitted to engage in 
such an enterprise. The young man, 
after due reflection, expressed a willing- 
ness to go, and at once made arrange- 
ments for his departure, at the same 
time receiving from his Sovereign a 
written assurance that if, for any rea- 
son, he might choose to return, he 
should still retain his claim to promo- 
tion in the fatherland. As a candidate 
for the sacred office, he was then ex- 
amined, by order of the Duke, the ex- 
amination being conducted by five pro- 
fessors, and solemnly ordained as min- 
ister to North Carolina, by his pastor, 
who had, from the beginning, been his 
warm friend and generous benefactor. 
He left his native country in the spring 
of 1788, and, after a long and dangerous 
voyage, arrived in Baltimore, ( n the 
27th of June, and received from the 
brethren there a most cordial welcome. 
After remaining with them about six 
weeks, he passed on toward his future 
field of labor. He traveled to Charles- 
ton by sea, and there he purchased a 
horse, and, by an inland route, reached 
Pastor Nussman's residence in North 
Carolina, in the month of September. 

Mr. Stork, immediately after his ar- 
rival, was elected pastor of three con- 
gregations, one in Salisbury, where he 
took up his abode, and the others knowu 



I 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



769 



by the name of the Organ Church and 
the Pine Church. He also soon com- 
menced regular service in what was 
called the Irish Settlement. As the 
years passed on, he established other 
congregations in Rowan, Lincoln, and 
Cabarras Counties. Here he spent his 
days in a constant routine of most dili- 
gent and self-denying labor. He was re- 
peatedly invited to occupy other fields, 
and some of them among the most 
eligible within the bonds of the de- 
nomination, but he declined them all, 
in view of the great want of ministers 
in the region in which he had planted 
himself. He lived in Salisbury seven- 
teen years, and was privileged to witness 
the most gratifying results from his 
labors. During the first two years of 
his residence in this place, he was do- 
mesticated in the house of Lewis Beard, 
whose daughter, Christina, he married 
on the 14th of January, 1790. They 
had eleven children, one of whom is 
the Rev. Dr. T. Stork, of Baltimore. 

In the year 1787 he made a journey 
to the North, and attended the annual 
meeting of the Pennsylvania Synod, 
"to strengthen himself," as the record 
says "to renewed exertions in the service 
of his Divine Master." After his re- 
turn from the Synod, he not only con- 
tinued his labors in the congregations 
gathered in his immediate neighborhood, 
but also paid several visits to churches 
in South Carolina, Tennessee and Vir- 
ginia, which were without ministers. 

During the latter years of his life, Mr. 
Stork lived upon a farm, ten miles south 
of Salisbury, a central point between his 
congregations. His last six years, how- 
ever, were years of great physical in- 
firmity; but, though he was unable to 
perform regularly the services of the 
sanctuary, he embraced every private 
opportunity to do good among his 
people. During his last illness, which 
97 



was continued through several weeks, 
he manifested a spirit of unqualified 
submission to the Divine will, and of 
deep concern for the interests of the 
Church. Thoughts of Christ and salva- 
tion, and the glorious world beyond the 
grave, lingered in his mind, when the 
power of reflecting on any other subject 
seemed to have failed him. He died 
March 29, 1831, in the 'sixty-seventh 
year of his age. His remains were in- 
terred at the Organ Church, which had 
so long been the scene of his ministerial 
labors. 

Mr. Stork was a highly educated man, 
and, besides being a fine classical 
scholar, had a great amount of general 
knowledge. He had a large and valuable 
library, part of which he bequeathed to 
the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, 
while another portion of it passed into 
the possession of the Collegiate Institute 
at Mount Pleasant, N. C. 

He had the reputation of being an 
eloquent and effective preacher in the 
German language. His discourses were 
interesting alike to the least and the 
most cultivated; for his thoughts were 
presented with such admirable per- 
spicuity that the most illiterate could 
comprehend them; and yet they were 
so rich, and elevated, and often power- 
ful, that the best educated minds could 
not but admire them. In the pastoral 
relation he was a model of tenderness, 
diligence and fidelity. He was always, 
when present, chosen president of the 
Synod, and took a deep interest in every- 
thing involving the prosperity of the 
Church. Young men often resorted to 
him for aid in their preparation for the 
ministry; and they found him an able 
and thorough theological teacher. His 
manners were quiet and unobtrusive, 
his spirit cheerful and genial, and every 
thing about him partook of a beautiful 
childlike simplicity. — Sprague. 



770 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



REY. T. STORK, D.D. 



As to its external facts and changes, 
Dr. Stork's life may be easily told. 
Eternity alone can unfold the full extent 
of the work he did. The most useful 
and influential life is not always marked 
by the greatest changes or crowded with 
the most exciting . incidents. He was 
born in North Carolina, where his father 
preached the gospel with marked and 
blessed results. He was early brought to 
Christ, and became at once an open and 
pronounced Christian. His education 
was secured in the institutions of the 
church at Gettysburg, in which he took 
advanced grade, and where his memory 
is still fondly cherished. Entering the 
ministry about the year 1837, his first 
labors were given to Winchester, Ya. 
Of the character and results of his first 
ministry I feel authorized to speak with 
confidence, as it was my good fortune, 
in after years, to occupy the same pulpit. 
Even to this day he is there remembered 
with undiminished confidence and afi^ec- 
tion, and hia efforts spoken of in terms 
of highest praise. For long years his 
friends of that congregation maintained 
frequent communication with him, aud 
consulted him freely upon questions of 
mutual interest. 

During his ministry in that place the 
present church edifice was projected, 
and many of the most active and most 
zealous members of the congregation, 
who have ever since adorned the doctrine 
of God their Savior in all things, were 
brought into the church. From Win- 
chester he came to Philadelphia as pastor 
of St. Matthew's, and thus, for the 
second time, I have become his successor, 
entering into his labors. In this city 
his public ministerial life is known and 
read of all men. He was faithful in all 
things, and successful, in more than an 



ordinary degree, in leading sinners to 
the Saviour. The additions to the 
membership, and the strong, undying 
attachments of those received, ^ive full 
and satisfactory evidence of his power 
over men and of his fidelity to Christ. 
"The memory of the just is blessed," 
and we listen to-day, with a sad and 
chastened interest, to the unstinted 
praises and strong utterances of undying 
attachment from many sorrowing hearts 
of those who, ia long years past, called 
Dr. Stork their pastor, and received the 
word of the Lord from his lips. "He 
being dead yet speaketh" in the works 
and words of a large and loving spiritual 
family. 

Realizing then already the need of 
enlarged and advanced church accom- 
modations, Dr. Stork proposed the enter- 
prise of a new congregation in the 
rapidly increasing northwest section of 
the city. Leading the movement in 
person, he succeeded beyond expectation 
in building St. Mark's congregation. 
As in each field of labor, so in this; his 
works do follow him. In all that St. 
Mark's has been and may yet become, 
the merit of its founding, as well as the 
wisdom of its timely inception, will be 
given to Dr. Stork. In this, as in all 
his movements, he showed genuine pro- 
gressive courage and unfaltering child- 
like faith. He had faith in God and in 
God's word. He saw there was need and 
the ability to supply that need, and un- 
hesitatingly assumed the responsibility 
of guiding and consummating the move- 
ment; and, by God's grace and man's 
help, he succeeded. Let his success 
inspire many similar movements in this 
and in all the cities of our land, until 
all who need are supplied as advan- 
tageously as are those who followed him 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



771 



so readily in founding that new monu- 
ment to his memory. 

From the pulpit of St. Mark's Dr. 
Stork was called to the presidency of 
Newberry College, S. C. To this new 
field of labor he gave his maturist efforts, 
and very soon gave promise of being as 
acceptable as a teacher as he had been 
as a preacher. The hope of improving 
his impaired health exercised no little 
influence in deciding the question of his 
change of occupation and location. The 
milder winters of the south and the 
change of surroundings it was hoped 
would affect him beneficially. Not 
without hesitation, yet with much char- 
acteristic enthusiasm, he entered this 
new and untried work, hoping, if possibly 
in wider sphere, by educating the future 
educators of the Church, to serve the 
cause he loved so well. But, ere he 
could become fairly engaged and in- 
terested, and his aptness or success 
become apparent, the disturbed condition 
of the country so far interfered with the 
conduct of the institution, and the 
prospect of the early adjustment of our 
civil difficulties was so unsatisfactory, 
that Dr. Stork very soon resigned and 
retired from the college, and once more 
held himself in readiness to serve his 
day and generation in the pastoral 
office. 

Nor did he long wait for an engage- 
ment. St, Mark's Church, Baltimore, 
thankfully seized the opportunity, and 
urged his acceptance of their call to be- 
come pastor of their newly organized 
congregation. To this he readily ac- 
ceded, and at once became a favorite 
within and without his charge. Under 
his faithful and affectionate care the 
church grew in every element of con- 
gregational strength, and now, under the 
charge of his son, is one of the most 
active and liberal congregations of our 
Church. Serving this people until his 



own son was prepared to assume charge 
thereof, Dr. Stork once more returned 
to Philadelphia, so dear to him by the 
most cherished associations. He was 
welcomed anew by hosts of devoted 
friends, who rejoiced in the prospect of 
long continued association with him. 

Nor was he long disengaged. In this 
immediate locality he saw the need of a 
church, and began the unpromising 
work of establishing it. Circumstances 
interfered with the consummation of his 
original purpose, and the gradual failure 
of his health, attended at times with 
alarming symptoms, compelled a new 
line of engagement and a change of labor. 

Gifted as a ready, ornate and accept- 
able writer, with strong literary tastes 
and long culture, he prepared his own 
productions for the press, all of which 
met with a flattering reception, and 
served with untiring interest in the 
work of the Publication Society of our 
Church. 

The last issue of the Lutheran Home 
Monthly, appearing about the same day 
with his death, contains his last literary 
labor, and, by a most singular and touch- 
ingly interesting coincidence, its leading 
editorial has the striking title, "I am 
now ready." 

We believe he was ready, awaiting 
Christ's coming. He was an humble 
Christian, that highest style o? man, 
called, redeemed, pardoned, and accepted 
in Jesus Christ. 

He was a faithful Christian minister, 
devoted to his calling and "steadfast in 
the faith." He was an exemplary ser- 
vant of Jesus Christ, doing his Master's 
will with all alacrity, and seeking ever 
to advance his Master's interests. Thus 
did he live and labor, and, in dying, 
could with all meekness, say, "I am 
ready to be offered, and the time of my 
departure is at hand." — Morris. 



772 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



REV. CHRISTIAN STEEIT. 



Rev. Christian Streit was of Swiss ex- 
traction, but was born in the state of 
New Jersey, on the 7th of June, 1749. 
Of his very early years nothing can now 
be ascertained. He was graduated at 
the College of Philadelphia (now the 
University of Pennsylvania), in 1768. 
He pursued his theological studies un- 
der the direction of Dr. Henry Melchoir 
Muhlenberg, and was licensed to preach 
the gospel by the Synod of Peonsylvania, 
in 1769. The same year he took charge 
of the Lutheran church in Easton, Pa., 
where he continued for ten years. 

Mr. Streit served, for a lime, as chap- 
Iain in the war of the Revolution, being 
in the service of the Third Virginia 
Regiment. He was subsequently settled 
as pastor of a congregation in Charles- 
ton, S. C. During the sacking of that 
city by the British in 1780, he was taken 
prisoner, and held as such until liberated 
by exchange. The cause of his capture 
was undoubtedly his steadfast adherence 
to the principles of the Revolution. 
Being obliged to leave his field of labor 
at the South, he came to the state of 
Virginia, and, in July, 1782, took charge 
of the congregation at New Hanover, 
with three other associated churches. 
Here he remained for some time, but, on 
the 19th of July, 1785, assumed the pas- 
torate of the church in Winchester, Va., 
which also included a part of the Rev. 
(afterwards General) John Peter Muh- 
lenberg's charge, at Strasburg. This 
church increased rapidly under his min- 
istry, and, at the first two communion 
seasons after he took charge of it, there 
were sixty -five added by the rite of con- 
firmation, by which the membership was 
more than doubled. 

But Mr. Streit's labors were not con- 
fined to Winchester and the immediate 



vicinity. The field of his operations em- 
braced a circuit of more than fifty miles. 
He acted as bishop of all the churches 
in that part of the Valley of Virginia, 
and laid the foundation of numerous 
congregations throughout that whole 
region. At first, he preached in the 
German as well as the English language, 
to accommodate a portion of his congre- 
gation who were more familiar with the 
German; but, in the course of time, a 
change occurred in the views and cir- 
cumstances of the people, which led 
him, in his latter years, to officiate ex- 
clusively in English. 

For twenty-seven years Mr. Streit 
labored diligently and successfully in 
this region, always bearing the character 
of an earnest Christian and a devoted 
minister. His death took place March 
10, 1812. Just before he breathed his 
last, he requested his daughter to sing 
to him his favorite hymn, — "When I can 
read my title clear," etc. He died in 
the fulness of humble trust and joyful 
hope. Amidst a deeply sorrowing mul- 
titude, his remains were committed to the 
tomb, in front of the pulpit from which 
he had been accustomed to minister. 

Mr. Streit was first married to Anna 
Maria Hoff, in Charleston, S. C, in 1778. 
She died at New Hanover, Pa., in 1782. 
The next year he was married to Salona 
GraflP, of Philadelphia, who died in 1788. 
In 1789 he was married to Susan Burr, 
of Winchester, who survived him. She 
is represented as having been a woman 
of extraordinary energy and persever- 
ance. By her own exertions she sup- 
ported a large family, declining the 
generous offers of several i.ersons, of 
different Christian denominations, to 
educate the children at their own expense. 

Mr. Streit is represented as having 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



773 



been a man of a delicate and rather 
feeble frame, a placid expression of 
countenance, a quiet, gentle disposition, 
inclining somewhat to melancholy, of 
bland and affable manners, and of a 
large share of benevolence. In his in- 
tercourse with his friends and with 
society at large he was most considerate 
and conciliatory. He was honored and 
reverenced by the whole community in 
which he lived, while his own people 
regarded him with an almost filial 
affection . He was especially devoted to 
the moral and religious interests of the 
youug, and, during his ministry at Win- 
chester, was accustomed to take two 



classes, every year, through the cate- 
chism. He was passionately fond of 
music, and spared no pains to improve 
the singing in his own congregation. In 
the absence of an organist, he was ac- 
customed to read the hymn from the 
pulpit, then repair to the gallery and 
play the organ and conduct the singing, 
and afterwards return to the pulpit and 
proceed with the services. He had great 
mechanical genius, as an evidence of 
which it is stated that he constructed a 
small organ for the use of one of his 
congregations, although he had never 
received any instruction in the art. — 
Sprague, 




REV. W. D. STROBEL, D.D. 



Dr. Strobel was born at Charleston, 
S. a, May 17th, 1808. His father was 
Captain John Strobel, and bis mother's 
maiden name was Mary Grace Beard. 
His mother's father was Col. Jonas 
Beard, who served in the Carolina Hue 
during the Revolutionary war. Rev. 
Nicholas Martin was the father of his 
grandmother. 

The early education of Dr. Frobel 
was obtained in the schools of Charles- 
ton. From six to ten years of age he 
attended a private school, most of the 
scholars being girls. From ten to four- 
teen he attended the German Friendly 
Society-school, taught by an Alsatian. 
There he acquired all the rudiments of 
an English education, with some know- 
ledge of Latin and French. His early 
predilections were for the ministry, but 
circumstances obliged him to turn his 
attention for a time to business,, and at 
the age of fourteen, in the year 1822, 
he entered the counting-room of Rich- 
ard Coafts, of Charleston, where he re- 



mained five years. He was connected 
for a number of years with a Sunday- 
school in the city, and on Whitsunday, 
]827, was confirmed by Rev. Dr. Bach- 
man. 

Circumstances now favored his origi- 
nal intention of becoming a minister, 
and an earnest appeal from the pulpit 
by the pastor deepened his convictions. 
On the 27th of June, 1827, in company 
with Dr. Bachman, he sailed for New 
York city, arriving at New York on 
the 3d of July. On the 10th of the 
same month he reached Hartwick Semi- 
nary, in charge of Rev. Dr. Hazelius. 
The class which he entered was a month 
in advance of him, but he joined it, and 
soon made up his deficiencies. Charles 
A. Smith and N. W. Geortner were his 
room mates. Dr. Geortner survives 
him, and assisted in his funeral services, 
delivering a tender tribute of respect to 
his memory. 

He was licensed to preach by the 
New York Ministerium, September, 



774 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



1829. The meeting of this body was 
held at that lime at Palatine. He 
preached his first sermon at Tribes Hill. 
In 1829 he returned to Charleston, S. C. 
On the 20th of November of the same 
year, he attended a meeting- of the South 
Carolina Synod at Savannah, Ga , and 
was appointed a missionary to labor in 
the counties south of the Saluda river. 
He had twelve regular preaching places, 
besides several occasional appointments. 
He was obliged to ride on horseback 
two hundred and fifty miles a month, 
and to preach almost daily, stopping 
with the people, who lived chiefly in 
log houses, and subsisted on the coarsest 
fare. 

In November, 1830, Synod requested 
him to take charge of the church in 
Columbia, and to supply, in connection 
therewith, four other points. In 1830 
he was ordained, in company with three 
others, all of whom have long since 
passed away. His ordination took place 
in St. Paul's Church, Newberry District, 
South Carolina. 

In July, 1831, he was called to become 
pastor of St. James' Lutheran Church, 
New York city, and accepted. He was 
then but twenty-three years of age. At 
that period there were only about two 
hundred Lutheran clergymen in the 
United States, mostly Germans. He 
married while pastor of this church, and 
would have celebrated his golden wed- 
ding had he lived about five months 
longer. He was pastor of St. James' 
till 1841. He then became principal 
of Hartwick Seminary, from which in- 
stitution he had graduated. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. from Ham- 
ilton College. 

In 1844 he went to Valatie, N. Y., to 
take charge of the church there, and 



labored with great success and pleasure 
in that church for six years and a half. 
In 1851 he removed to Red Hook, New 
I York, and took charge of the church in 
I that village, and also of the Stone 
Church. In 1860 he removed to Brook- 
lyn, and spent most of his time there in 
missionary work. In 1863 he removed 
to Middletow^n, Md., and was pastor of 
the church there until June, 1867. He 
then became identified with the Ameri- 
can Tract Society, in which position he 
served four years. In April, 1871, he 
accepted a call from the church in 
Williamsport, Md. ; but in order to be 
nearer to his children, most of whom 
live in New York city and Red Hook, 
only one daughter, Mrs. Levy, living 
in Frederick, Md., he accepted a call 
from the Lutheran church in the village 
of Rhinebeck, in 1873, where he served 
as pastor until 1881, when, on account 
of advancing age, he tendered his resig- 
nation. 

Dr. Strobel died on Saturday, the 6th 
of Dec, 1881, at half past six o'clock. 
Until within a few minutes of his de- 
parture, he was apparently in his usual 
health and good spirits. When his 
family were ready to sit down to supper, 
he complained of a pain in the region 
of his stomach, and sat down in a 
chair in his sitting room. Shortly after, 
he got up and walked into his parlor, 
and a moment afterward the members 
of his family heard a dull thud, as if 
some haavy object had fallen upon the 
floor of the parlor. His daughter, Mrs. 
Tyler, entered the room, and found him 
kneeling beside a chair. She laid her 
hand upon him and spoke to him, when 
he threw up his hands, and was dead. 
— Z). L. M. 




I 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



775 



KEV. H. A. STUB. 



Among tlie early pioneers of the Nor- 
wegian Lutheran Church in this country 
is the Rev. H. A. Stub. He was born 
near Bergen, Norway, May 13, 1822. 
HaviDg graduated from the Christiania 
University in 1846, he came to America 
in 1848 where he accepted a call as 
pastor to Muskego, Racine Co, Wis. 



After having served the Muskego con- 
gregation for about seven years he 
accepted a call in 1855 to Norwegian 
congregations on Coon Prairie, Wiscon- 
sin. In 1861 he returned to his native 
country, where he served as pastor until 
1865, when he again came to America, 
and accepted a charge in Big Canoe, la. 




REY. PROF. HANS G. STUB. 



Prof. Hans Gerhard Stub was born 
in Muskego, Racine Co., Wis., February 
23, 1849, his father, the Rev. Hans 
Andreas Stub, being at that time pastor 
of a congregation at that place. In 1866 
he graduated from Luther College, 
Decorah, Iowa, and six years later, 1872, 
from the Concordia Theological Sem- 
inary at St. Louis, Mo. Immediately 
after his graduation from the seminary 
he entered upon his labors as pastor of 
a Norwegian Lutheran Church at Minne- 
apolis, Minn. After having served this 
congregation for about six years he was 
called in 1878 by the Norwegian Synod 
as professor of theology in Luther Sem- 



inary, then located at Madison, Wis., of 
which institution he served as president 
from 1S79 to 1888. 

Prof. Stub is still laboring in the 
capacity of theological professor at 
Luther Seminary, which has lately been 
removed to Parker Station, a beautiful 
place between Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

Prof. Stub is a highly cultured Chris- 
tian gentleman, who is possessed of a 
vigorous, richly endowed and well-bal- 
anced mind. He has good logical powers, 
and an exact and cultivated taste. As 
a scholar, he is said to have few equals 
in the Norwegian Lutheran Church of 
America. 




REV. J. H. W. STUCKENBERG, D.D. 



Among the many renowned and learned 
men who have gone out from old Wit- 
tenberg, the name of Dr. Stuckenberg 
stands eminently conspicuous. In a few 
years he has made a most remarkable 
record as a teacher, scholar and author; 
and to-day he enjoys a reputation that 
is trans-atlantic. 



He was born in Bramsche, Hanover, 
Jan. 6, 1835. His parents came to 
America when he was but four years 
old. His youth was spent amid the 
hardships and severe struggles of pov- 
erty and pioneer life in America, — twin 
jailors of an aspiring mind — and entire- 
ly without intellectual advantages. He 



776 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




KEV. J. H, W. STUCKENBERG, D. D. 



spent part of this time in Pittsburg, In- 
diana and Cincinnati, when, through the 
influence of his pastor, Dr. W. H. Har- 
rison, he was induced to go to Witten- 
berg College in his eighteenth year to 
prepare for the ministry. He became a 
willing and an active student. He was 
a member of the Excelsior Society, 
which he represented at contests both 
as orator and debater, with great credit. 
He graduated in 1857 with first honor; 
studied theology one year, that being 
the course then at Wittenberg, and be- 
came pastor of the Lutheran church in 
Davenport, la., in the fall of 1859. In 
September, 1859, he started for Halle, 
Germany, and studied theology and 
philosophy for a year and a half, under 
Tholuck, Julius Mueller, Huffeld and 
Erdmann. He returned to America at 
the outbreak of the war, and became 
first pastor of the church in Erie, Pa. 
In September, 1862, he was appointed 
chaplain of the 145th Pennsylvania vol- 
unteers, which position he occupied 



thirteen months, being present at the 
battles of Fredricksburg, Chancellors- 
ville, and Gettysburg. He returned to 
his church in Erie in 1863, and went 
thence to Germany again in 1865; 
studied at Goettingen, Berlin, (under 
Dr. Dorner) and at Tubingen (under 
Beck), nearly eighteen months. On his 
return he became supply of the In- 
dianapolis church for one year. Then 
he organized the Messiah Church in 
Pittsburg, Pa. In 1873 he accepted a 
call to the Theological Seminary of 
Wittenberg College, as Professor of 
Sacred Philology; and before he was 
forty years old Wooster University con- 
ferred the high degree, Saerae Theologice 
Doctor. Dr. Stuckenberg filled this 
chair for seven years with great credit 
and honor to the institution. The Wit- 
tenherger of 1880 speaks of him: "It was 
with feelings of deep regret that the 
students of the Seminary received the 
announcement of Dr. Stuckonberg's de- 
parture for Europe. None have' had 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



777 



better opportunities to become acquaint- 
ed with his most excellent qualities of 
head and heart, and none more fully 
recognize in him an eminent scholar, 
able, rich in learning, with broad and 
liberal views — a teacher deeply in earn- 
est, one who carries to the lecture room 
the results of the most careful and 
searching investigation, and one who 
shows in the masterly treatment of his 
subjects, the thorough student and pro- 
gressive scholar." 

Dr. Stuckenberg still resides in Berlin 
in order to carry out his long cherished 
plans of study abroad. He has received 
numerous calls from pastorates and col- 
leges in America, but all have been de- 
clined in order to permit him to continue 
the enjoyment of superior intellectual 
advantages of Berlin. He is pastor of 
the American Church in Berlin, whose 
attendants are mostly from abroad for 
observation and educational purposes. 

Dr. Stuckenberg has a remarkable 
physique. He is over six feet tall, 
weighs almost two hundred pounds, and 
is as manly in his bearing as an army 
officer. He has a quick step and a flash- 
ing blue eye that marks him as a 
character of aggressive force. He is 
of pure German type and of an unusual 
cast. He is a man of marked action 
and commanding presence, and wherever 
seen is at once recognized as a man of 
note and distinction. 

While in Erie, Pa., he married Mary 
E. Gingrich, who has proved herself a 
most estimable and talented lady. Mrs. 
Dr. Stuckenberg has entered, with her 
husband, into the literary field. She is 
a contributor to the Evangelist, Observer, 
and Homiletic Review^ etc. She is a trans- 
lator of German and French sermons, 
and has translated some excellent Ger- 
man books. 

The Doctor, while in America, was 
ever untiring in the advancement of our 
98 



Church and in all helpful means. In 
1867 he made the motion to start the 
first German paper of the General Synod 
(Kirchenfreund), and was for years the 
chairman of the committee managing 
the paper. He was editor of the Evan- 
gelist from its origin for about three 
years, and under his writing the paper 
made commendable progress. At the 
meeting of the General Synod in Carth- 
age, 111., he moved that a committee be 
appointed for the purpose of organizing 
a Woman's Missionary Society of the 
General Synod. The Doctor was made 
chairman of that committee, and the 
burden of the work fell upon him. This 
is a fact worthy of special mention 
because of the success of this movement 
and its great work and influence in our 
church. Its successful inauguration 
was not an easy task. There were strong 
prejudices and loud croakings against 
the movement from many wary heads. 
These lasted until just a few years ago, 
when the eminent success of the move- 
ment had been assured; then the 
opponents came in at the back door, 
and stood at the front and said : "Behold 
what we have done!" Notwithstanding 
the indifference and opposition the Doc- 
tor and his faithful wife were untiring 
in preparing the way. They made visits 
to different places to advocate the cause; 
wrote numerous letters on the subject 
and constantly urged the matter through 
the columns of the Evangelist, of which 
he was editor. The work was extremely 
difficult, but with the help of other warm 
and enthusiastic friends, the organization 
was accomplished in 1879 at Canton, 
O., chiefly through Doctor and Mrs. 
Stuckenberg, who devoted years of labor 
to the cause. 

Among articles furnished to magazines 
are: One every month for the Homiletic 
Review on "Current Religious Thought 
of Continental Europe;" for the same, 



778 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



articles on Socialism, Religious Doubt, 
Is the Pulpit Declining in power? etc. 
Fov Andover Review, and other papers, 
articles on Theological and Religious 
Tendencies in Germany, Liberal Edu- 
cation in Germany, Ranke and his 
Method, Tholuck, Science and Religion. 
He has been an incessant worker with 
his pen and brain. His literary activity 
began with his first visit to Germany in 
1859, and has continued to increase, 
until to-day we find him engaged in a 
vast amount of most useful literary work. 
He, in connection with Dr. W. L. Gage, 
in 1866 translated "German Rational- 
from the works of Hagenbach. 



ism, 



The book was published by T. & T. 
Clarke, Edinburg, and forms a part of 
the Foreign Theological Library. This 
is a most readable and useful book, and 
should be read by all students. In 1867 
he published the Ninety-five Theses for 
the semi-centennial of the Reformation. 
During his second visit to Germany as 
a student, he gathered the material for 
his ^'History of the Augsburg Confes- 
sion," published in 1869 by the Lutheran 
Publication Society. Professor Prince 
says of the book: 'The history of this 
event Dr. Stuckenberg has graphically 
set forth in his work. He spent many 
months in the libraries of Germany, 
where he had access to much valuable 
information bearing on this subject, and 
he has given a clear and valuable state- 
ment of the successive acts of this great 
drama." The next publication was in 
1880, a new book from a new field, 
"Christian Sociology." It was reprinted 
without the author's knowledge in Lon- 
don, in 1881. We have before us a 
large pamphlet filled with commendatory 
notices from all parts of the continent, 
but we prefer to quote from the author 
himself: "Why leave the most important 
civil and social question of the day to 
the solution of a worldly philosophy 



and a godless political economy? Why 
not make the New Testament the test 
of all social theories?" This is the key 
to the new subject to which he gives a 
separate department in Systematic Di- 
vinity. It is a book that will cast a new 
light on society and theology. 

Since his residence in Berlin he has 
published two very important and use- 
ful works, and has the third ready for 
the press. The first is the life of Im- 
manuel Kant (Macmillan & Co., Lon- 
don, 1882), the most complete biogra- 
phy of this philosopher extant, pub- 
lished uniform with. Max Mueller's ex- 
cellent translation of the "Kritik of 
Pure Reason." The London Literary 
World says: Dr. Stuckenberg's work will 
deserve a place beside Dr. Caird's mas- 
terly summary of his philosophical sys- 
tem. The Scotch professor has given 
us a criticism of the father of the 
critical philosophy which leaves noth- 
ing to be derived, and now this Amer- 
ican professor has stepped in to supply 
the details of his life with the utmost 
pains-taking and almost hero-worship- 
ing minuteness." This scholarly work, 
the result of much research, received 
most favorable notices both in America 
and Europe. Among German scholars 
it was reviewed by Prof. Yailinger, the 
learned Kant critic; the philosopher 
Ulrici, of Hale, spoke in his journal of 
the research and impartiality of the 
author, and of reliability and com- 
petence of the work. Mind, of London, 
and numerous journals spoke very high- 
ly of the work and its value as a contri- 
bution to Kantian literature. 

In the fall of 1885, Funk & Wagnals, 
of New York, published an anonymous 
volume entitled, "The Final Science or 
Spiritual Materialism." This book is 
directed against the popular scientists 
who get their materialistic theories 
second hand and then aim them at the 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



779 



overthrow of religion and morality. The 
aim of this volume is a reductio ad 
ahsurdum. It is a work that combines 
science, philosophy and theology, and 
in certain circles produced quite a sen- 
sation. Enthusiastic notices appeared 
in numerous English journals. The 
Scottish Review says: "Whoever the 
author of this book is, he is deficient 
neither in wit nor humor. His acquain- 
tance with modern scientific and jphilo- 
sophical theories is evidently large, and 
quite sufficient to mark him out as one 
who is well acquainted with the sciences 
of the day, while the ease with which 
he carries his weight of learning and 
the faculty with which he manipulates 
his varied stores of knowledge, and not 
less his trenchant logic and pungent 
raillery, prove him to be a capable 
thinker and an extremely attractive de- 
bater, at least with his pen. Instead of 
being a defence of materialism, the book 
is a genuinely humorous satire upon it. 
A more effective piece of satire we have 
not seen for some time. The author is 
thoroughly acquainted with all the more 
recent developments of materialism, and 
pokes his fun at them most unmerci- 
fully. The author of this exceedingly 
clever book has something more im- 
portant in view than the mere^ exhibition 
of his power or ridicule. His aim is 
nothing less than to undermine the 
hold which materialism has upon many, 
and to show its inadequacy as a theory 
of things." 

In his recent work on "The Philo- 
sophy of Religion," Prof. Teichmueller 
of Dorpat, Russia, speaks with enthus- 
iasm of the book as overthrowing ma- 
terialism and agnosticism with genuine 
Socratic irony and humor, and as advo- 
cating healthy Christianity and sound 
metaphysics. 

And now for the first, I take great 
pleasure in the high honor of announc- 



ing to the American public that an 
Alumnus of Wittenberg college, Dr; J. 
H. W. Stuckenberg, is the author of 
the famous "The Final Science," pub- 
lished anonymously a little over a year 
ago. The name of the author has just 
come out in Europe, and we are glad 
that Dr. Stuckenberg is the author of 
such a famous book. 

Prof. Teichmueller attributed the 
work to a friend of his in America, who 
sent him . the book, but afterwards 
learned from this same friend that he 
was not the author, but that it was the 
work of Dr. Stuckenberg, of Berlin. 
The philosopher in Russia then cor- 
rected his mistake regarding the author 
of "The Final Science" in a large Ger- 
man journal. In this strange way and 
from that remote source the secret of 
its authorship has just been divulged. 

He further says: "That it reminds 
him of the healthy spirit found in Noah 
Porter's works, and it suggests the 
works of Dean Swift; and that with 
superior skill it exposes the illogical 
character of modern materialism, Dar- 
winism, Positivism, Spencerism and 
atheism. 

Prof. Teichmuller will make extracts 
from "Final Science" for another work 
that he will publish this year. The 
Philosophical Society of Berlin has ap- 
pointed one of its members to give a 
report of the book at one of their meet- 
ings. This reception on the part of 
the German thinkers is particularly 
gratifying. Dr. Stuckenberg expects to 
publish this year a work on "The In- 
troduction to the Study of Philosophy." 
In 1884 he was elected an active mem- 
ber of the Philosophical Society of 
Berlin, which was a very high honor. 

In these brief facts and sketches of 
his work we see the man, the teacher, 
the scholar and the author, gaining 
fame that is world wide, and Witten- 



780 



AMEBIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



berg is proud of this, her famous son. 
Long may he live and soon may he re- 
turn. A very scholarly gentleman calls 



Dr. Stuckenberg the greatest scholar 
and author in America. — Hist. Witt. 
College. 




REV. F. SPRINGER, D.D. 



In biography the time and place of 
birth with mention of the parents, are 
needful only as helps to the character 
of the subject. 

Of the father and mother of Francis 
Springer very little remembrance is re- 
tained. More than three-fourths of a 
century ago the earth closed over the 
mortal body of the mother, and only a 
few years later, of the father, in Frank- 
lin County, Pennsylvania. They were 
of the laboring class. They died young, 
leaving two children, Elizabeth the 
elder and her infant brother, Francis. 
There was no inheritance except the 
name and the blessing which ensues 
from the mother's consecration of her 
children to Him who pleads: "Suffer th 



little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not." 

The father, John Springer, was a 
miner employed in one of the iron veins 
of Pennsylvania. In the war of 1812, 
he laid aside his pick and shovel and 
accepted a musket, as an enlisted sol- 
dier in the army under command of 
Gen. Andrew Jackson, as against, the 
insolent British invasion, by an army of 
12,000 men under Gen. Pakenham. 

The scant family tradition fixes the 
nineteenth of March, 1810, as the 
date of the infant's birth, afterwards, 
at his baptism, named Francis; the 
place, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. 
A short time before the decease of the 
father, he found homes for his mother- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



781 



less children in families so remote from 
each other that, for many years, the 
sister and brother knew not the where- 
abouts of one another. The girl's fos- 
ter-parents were in Pennsylvania, while 
by emigration, those of the boy became 
citizens of Maryland. The sister when 
come to her legal majority, became the 
wife of a worthy and industrious me- 
chanic, Henry Spangler. The later 
years of her life were spent in widow- 
hood, with a large family of children 
on her care. 

The checkered vicissitudes of the 
boy were alternations between depress- 
ing environments of ignorance, poverty 
and viscious example on one hand, and 
frequent hoiDe-inspiring gleams of bet- 
terment on the other. To Mrs. Maria 
8hooff, his excellent foster-mother, he 
seemed as her own child, and being the 
oldest child in the family, he soon be- 
came useful as a helper to take care of 
tiie younger members of the growing 
household. Mr. Sliooff, the head of the 
family, allowed him six months school- 
ing, and this was all the school-going 
which fell to his lot until, about 1829, 
he entered the preparatory department 
(called the Gymnasium) of Penn- 
sylvania College at Gettysburg. Here, 
up to that date, occurred the cruelest 
experience of his whole life, the com- 
pulsion laid upon him by Prof. David 
Jacobs, to begin his course of study by 
committing to memory the definitions, 
declensions and conjugations in Koss' 
Latin Grammer. The unrelenting final- 
ity and the stern severity of the Pro- 
fessor's look, voice and manner awed 
into reluctant submission a verdant 
youth who knew as little of English 
grammer as of Latin, but a more ef- 
fective beginning was never enjoined 
on a pupil; nor did ever a more valua- 
ble teacher minister to a learner. 

Lack of funds is the name for the pit 



in which he feared to be engulfed by 
yielding to ambition for a full collegiate 
course. Every student in college or 
seminary ought not to stop short of 
graduation in either. He did in both, 
and the omission has never ceased to be 
cause of regret. As a rule, the human 
being walks by steps whose course is 
wrapped in darkness. For all persons of 
honest purpose and trust in Him, God 
brings upon the path a radiance whose 
glow is brighter as the journey length- 
ens. Hence nothing is better for a 
youth than to seek God before the evil 
days come, and the years draw nigh of 
which it must be said, there is no pleas- 
ure in them. 

In the year 1825, when about sixteen 
years of age, he departed from Wil- 
liamsport on the Potomac, and went to 
Hagerstown, six miles distant. In this 
place he offered himself as an appren- 
tice and served four years to learn the 
trade of chair, sign and ornamental 
painting. His new home was in the 
family of Mr. G. Bender. With a letter 
of recommendation given him by a 
Christian gentleman doing business in 
Williamsport, he had no difiiculty in be- 
ing received on trial. The language of 
Mr. Bender was: "Come round to-mor- 
row and stay until I find out whether 
you'll suit me, and you'll know then if 
you'd like to stay with me." No other 
words of contract were ever after 
spoken, and without written inden- 
ture the ajjprentice continued with 
his master four years. Much as he 
loved the family of Mr. 81iooff, he easily 
adapted himself to the new situation 
and soon found friends. Here it was 
that environment stood for church-go- 
ing and Christianity. The family, con- 
sisting of three grown daughters and 
their parents, were regular in their 
church duties, and the '"prentice boy" 
yielded to the trend, just as a stream 



782 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



takes its course from the shape of the 
land. 

In due time, and with permission 
asked of the boss, the apprentice be- 
came a member of a class for special 
religious instruction. The instructor 
was Rev. Benjamin Kurtz, pastor of 
the then only Lutheran church in Ha- 
gerstown, Maryland. The lessons in 
the Catechism were promptly ( ommitted 
to memory and at the end of a series of 
well-directed lectures given by the de- 
vout and earnest pastor, the apjprentice, 
with many other young disciples, was 
admitted to membership in the church 
by confirmation. 

Thus he had reached the decisive 
step which was destined to control the 
whole future of his life. The first sug- 
gestion that he should acquire an edu- 
cation with a view to the ministry of 
the Gospel seemed to him marvelously 
out of place, too poor, too ignorant, too 
weak in voice, body and mind, and 
utterly unworthy of a work and an 
office so sacred, he for a long time, 
deemed it a sacrilege for him to enter- 
tain the thought. Constant attendance 
and participation iu the meetings for 
mutual instruction and the prayer- 
meeting resulted in a gradual unfolding 
which, more and more, inclined him to 
consent at last to go to the preparatory 
school of Pennsylvania College. 

In the midst of a religious fervor 
which was aglow at that time in Hagers- 
town, there was manifested by some 
good people a belief in supernatual 
ecstacies and visions as proof of genuine 
conversion. One of his spiritual ad- 
visors, a man of high standing as a citi- 
zen and a Christian worker,' told him 
with circumstantial preciseness of the 
miraculous illumination which, in an- 
swer to his agony of prayer for a sign 
from heaven, flooded his room and 
filled his soul with inexpressible glory. 



To that good brother's representations 
he could not do less than listen with a 
willing receptivity. So he betook him- 
self to the. seeking of a sign from on 
high, whereby he might be assured of 
his acceptance with God. He sought a 
sign similar to that of his senior in 
years and religious experience, an officer 
in the church. He became deeply 
troubled. Damaging doubt, confusion, 
and perplexity entered into conspiracy 
to destroy his Christian faith. To the 
present hour memory holds as a precious 
treasure the relief brought to him by 
the worthy pastor, Eev. Benjamin 
Kurtz, who taught him not to look for 
signs or wonders, but by faith to put 
his s^hole trust in Christ as his only 
Saviour. His apt and forcible quota- 
tions of scripture were assuring and 
comforting. 

That early experience in his religious 
life under the pastoral guidance of a 
man so able, so devout, so thoroughly 
versed in the scriptures, and so con- 
scientious,^ — was to him of priceless value . 
The whole drift was to fix his mind in 
that direction of Christian thought 
which has resulted in an apprehension 
of Christ and His teaching, — not so 
much as an externalism to enlist the at- 
tention of the bodily senses, as to a 
divine life seated in the mind and con- 
trolling the understanding, the will, the 
affections, and the conduct. Having 
received a clearer view of the Christian 
faith in its efficacy to enlighten, renew, 
and save the soul, the suggestion that 
he should enter upon a course of study 
for the ministry, gradually wrought in 
his mind a more pleasing impression. 
As already stated, he began his course 
of preparation at Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg. After about four years 
there and three years of labor and pri- 
vate reading, under the direction of 
Rev. Geo. A. Lintner, D.D., of Scho- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



783 



harie, N. Y., and of Rev. John "Winter, 
of Williamsport, Md., lie was licensed 
by the Lutheran Synod of Maryland, 
Oct. 18, 1836, and, by the same venerable 
body, ordained Oct. 17, 1837, 

On April 11, 1837, he was married to 
Miss Mary Kriegh, Washington Co., 
Md., the only daughter in a family of 
nine children. The remembrance of her 
is a sacred treasure in the hearts of her 
bereaved family and all who knew her. 
She was called to the other world 
March 22, 1884. 

In the spring of 1839, he removed 
from Maryland to Illinois, taking up his 
abode in Springfield, the capital of the 
state. Here he immediately sought and 
found opportunities to preach, as a duty 
he owed to the Church, and at the same 
time he announced himself as a teacher, 
and soon awoke to the realization of a 
large school, which brought support for 
nis family. In a few years his work as 
a teacher won for itself the name of a 
Boys' Academy, and was ni^merously 
attended. 

Sept. 19, 1841, he organized the first 
Lutheran church at the state capital. 
About the same time he organized a 
Lutheran church near the Buckhart 
Creek, there being at that date a colony 
of Lutherans, chiefly from Maryland, on 
the fertile lands adjacent to that stream. 
Removals by death and emigration have 
broken up the Lutheran church on the 
Buckhart, where Eevs. J P. Schnure, 
Prof. Suesserott, A. R. Height, Dr. S. 
W. Harkey, and others of our Church 
delighted to minister in holy things. 

The English Lutheran congregation 
of 1841, in the capital city, though for 
many years destitute of a house of wor- 
ship other than his school-room or the 
court house, eventually grew strong, 
and is now a flourishing association of 
Christian workers served as pastor by 
Rev. M. T: Troxell (1891). 



In the spring of 1847 he was induced 
to give up his work at Springfield for 
the sake of more exclusive and contin- 
uous service within the pale of the 
Church. This he was the more inclined 
to do because of his earnest attachment 
to and desire for usefulness in the 
ecclesiastical household that had carried 
him to the Divine Saviour. The pur- 
pose was to found a Lutheran seat of 
learning at Hillsboro, 111., in the midst 
of a numerous and prosperous commun- 
ity of our people in and about that seat 
of justice in the county of Montgomery. 

By act of the legislature of Illinois, in 
force Jan. 22, 1847, "J. J. Lehmanowsky, 
A. H. Meyers, J. Hough, John S. 
Sherer and Peter Glenn, of the state of 
Indiana; Daniel Jenkins, of Tennessee; 
J. Coombs and D. Shafner, of Kentucky, 
and A. A. Trimper, Absalom Cress, 
Thomas B. McMtt and Francis Springer, 
of Illinois, members of the Board of 
Trustees of the Literary and Theologi- 
cal Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church of the Far West," were created 
a body corporate and politic, etc. To 
that Far- West institute did the wide- 
spread board of trustees of four states 
assign Dr. Springer as president. The 
location was at Hillsboro, in a property 
donated for the purpose by two wealthy 
pioneer gentlemen not of our Church — 
John Tilson and Jno. S. Hay ward. 
The success of their education work 
quickly drew to their institute the name 
of "Hillsboro College." 

Nearly if not all, except one, of the 
names above written are names of the 
dead. To some whose glance may scan 
this page, these names and the far-apart 
residences of the men whose lives 
honored them, will, no doubt, be inter- 
esting. Afloat on memory's wave are 
many sacred reminiscences. Note- 
worthy is the fact that foremost among 
the good intentions of the men who first 



784 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



began our Lutheran school work in the 
then far West, was their concern for the 
training of suitable young men for the 
ministry of the gospel. Arrangements 
were at once entered upon to establish a 
chair of Christian Theology, and Eev. 
S. W. Harkey, of Frederick, Md., ac- 
cepted the invitation to that position. 
Under his lead the young, but vigorous 
college, with its well-begun collection of 
specimens in natural history, its modest 
but increasing chemical apparatus, its 
library of 1,500 volumes, and its cash 
balance in the treasury of $500, was, in 
1852, removed to Springfield. Here a 
valuable lot of eight and a half acres 
was secured, and thereon was erected a 
substantial edifice of stone and brick, at 
a cost of $25,000. 

About this timo Illinois began to feel 
the presence of rapidly increasing im- 
migrants, many being from Europe, and 
of Scandinavian and German Lutherans 
not a few. The disposition on Dr.. 
Springer's part was to encourage 
brotherliness among all who bore our 
ecclesiastical name. But as was natural, 
the foreign brethren were slow to give 
up the long-cherished modes of thought 
and speech of the Fatherland. Such 
especially was the tribal, but not un- 
amiable tenacity, of the Germans. If 
in the struggle for subsistence these 
were driven from the hearthstone and 
tombs of their ancestors, their hearts 
continued attuned to the sounds of the 
noble and sonorous vernacular in which 
Luther proclaimed the Eeformation and 
gave them hymns and the Holy Bible. 

Proofs were soon apparent that har- 
monious coalescence, for the present, was 
impossible. The excuse for disagree- 
ment, on the part of the newcomers, 
was the alleged departure of the Ameri- 
can Lutherans in the General Synod, 
from the standard orthodoxy of the 
clmrcli, as set forth in the Book of 



Concord; and on this point a few of the 
American pastors sided with the for- 
eigners, as at the disruption of the Synod 
of Illiuois, Mt. Pulaski, in 1867. To 
most of the Americans the harsh dis- 
sonances of rival languages, nationalities, 
and theologies were disagreeable nov- 
elties; and some, in disgust, betook 
themselves away from the ungainly 
polemics. To these unhappy divisions, 
resulting, not so much from bad hearts 
as from misapprehensions of one another, 
not less than to the imperfect training 
and defective system of the American 
church in those days, was due the 
miscarriage of the college work which, 
for a brief span of years, had promised 
so well at Hillsboro, and then at Spring- 
field. 

In 1855 his resignation opened the 
way for others more anxious to capture 
than he was to retain the presidency. 
The position was given to a distinguished 
scholar, industrious student and esti- 
mable Christian gentleman, Eev. Wm. 
M. Reynolds, D.D., and he, in a few 
years, worn and humiliated by the 
interminable tangle of antagonistic per- 
sonalities, withdrew to another eccles- 
iastical communion. No other head of 
the institution was ever after elected, 
it needed none; it was dead. 

This scant reference to a very un- 
pleasant experience is strictly true so 
far as it goes; and it goes far enough to 
avoid, even an insinuation of improper 
motive on the part of any person who 
took part in the unfortunate struggle of 
that day. 

There is some consolation in the cir- 
cumstance that the building and valuable 
lands of Illinois University are in the 
light of the Lutheran name, though far 
from bearing the character originally 
intended, of an American seat of learning 
with the English instead of the German 
language as its medium of instruction. 



1 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



785 



A reasonable expectation looks cheerily 
into a near future when Concordia Col- 
lege, at Springfield, III., will be thor- 
oughly Americanized. 

The staunch workers in the interest 
of a collegiate and theological school of 
commanding character under the aus- 
pices of the General Synod Lutheran 
Church, were, indeed, discomfited and 
set back by the failure at the state 
capital; but the adversity did not un- 
nerve and disarm them. They, with 
many others, saw the imperative need, 
and they resolved to supply it. Revs. 
A. A. Trim per, Conrad Kuhl, Ephraim 
Miller, and Francis Springer addressed 
themselves to the task of a renewed 
endeavor for an institution that might 
index the learning and genial intelligence 
of the Lutheran church and be an agency 
helpful to her growth. The result was 
the founding of Carthage College at the 
couuty seat of Hancock County, Illinois. 

Near the incipiency of the church's 
education enterprise at Carthage Dr. 
Springer drew up a plan for the organi- 
zation of a Board of Collegiate and 
Theological Schools which he presented 



to the convention of the General Synod, 
Dayton, Ohio, 1871. As indicative of 
the tardy growth of ideas, is the fact 
that the General Synod did not catch 
on to the suggestion of such an agency 
until about fourteen years later, when 
the present Board of Education was 
authorized by that venerable body whose 
cumulative energy of aggression now 
marches on so mightily. These are 
some of the affairs of his life-work within 
and for the church which he terms his 
own. 

Of his connection with the army it 
ought to be stated that, in 1861, he gave 
up his position as superintendent of the 
City Public Schools, to accept an invita- 
tion to the chaplaincy of the tenth 
Cavalry Regt. Illinois Volunteers. He 
served as chaplain in the volunteer and 
regular United States army for six years. 
As an agent in the Bureau of Refugees 
and Freedmen he had plenty of hard 
work and heavy responsibility iu caring 
for non-combatants rendered homeless 
and helpless by the ever-varying and 
calamitous vicissitudes of the war of 
1861-5. 




REY. ELIAS STUDEBAKER. 



Rev. Elias Studebaker was born near 
Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 28, 1824. After 
working on the farm he went with his 
older brother Abram L. Studebaker to 
Ohio, and entered Wittenberg College 
in 1848. At a special service in the 
First English Church under the min- 
istry of Prof. M. Diehl, he was bap- 
tized at the age of twenty-four. Grad- 
uating in 1854, he took a short course 
in theology under Dr. Sprecher and 
accepted a call to Jersey Shore, Pa. 
After laboring as pastor and teacher in 
99 



Pennsylvania for eighteen years he was 
called to Jeffersontown near Louisville, 
Kentucky, and from there to Middle, 
Tennessee. In 1882 he accepted a call 
to the South West Virginia Synod, of 
which he is still a member. He is a 
man of extensive learning and his per- 
sonal observations of current church 
history cover a ministerial period of 
thirty-three years. He is an uncle of 
Rev. A. H, Studebaker, pastor of First 
Church, Baltimore. 



786 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




REY. MYEON V. STUPPLEBIN. 



Myron V. Stiipplebin was born Oct, 
3, 1857, in that most picturesque valley, 
"the Rhine of America." His ancestors 
were of German extraction and settled 
in Columbia county, N. Y., before the 
Revolutionary war. As the planet is 
attracted to its circuit, so was he at the 
age of fourteen years drawn towards that 
sphere for which he was so eminently 
endowed by nature, and in which he was 
destined to attain such a brilliant career. 
Until twenty-two years of age he con- 
tinued to tend his father's herds, but 
meanwhile he looked with burning de- 
sire to the glad day when, after a due 
course of preparation, he might enter 
upon the responsible duties of a gospel 
minister. In 1883 he received the 
parchment of graduation at Hartwick 
Seminary, N. Y., about which time he 
also received and accepted a unanimous 
call from the Lutheran pastorate of 
Lawyersville, N. Y. This flourishing 
charge he is serving and with ever in- 
creasing acceptance and prosperity. 
During the past year he has organized 
another congregation within his pas- 



torate, built and* dedicated free from 
debt a commodious and beautiful church. 
By the laying on of hands he was or- 
dained to the Lutheran ministry in 1884, 
when he became a clerical member of 
the Franckean Lutheran Synod, which 
he has continuously served since, either 
upon important committees or as 
secretary; and on Jane 9, 1890, he was 
elected the second time as president of 
the Synod. With interest to the reader 
the limited space allotted for this sketch 
might be fully occupied in narrating 
the marvelous successes that have filled 
the brief period of Mr. Stupplebin's 
public life; but we deem it of greater 
account to analyze, so far as space will 
permit, those dominant, conspicuous 
qualities of nature and character, the 
heaven-directed use of which has led to 
such wondrous success. As the direct 
tendency of the study of biography is to 
reproduce the virtues and excellence 
which it records, our chief effort will be 
to enumerate those attributes of mind 
and soul which belonged to Mr. Stup- 
plebin in eminent degree. We will not 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



787 



portray him as perfect, for then he were 
more than human, but hold up those 
actual qualities that shine so lustrously 
in his visible life; qualities inspiring to 
study and profitable to emulate. 

Mr. Stupplebin is notable imaginative. 
He has the power of not only discover- 
ing "sermons in stones, books in the 
running brooks and good in everything," 
but the still rarer gift of portraying 
these jewels of truth to other and duller 
minds. His imaginative insight of a 
text of scripture will speedily evolve two 
discourses, while the majority of ser- 
monizers will "travail" long and hard to 
bring forth one. Nearly every sermon 
is full of apt illustrations springing from 
every source, and they are not studied 
and hoarded up, but spontaneous and 
abounding even in extempore discourse. 
In this peculiarity he was more than an 
"arrow's flight" above his class. But we 
must pass on to notice the humorous 
element. Without mention of this even 
in so brief a sketch, this article would 
be signally incomplete. As with the 
many other good qualities of Mr. Stup- 
plebin, his humor is entirely natural. 
He seems to make no effort to say any- 
thing funny, nor does he say it merely 
for fun's sake, except it may be in per- 
sonal intercourse, and then it is always 
of a refined order. He belongs to the 
"new school," a part of whose creed it is 
that a witty something, even in the 
sacred desk, is at least no more objec- 
tionable than a wittiless, solemn nothing. 
For him a laugh has in it more virtue 
than all the noxious patent compounds; 
and the ludricons, wherever it appears, 
he is quick to discover and sure to enjoy. 
A practical point or hint he appro- 
priates as readily, though it comes 
dressed in the comic garb of a Mark 
Twain or a Samantha Allen . But, whether 
in private or public discourse, his humor 
is ever in keeping with refined taste. 



Eminently human, sympathetic, Mr. 
Stupplebin makes his fellows with whom 
he comes in most intimate contact, a 
part with himself. He wishes to be one 
of them, whether in sorrow or joy. Hu- 
manity is the one text-book which he 
studies more devotedly than any other. 
Surely one of the secrets of his popular 
power is that he interests himself in all 
classes, — becomes familiar with all 
classes and serves all classes. However 
great the variety of hearers in his 
audience, he brings something of inter- 
est, edification and help to all. He is a 
close student of men and for a purpose; 
and when he speaks it seems to be from 
the center of their own consciousness. 
This is a natural result, for what inter- 
ests them, interests him. Little given 
to scolding and croaking, but taking 
men as he finds them, prefers by words 
of sympathy to encourage them and by 
his own spirit to impel them to a higher 
plane of living. For once at least the 
writer will be honest and admit that 
often, during our school days, we almost 
envied him that mysterious power he 
seemed to wield over all his fellow 
students, attracting them about him in 
sympathy, confidence, devotion and love. 
Somehow I always seemed impressed 
that his vices were better than our 
virtues. Possessing, yet seemingly un- 
conscious of this winsome grace, he 
holds the silvery key that opens the 
way to the hearts of men ; and this power 
he exercises to gracious, generous ends. 

Mr. Stupplebin is no less noted for 
his manly, outspoken independence. He 
need only be convinced of the merits of 
a caase soliciting his influence, to give 
it his hearty support, and it makes no 
difference whether the cause be popular 
or not. He can never be numbered with 
the "dumb dogs," that cannot or will 
not bark; but sensitive and loyal to the 
truth and the higher interests of hu- 



788 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



inanity, honest and unf earing, he lays 
his course in obedience to principle and 
conviction, whatever may be the stay- 
ing passions and policies of the world. 
Possibly some would not give him very 
much credit for the exercise of this 
virtue, as, with the other traits named, 
it is a natural disposition. It is much 
with him as Henry Ward Beecher used 
to say in regard to his own facing the 
stormy English meetings during the 
late civil war: "I have expressed my 
views in every audience, and it never 
cost me a struggle. I never could help 
doing it." But while he is fearless, 
plain and out-spoken in exposing the 
wrong, there is no display of bitterness 
or acrimony. His searching discourses 
in which he attacks and unearths any 
social evil or popular iniquity, are al- 
ways delivered in the spirit of kind- 
heartedness toward the wrong-doer. 
Some men so love that they will not 
speak painful truth; while others speak 
truth so bitterly as to destroy love, — 
both unfortunate; but the subject of 
this sketch is surely not guilty of either. 
And it is a source of inspiration to know, 
even in this late day when there is still 
need of reforms and reformers, and 
when there is so much "white-livered" 
indifference and "rose-colored" theology 
within the modern pulpit, there are yet 
many earnest and powerful voices up- 
lifted in every noble cause of mankind. 
Of Mr. Stupplebin it must be remarked, 
he pursues a pathway of his own. He 
possesses a large and valuable library, 
containing the best minds; he is an 
extensive reader, a close student, but the 
coin that emanates from his mint bears 
upon it his own image and superscription. 
One secret of his great originality in 
public discourse is in the fact that he 
is a very diligent student of the great 
book of nature which every man must 
interpret for himself. As he studies 



men, so he studies nature and the bust- 
ling world about him, — not in listless, 
unconscious gaze, but as a studious 
observer. He goes through the world 
with his eyes open. Every object has a 
language and a greeting for him, and 
he welcomes them all as friendly helps. 
Silently though eloquently they speak 
to him some great uplifting truth. His 
I sermons are born as from a thousand 
springs, and these all inexhaustible ; 
' hence it is not strange that the majestic 
river of his public discourse should 
continue to run year after year with so 
much freshness; not strange that crowded 
audiences greet him Sabbath after Sab- 
bath. 

As would be implied by the foregoing, 
he is intensly in earnest. He believes 
that it is good to be "zealously affected 
always," and thoroughly affected in that 
most exalted of all employments to which 
he has consecrated his life. Mr. Stup- 
plebin seems to know nothing about the 
necessity of waiting for "moods," whether 
in sermonizing or any of his regular 
work. So different from many of his 
clerical brethren, seems to experience 
little if any of pulpit slavery. There is 
no place on earth where he enjoys more 
of the spirit of liberty and the very 
atmosphere of heaven, than when en- 
gaged in public address. And in his 
case it did not require several years of 
embarrassed effort to gain this end. 
Strange as it may appear, he commenced 
preaching the same time he began to 
qualify for the ministry, and apparently 
with the same liberty and delight that 
mark his present public ministrations. 
Mr. Stupplebin was one of the happy 
and remarkable few who are born "full- 
fledged." Coming direct, fresh and 
"green," from the plow-handles, and 
having but a common school education, 
the sermons he preached in school- 
houses contiguous to the seminary during 




AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



789 



his first term in the academical course, 
seemed to have the same vigor, power 
and general perfection, that make his 
present discourses so effective and charm- 
ing. To him preaching seemed no task 
but only a delight, a pastime and luxury 
from the very beginning. His sermons 
so comprehensive, practical and spiritual 
in character seemed to develop in 
harmonious division as readily as mere 
words come to most of us. During the 
three years of his theological course, he 
served three congregations, preaching 
on the average two sermons per week, 
and in revival meetings which he carried 
on during the winter, preach every 
evening for several weeks. He was 
often severely criticised for attempting 
so much extra work, but he often declared 
he would prefer to forfeit everything 
else than the privilege to preach the 
word. Myron V. Stupplebin, from the 
time I first knew him, and above all 
others, has impressed me that he who 
thus moves, "has stood before the burn- 
ing bush and bathed in the divine fire." 

No wonder that other congregations 
have endeavored to secure his services; 
but thus far without avail, for all efforts 
and inducements have proven insufficient 
to disturb the mutually happy relation 
that exists between himself and his 
devoted people. 

Towering conspicuously above, and 



the grand inspiring source of Mr. Stup- 
plebin's eminent qualities, is his simple, 
vital faith. His motto is, first a Chris- 
tian and then a minister; and to reach 
both he maintains a daily, intimate, 
walk with God. This fact is evinced 
by the spirit of Christ which imbues 
and makes effective his pastoral and 
pulpit work. My conviction of him as 
a Christian man is, one to whom God is 
unspeakably and savingly precious and 
a man dear to God. There would be 
less of those shameful failures in the 
holy vocation of which we hear nearly 
every day through the public prints, if 
every minister would remember his duty 
in common with every other Christian, 
viz.: the importance of first keeping 
diligently his own heart. 

Finally we would add, though last 
yet not least in the happy account of 
Mr. Stupplebin's helps to the great suc- 
cesses of his public ministry, is an 
accomplished and devoted Christian 
wife. As the legendery king of old, 
through converse and council with a 
hidden goddess named Egeria, adminis- 
tered wisely and acceptably to his Roman 
vassals so the subject of this sketch has 
been royally aided in all the departments 
of his work by the sweet and manifold 
helpfulness of his bosom companion. — 
W. G. Thrall. 




PROF. GEORGE SVERDRUP. 



As the names of Krauth and Jacobs 
among the English speaking Lutheran 
theologians, and that of Walther among 
the German, so that of Sverdrup among 
the Norwegian occupies first rank. He 
is a nephew of ex-minister Johan Sver- 
drup, for many years premier of Nor- 



way, and his father was a noted minister 
of church affairs, and a member of the 
cabinet of his native country. Born of 
illustrious parentage, endowed with 
rare mental qualities, thoroughly edu- 
cated, and having inherited in no small 
degree the family characteristics which 



790 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




PEOF. GEORGE SYEEDRUP. 



have made the name so prominent, 
Professor Sverdrup possesses in an 
eminent degree the conditions for be- 
ing a leader among the Norwegian 
Lutherans in this country. He is a 
native of Bergen, Norway, and is now 
(1891) about 43 years of age. His 
early education having been carefully 
attended to at home, he entered Chris- 
tiania University at the age of thirteen, 
graduating from the classical depart- 
ment with first honor in 1865, and from 
the theological department in 1871. 
During his university course he made 
a special study of Oriental languages, 
and after his graduation he spent con- 
siderable time in Paris. 

In 1874 he received a call from the 
"Conference" to become theological pro- 
fessor at the Augsburg Seminary, Min- 
neapolis Minn., and in the same year, 
accompanied by his wife and Rev. S. R. 
Gundersen, (11891) also called to a 
chair of theology in the same institu- 
tion. Prof. Sverdrup left his native 
country to enter upon his new field of 
labor, perhaps little anticipating that 
Providence had destined him to play 



so conspicuous a part in the formation 
and rearing of a Norwegian Lutheran 
Free Church in this great land of re- 
ligious liberty and freedom. 

Upon the resignation of Rev. Prof. 
A. Weenaas from his position as theo- 
logical professor and president of Augs- 
burg Seminary in 1876, Prof. Sverdrup 
succeeded him in the presidency, which 
position he has held continuously for 
over fifteen years. It is doubtlessly due 
to the peculiar fitness, the native talent, 
tact, and faithful discharge of the vari- 
ous duties, incident to his responsible 
calling, as also to his untiring zeal and 
self-sacrificing perseverance that the 
Augsburg Seminary has met with such 
almost phenomenal success, and stands 
to-day among the foremost educational 
institutions in our American Lutheran 
Church. 

As a man Prof. Sverdrup is cheerful 
and affable, and at the same time pos- 
sessing a native dignity of which he 
cannot easily divest himself. We think 
it may be truthfully said that one of 
his prominent characteristic features is 
his undeviating adherance to what he 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



791 



conceives to be right, regardless of re- 
sults. When he feels himself called 
upon to administer reproof, it is done 
after the fashion of the old prophets, — 
there is no circumlocution, or indirect- 
ness, or excessively delicate handling; 
but the rebuke is just as personal and 
pointed as if he had said in so many 
words, — "Thou art the man." 

Although Prof. Sverdrup has never 
consented to be ordained, he is in great 
demand as a preacher, his style being 
simple and clear, without any exuber- 
ance of ornament. His great aim is to 
honor his Master by commending the 
truth to the hearts and conscience of 
his hearers, and not to magnify him- 
self. His manner is affectionate and 
earnest. Deeply impressed himself by 
the Divine truth, he seeks to impress 
others also. 

His movements are quick and easy, 
and always leaves you with the impres- 



sion that he is anything else than a man 
of leisure. In his social manners he is 
plain and natural, placing him perfect- 
ly at his ease in the most cultivated 
society, while yet they savor little of 
anything like artificial polish. His 
mind is at once vigorous and discrimi- 
nating. Whatever subject occupies his 
attention, he takes clear and compre- 
hensive views of it, and he possesses in 
a high degree the talent of foreseeing 
the turn which events are likely to 
take. 

When in 1891 the Conference was 
merged in the United Norwegian Luth- 
eran Church of America, Prof. Sverdrup 
was again chosen president of Augs- 
burg Seminary by the united body. 

Prof. Sverdrup has been twice mar- 
ried. His first wife having died some 
years ago, he married in 1891 a younger 
sister of the deceased. — J. 




EEV. WILLIAM H. SWANEY, A.M. 



The subject of our sketch was born 
on the 13th day of July, 1824, in Page 
County, Yirginia. The foundation of 
his religious character was laid at a 
very early period. Having in his youth 
attended a course of catechetical in- 
struction, he was confirmed by Rev. 
Jacob Stirewalt, for whom, as his pre- 
ceptor and first pastor, he always en- 
tertained much affection. He early de- 
veloped a love for theological studies, 
which he prosecuted as diligently as 
his circumstances and surroundings 
would permit. His educational advan- 
tages at this period were very meager, 
yet he was interested in the acquisition 
of knowledge, and eagerly availed him- 
self of the help of such books and 
teachers as his limited means could 



command. He was, what is upually 
styled, a self-made man. After toiling 
through the day, he prosecuted his 
studies at night by the light of a pine 
torch, being unable to secure a more ex- 
pensive illuminant. 

Being a man of great energy and in- 
dustry, he persevered until he acquired 
a very creditable knowledge, not only 
of the English, but also of the German, 
French, Latin and Greek languages, 
together with higher mathematics. 
While pursuing his studies he supported 
himself by school-teaching and by 
manual labor. He was several times 
elected to the ofiice of county surveyor 
in his native county, a position which 
he held for a number of years, always 
giving general satisfaction. 



792 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Having had considerable experience 
as a teacher, he was in the year 1857 
elected principal of the New Market 
Academy, located at New Market, Shen- 
andoah County, Virginia. Here he 
continued to discharge his duties faith- 
fully and acceptably, until the breaking 
out of the war between the states in 
1861 interrupted the progress of the 
school; it remained closed until the end 
of the war in 1865, when it was re- 
opened, and he was again chosen to the 
responsible position of principal. 

Hitherto various circumstances had 
combined to prevent him from carrying 
into effect his long cherished desire of 
entering the ministry of the Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Church; but now, having 
facilities such as he had never enjoyed 
before, he renewed his theological 
studies under the supervision of his 
pastor. Rev. Ambrose Henkel. He also 
received much valuable assistance from 
Rev. Jacob Stii:§walt and Rev S. Hen- 
kel, D. D. The valuable libraries of 
all of these brethren were open to him. 
The kind interest which they mani- 
fested in his welfare he always appre- 
ciated, and ever held them in grateful 
regard. 

He was examined and ordained by 
the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee 
Synod in the year 1865. He remained 
in New Market, supplying vacant con- 
gregations and aiding the several pas- 
tors, until the year 1869, when he re- 
ceived a call from the Tarlton charge, 
now known as the Stoutsville charge, 
in the state of Ohio, and in connection 
with the District Synod of Ohio. On 
his removal to Ohio he united with the 



Evangelical Lutheran District Synod, 
and continued in this connection until 
his death. 

He remained in the Stoutsville charge 
until May, 1880, when he received and 
accepted a call to a mission congrega- 
tion in Pawnee, Medina County, where 
he continued his labors until about May 
1, 1884, when the loss of his sight and 
other infirmities compelled him to cease 
his active labors. 

The last year of his earthly pilgrim- 
age was one of great bodily suffering, 
which he endured with Christian pa- 
tience and resignation. He fell asleep 
in Christ and in peace, October 3, 1885, 
aged 61 years, 2 months and 21 days. 
He was buried October 5. The funeral 
services were conducted by Rev. J. H. 
Smith and Rev. W. G. Hudson. 

August 19, 1845, he entered into the 
holy estate of matrimony with Mrs. 
Rebecca Lichliter, of Luray, Page 
County, Virginia. This marriage was 
blessed with eight children, five sons 
and three daughters. These, together 
with his widow, survive to mourn his 
departure. 

Rev. Swaney was a man of sterling 
integrity. The writer knew him many 
years, and always regarded him as an 
honest, upright and conscientious Chris- 
tian. As a man, and as a preacher, he 
was humble and unpretentious, always 
self-denying, plain and earnest. Sound 
in doctrine, abundant in self-denying 
works, and exemplary in life, he labored 
to fulfill his mission on earth. His 
work faithfully done, he has gone to re- 
ceive his reward. — H, 




AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



793 



REV. JOEL SAYARTZ, D.D. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
Aug. 18, 1827. His parents were mem- 
bers of the Lutheran church. He was 
educated at Capital University, Colum- 
bus, O., from which he graduated with 
first honor in 1854; and was ordained 
by the Tennessee Synod in Virginia, in 
1855. His principal fields of labor have 
been Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cin- 
cinnati. Rev. Joel Swartz received the 
degree of D. D. from Wittenberg College, 
and is now President of the Education 
Society of the General Synod of the 
Lutheran Church. He was married to 
Adelia Rosencrans. 

Dr. Swartz is widely known as a lec- 
turer, selecting titles at once important, 
popular, and requiring a masterly con- 
ception and power of elucidation. Such 
themes as ''Luther and Cromwell," 
"Milton and Napoleon," "He who can- 
not Paint must Grind the Colors," "No 
Man owns Deeper than he Plows," 
"Echoes, or how we make the world we 
live in," "Aims and Aids in Life," have 
been delivered by him before the public, 
and received the most ample encomiums 
from the Eastern press, and the com- 
mendation of distinguished men. His 
lectures abound with apt and telling 
illustrations, and with passages of great 
beauty and eloquence, and is always 
highly appreciated by his large 
audiences. Dr. Swartz is poetical, hu- 
morous, sharp, terse, vigorous, witty, and 
yet eminently practical. 



C. L. Ehrenfield, State Librarian of 
Pennsylvania, pronounces Dr. Swartz 
"a gentleman of high endowments, orig- 
inality, poetic sensibilities and lofty 
conceptions, oratorical force and very 
pleasing address," and adds, "I have 
listened with delight to his lectures and 
sermons." 

These opinions are fully sustained by 
the commendations of Ex-Gov. Hart- 
ranft, of Pennsylvania, Dr. Sprecher, 
President of Wittenberg College, and 
many other able critics; and the unani- 
mity of sentiment upon special phases 
of the style, from so large a number, 
proves something more than coincidence; 
it pronounces that Dr. Swartz's style 
possesses distinct and varied radiations, 
making him a star in the lecture field. 

The Doctor is also regarded as a logi- 
cal and eloquent advocate in the tem- 
perance cause. His poetic faculty which 
has been remarked in his lectures has 
found further and yet more euphoneous 
expression in volumes of verse. His 
"Lyra Lutherana" contains songs worthy 
to be sung to the vibrations of the 
strings of Luther's lute. Prom 1865 to 
1867 Dr. Swartz served as Professor of 
Theology in Wittenberg Seminary, 
Springfield, O. Besides having written 
numerous newspaper articles he is the 
author of "God and the Constitution," 
"The Church in Harrisburg," "Valley 
Mill" (tr.), "Dreamings of the Waking 
Heart," "Lyra Lutherana." 




100 



794 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




PROF. CARL A. SWENSSON, A.M. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



795 



PEOF. GAEL A. SWENSSON, A.M, 



Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson was born 
at Sugar Grove, Pa., June 25, 1857. 
His parents were the Eev. Jonas Swens- 
son and Mary Swensson. Rev. Jonas 
Swensson is well known throughout the 
Lutheran Church, and was at the time 
of his death President of the Swedish 
Augustana Synod. C. A. Swensson 
graduated at Augustana College, 1877, 
and at the Theological Seminary, 1879. 
Since July, 1879, he has been pastor of 
Bethany Lutheran Church, Lindsborg, 
Ks., which has increased from 360 to 
over 800 communicants. He was the 
founder of Bethauy College, and is now 
President of the Board of Trustees, and 
of the Faculty. This institution is on 
a broad basis, giving opportunity for 
the student to select the course that 
suits his special purpose, and sending 
him forth with a practical knowledge 
fitting him for the events and duties of 
life. The success of the institution has 
been phenomenal, and deserves special 
notice as an illustration of the progress 
and process of western development. 
It began with nothing five years ago; it 
has given itself an endowment in the 
form of a solid reputation which has 
attracted students through its portals, 
till it now has an attendance of over 
300; and to-day it is claimed for it that 
it is the largest and strone:est institution 
in Central Kansas. The main structure 
of Bethany College and Normal Institute 
combines the Mansard architecture with 
the Norman-French. The double rows 
of trees on either side the broad cen- 
tral avenue of approach, which termi- 
nates with a fountain before the build- 
ing, faintly suggest in their regularity 
those of the avenues of Versailles, save 
that they lack the effect of the majesty 
of time upon their development, and 



the box-like trimming at the hands of 
landscape gardener. The institution is 
heated with steam, and the chapel, pro- 
nounced one of the finest in the country 
and by far the most elegant in the state, 
is seated with opera chairs and contains 
a $3,000 pipe organ; and yet, little more 
than a score of years ago, on this very 
spot, one might have been lost in the 
open country. Upwards of three thous- 
and specimens are entered in the cata- 
logue of the museum of the institution, 
the college library contains upwards of 
three thousand volumes, while the mus- 
ical department is under the charge of 
a graduate of the Royal Conservatory 
of music at Stockholm, Sweden, Prof. 
N. A. Kranz, and affords instruction on 
the piano, pipe organ, violin, brass in- 
struments, flute, clarionet, cabinet or- 
gan, and in harmony and counterpart, 
with special attention paid to voice cul- 
ture. There are six departments and 
seventeen teachers in Bethany College 
and Normal Institute; and the students 
of its business department carry on 
commercial transactions in imitation 
with students in business colleges in 
New York, Rochester, Chicago and other 
prominent cities. 

It is not surprising that a man who 
could engineer an institution to such 
amplitude and with such vigor, should 
be sought for from the pulpit by the 
people, for yet other efficiency. Rev. C. 
A. Swensson was elected a member of 
the Kansas Legislature 1888-90; but 
refused a nomination for re-election and 
for Congress, and the tender of the 
Swedish portfolio in 1888. He was 
for several years editor of the Ungdoms 
Vannen and Korsbanneret, and is now one 
of the editors of Framaat. He is con- 
tributor to several papers, and was cor- 



796 



AMEBIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



respondent for fifteen papers during his 
tour in Sweden in 1890. He is the 
author of "Vid Hemmets Hard," of 
which 25,000 copies were sold before the 
book left press; and he is also under 
contract to write ''I Sverige, Bilder och 
minnen fraan mina faders land." Rev. 
C. A. Swensson was English secretary 
of the Lutheran General Councils 
1885. He was married, 1880, to Alma 
C. Lind. 



Mr. Swensson appears as a typical 
American of the west in its best de- 
velopment. He has proven that the 
peculiar western energy and success 
which has popularly been regarded as 
of the Americans of English descent, 
may be evinced in a most marked degree' 
by one of recent Scandinavian ex- 
traction. 




REV. JONAS SWENSSON. 



This eminent Swedish pastor and 
pioneer was born in Snollebo, Smaaland, 
Sweden, August 16, 1828. His parents 
were Sven Maansson and Katharina, nee 
Jonasson, of whom, especially the mother, 
was a sincere Christian and early taught 
the boy to serve the Lord. 

On'the 17th of June, 185] , he completed 
his theological studies at Upsala, and 
was ordained at Vexio on the 8th of | 



July the same year. From the fall of 
1851 to the spring of 1856 he labored as 
pastor of churches at Unnaryd and 
Jalluntofta. March 29, 1856, he married 
Maria Blixt of Unnaryd, with whom he 
had four children, three sons and a 
daughter. His oldest son is Carl x4aron, 
founder of Bethany College, Lindsborg, 
Ks.; John and Luther are prosperous 
merchants at that place, the former 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



797 



having served as superintendent of the 
Orphan's Home founded by his father 
at Andover, 111., for eight years; and his 
daughter Annie is the wife of Eev. E. 
Carlsson's oldest son. Rev. Swensson 
came to America in July, 1856, and 
labored for two years in Sugar Grove, 
Pa., and Jamestown, N. Y. Having 
received and accepted a call to Andover, 
111., he removed there, and was installed 
by Rev. E. Carlsson as pastor of the 
Andover congregation on the 19th of 



September, 1858. For fifteen years and 
three months he served this charge with 
marked ability and success. Since his 
death the charge has been divided into 
six different charges. In 1870 he suc- 
ceeded Dr. Hasselquist as president of 
the Swedish Augustana Synod, which 
position he held to his death, which 
occurred December 20, 1878. He rests 
by the side of his wife, who survived 
him but a short time, in the old grave- 
yard at Andover, 111. 




REV. J. TELEEN. 



The subject of this sketch was born in 
Sweden Aug. 4, 1846, his parents being 
Sven Anderson, a man who was for 
a while the owner of considerable wealth, 
and Nilla Jepsen. 

In 1853 he emigrated with his parents 
to America and located in Moline, Ill.» 
where Rev. and afterwards Prof. L. P. 
Esbjorn dispensed the gospel among his 
countrymen. In 1856 Rev. O. C. T. 
Andren came and took charge of the 
Moline church as its first pastor. Mr. 
Andren was our subject's first Sunday 
school teacher and confirmed his older 
brother, Carl. That same year they 
moved to Spoon Timber, Knox Co., 111., 
four miles from Watoga and eight miles 



from Galesburg. Here Mr. Telleen 
spent six years, during which time he 
got only eight weeks school. His father 
having lost his wealth, and being re- 
duced to poverty, the boy was obliged to 
do work, such as herding, chopping 
wood, and general farm work, at first as 
a "half-hand" but at sixteen years of 
age as "full-hand." Concerning his ex- 
perience in those days Brother Telleen 
writes : 

"I had one boot of each kind, and one 
of them was torn, and I had no money 
for which to get it mended, so I covered 
it with the other when in church. In 
my early boyhood I spent hours at a 
time in reading God's holy word, in 



798 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



prayer and siDging. My dear mother 
early warned me against all manner of sin. 
Father was very strict with us. My 
first three years in this country were 
spent in school entirely. I bent all my 
energies on learning English, and neg- 
lected God's word in a measure. I loved 
to skip classes, be praised and called the 
teacher's pet, but my inner life paid the 
penalty. Though never out in sin and 
shame or flagrant wrong, I yet was cold 
and had forsaken my first love to God. 
Meanwhile my hunger and thirst for 
knowledge was keen. I devoured every- 
thing readible that I come across, news- 
papers put on walls for example; even 
creeping under the bed to read. The 
multiplication table I worked out and 
learned walking behind the plow. 

My mother, like Hannah of old, set 
me apart for the holy ministry from my 
earliest existence. Her hopes were ever 
buoyed up as only a mother's hopes are. 
In my seventeenth year God brought me 
again unto himself and let me recline 
on his bosom. I Joh. 1 : 7 was the pas- 
sage that brought peace to my soul. 

The spirit now strove with me to have 
me prepare for the holy ministry. I 
withstood him long, considering myself 
unworthy, as I truly was. At length 
I left the decision to the Lord, telling 
Him I would open the Bible and what- 
ever passage my eyes lit on should be 
God's voice to me. i opened the Bible 
at random and my eyes lit on Jer. 1 : 5. 
But I asked to turn once more, with 
Gideon of old, and took far enough 
ahead to reach the New Testament. The 
Bible opened and my eyes lit on the 
words, "Fear not; henceforth thou 
shalt take men." I was bound. I obeyed. 
Mother rejoiced. Father gave his con- 
sent. He started me with a plain suit 
of clothes, $5, and paid my nrst term, 
adding, "Now Johnnie, this is all I can 
ever do for you. Now you must swim 



or sink." My feelings may be guessed. 

Father soon repented of having let 
his strongest boy leave home, but our 
reformation festival that year saved me. 
Augustana College and Seminary that 
year, 1864, numbered but thirteen stu- 
dents. Eev. P. Ericson, then a student, 
afterwards Pastor of Gethsemane church, 
Chicago, now deceased, insisted on me 
taking part. What was said afterwards 
influenced father, and he allowed me to 
stay. 

Dr. Hasselquist spoke well of me to 
the Board and I was given everything 
free. I have reason to think that he 
even sent me cash at times. The Lord 
repay. 

Now followed battles, inward and out- 
ward, during eight years, which I can 
not recount, for want of space. 

In my second scholastic year I was 
taken sick and wondered if I ought not 
regard it as a God-send to keep me away. 
I then met my ever faithful Prof. 
Hasselquist. Told him of my poor 
health and also of an ojffer made by a 
New York Insurance Co., of $^,000 a 
year. The Doctor lifted his cane, planted 
it heavily before him, saying, "If you 
do not return to school I doubt even if 
you will get to heaven." I trembled 
and said, "Professor, I am coming." 

In 1872 he was ordained at Galesburg, 
111. His first charge was Des Moines, la., 
to which field the Synod had sent him 
already in 1870, and where he had spent 
the vacations of 1870-1. Here he was 
blessed with a large revival in 1872-3. 
Many of the pillars of Des Moines to- 
day are the fruits of that visitation. 

Rev. Telleen believes in pastoral work. 

In 1877 he traveled through the 
Indian Territory, in company with Mr. 
C. C. Seaberg, now deceased. 

In 1879 his health failed, his left lung 
having begun to bleed. He then went 
to Colorado and Mexico. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



799 



The Mission Board called him to 
Denver, which call he accepted. 

Of his experience there he says: "We 
slept on the floor, ate on a chest, sat on 
trunks, lived in a house where the snow 
beat in." 

In 1882 he was enabled by brothers 
John and Carl Johan Samuelsen to 
explore Utah and California, which had 
befoie been visited by Kevs. Auslund 
and Rydholm. 

The result of that visit was the 
establishment of the work in Utah, there 
being now three pastors in that field; 
the organization of "The Ebenezer 
Church" in San Francisco, a nucleus 
to our California work. The Swedish 
Augustan a Synod has now six pastors 
in the Golden state. 

In the summer of 1890 he moved to 
Lindsborg, Ks., and is now connected 
with Bethany College. 

We close this sketch with a brief 
extract from a communication of Eev. 
Telleen to the author of this volume, 
which we know will be read with interest 
and profit: 

"During my time I have often been 
delivered by divine interposition and 
miraculously aided. 



God has ever and everywhere raised 
up kind people to succor me. Such was 
for example the Norwegian lady of 
Chicago, who gave me an entire suit of 
new clothes, the Norwegian student who 
gave me a warm coat, Mr. Conrad Frick 
of Denver, who stood by me like a banker, 
all the while that our church was being 
built. 

I have had many and varied experi- 
ences. Sorrows and troubles have not 
been wanting but the Lord has helped 
in all. To Him be all the glory! 

One person I must not forget to 
mention, my dear wife, formerly Mary 
Anderson. I say it, and I mean it, had 
it not been for her we might yet have 
had no strong church in Des Moines; 
as yet no work in Denver, where now 
goes up the finest almost in our Synod; 
in Utah had no mission District and the 
seventh Conference (the Pacific) yet 
been wanting in the Augustana Synod. 
God bless the woman, who uncomplain- 
ingly goes wherever God sends her 
husband, always saving, always neat, 
always cheerful! 

I love youth and children, and have 
myself six of them." 



^^1^ 



REV. T. T. TITUS. 



Eev. T. T. Titus was born in Loudon 
county, Va., March the 4th, 1829. He 
was the son of poor parents, and the 
youngest of ten children. They dedi- 
cated him to the Lord in early baptism, 
and endeavored to rear him in the faith 
of the Gospel. To the influence of his 
mother and her prayers in his behalf 
he traces, under God, his conversion in 
youth and his call to the ministry. He 
manifested an eager desire for learning 
when quite young, and, though living 



in a country where the schools were 
poor and the books were few, he managed 
to read a great deal, and acquired suffi- 
cient knowledge to become a competent 
teacher when about sixteen years of age, 
to which pursuit he devoted several years 
of his early life. After much reflection 
and prayer, he felt constrained to enter 
upon a course of study preparatory 
to the ministry. He went to Gettys- 
burg in the fall of 1848, and commenced 
his studies in the preparatory depart- 



800 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



ment. He labored hard and succeeded 
well. He speaks of the great kindness 
of the professors to him, especially that 
of Prof. Stoever, and of the assistance 
afPorded him by the beneficiary fund. 
But as the amount allowed him was 
altogether inadequate, he imposed upon 
himself the most painful economy, until 
at last, driven by sheer necessity, he 
left college for a season, and this several 
times during his college course, either 
to engage in teaching, or to take an 
agency to sell books, until he accumu- 
lated a little money to prosecute his 
studies. Thus, with great perseverance, 
he worked along until he was graduated, 
receiving the honors of valedictorian, 
in 1853. 

The next year, in order to procure 
means, he accepted the position of tutor 
in the preparatory department, and 
studied with the class in the seminary, 
reciting most of the lessons and keep- 
ing np with the class. 

He served in six different pastoral 
fields, Stoughstown, Lower Merion, 
Milton, Springfield, Ohio; St. John's 
and Trinity in Hagerstown. The latter 
was organized and built its beautiful 
edifice under his pastoral care. Preach- 
ing here until health and voice failed 
him, he reluctantly quit the pastoral 
work, which was ever the joy and de- 
light of his heart, and removed to 
Hartwick Seminary in June, 1871, and 
took charge of that institution, which 
flourished under his care. 

Here he labored with the zeal and 
energy which characterized him every 
where, nntil at last he grew so weak and 
his voice so failed him, that he could 
not speak above a whisper. But even 
in this condition he continued occas- 



ionally to teach, until the last holiday 
vacation relieved him, when every whis- 
per cost him pain, soreness of the 
throat, and exhaustion; and only when 
his voice wholly failed him did he cease 
to labor. Then he pathetically writes, 
among the last things in his journal, 
"And now I am voiceless, cannot utter 
a sound, can praise God with my lips 
aloud never more, nor speak for him 
who bought me, in public. But it is 
all perfectly right, for the Lord did it." 
For several years Rev. Titus had been 
anticipating the conclusion to which he 
felt himself to be rapidly hastening. 
Though death came to him early, it did 
not come unexpected nor unwelcome. 
On the 3d of January, 1871, he says: 
"This year may be my last. If it should 
be, and if I should die ere its close, may 
my family and all those who read these 
lines, while the hand that is penning 
them is turning to dust, be assured that 
I die in the full confidence of eternal 
life through Jesus Christ my Lord. I 
am a poor worthless sinner, yet, through 
grace, I hope to sing with angels. I die 
believing in the gospel with all its 
precious truths. I love my church, I 
love all who love Jesus. Yea, I love 
those who love him not, and would 
gladly pluck them as brands from the 
burning. I ask all my friends and 
enemies to forgive me my many faults 
and sins, as I forgive them, and as I 
pray God to forgive them and me. My 
hope is in Jesus, Jesus only, Jesus 
only; I have no other hope or trust. 

'In my hand no price I bring, 
Simply to the cross I cling.' 

This will be my dying motto, and this 
I desire inscribed on my tomb." — Dr. J. 
Swartz. 




AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



801 




REV. G. H. TEABERT. 



The subject of this sketch was born 
in Lancaster Co., Pa., October 16, 1843. 
His parents are G erman and still live 
near Church town in said county. They 
came to America in 1840 and settled 
do^n near New Holland, Lancaster Co., 
Pa., where his father carried on the 
trade of shoe making for many years. 
George, already at an early age, had an 
earnest desire to become a minister of 
the gospel and even before his confirma- 
tion had his heart set upon the foreign 
mission field. He was confirmed in the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church in New 
Holland on April 19, 1859, by Rev. J. 
Kohler. Having no means with which 
to pursue his studies to gain his cher- 
ished object, and enjoying only a common 
school education, he turned his attention 
to teaching, in which he engaged for 
three years. At length the Lord opened 
the way by which he could follow the 
voice within, which seemed daily to call 
him into the direct service of the church, 
and in September, 1864, he entered the 
preparatory department of Pennsylvania 
College, Gettysburg. Here he remained 
101 



for three years, during which time his 
health suffered materially, in conse- 
quence of which, as well as from the 
lack of means of support, he only went 
as far as the junior year. This condition 
of his health also led him to abandon 
the idea of entering the foreign mission 
field. In September, 1867, he entered 
the Theological Seminary at Phila- 
delphia, Pa., and on the 15th of June, 
1870, he was ordained to the office of the 
holy ministry in the German Evangelical 
Lutheran Church of Pottsville, Pa. 
Immediately after his ordination he took 
charge of Ephrata pastorate, Lancaster 
Co., Pa., composed of four congregations, 
one of which was a mission recently 
organized, and the others had belonged 
to different parishes and been virtually 
abandoned. It was in every sense of 
the word a mission parish in which the 
work of organization was no small part 
of the pastor's duty. At the end of two 
years he had added two more congrega- 
tions to his parish, entailing so much 
work and exposure upon him as to 
severely tax his strength. 



802 ' 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



In the spring of 1873 he followed a 
call to Elizabeth town in the same county, 
from which he also served Mount Joy, 
six miles distant. Whilst here a baptist 
sect became very aggressive on the 
subject of immersion and threatened to 
make serious inroads on some of the 
other churches; this led him to preach 
several sermons on the Doctrine of 
Baptism and to publish "The Mode of 
Baptism as taught in God's Word," 
which put an end to the controversy. 
The religious fervor which followed 
upon the advent of Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey in Philadelphia and New York 
in 1876, fanned into flame in the smaller 
cities and towns by a number of self- 
constituted so-called evangelists, led him 
to publish "Genuine vs. Spurious Re- 
vivals." 

In the fall of 1876 he received a call 
to the old Salem Evangelical Lutheran 
Church in the city of Lebanon, Pa., as 
the successor of Rev. B. W. Schmau 
who had followed a call to Allentown, 
Pa. He removed to Lebanon in January 
1877, and served that congregation, 
together with St. Paul's, Annville, for 
six years. Here, in 1879, he published 
"The Life of Luther in Picture and 
•Verse," translated from the German of 
■Rev. J. A. Darmstedter, and the follow- 
ing year "Outlines of Church History." 
During his pastorate at Lebanon the 
Sunday-school increased from 500 to 
700, and the preliminary steps were 
taken for the building of a church at 
Cornwall, six miles distant. In the year 
1881 he paid his first visit to the West, 
going as far west as St. Louis and 
north into Michigan. At St. Louis he 
met the celebrated German leader Rev. 
F. W. Walther, D. D., and became more 
fully acquainted with the work of the 
Missouri Synod. He gathered much 
information concerning the Church in 
the West, and became more and more 



impressed with the great need of English 
missions, especially in the large and 
rapidly growing cities, if our beloved 
church was to have a future in this 
country. At that time the English 
Home Mission Committee of the General 
Council, of which Rev. Wm. A. Passa- 
vant, D. D., was chairman, contemplated 
begioning English Mission Work in the 
Northwest, particularly Minneapolis 
and St. Paul, Minnesota, and were 
looking for a suitable person to under- 
take the task. 

In the spring of 1882 a call was 
tendered Rev. Trabert to go to the 
Northwest and begin the work. This 
cost a hard struggle. On the one hand 
was a pleasant and encouraging field of 
labor, a devoted people, all the comforts 
incident to a large, prosperous and well 
ordered congregation, besides the asso- 
ciations of a lifetime to be given up for 
a field which was not only new, bat 
where few, if any, English Lutherans 
could be found, and where it would 
possibly require months before the 
nucleus of a congregation could be 
gathered. On the other hand, there 
was the great need and the importance 
of beginning work immediately if the 
church should not continue to suffer 
irreparable loss from neglect of the 
English work. Then the early desire to 
engage in mission work asserted itself, 
which led to the decision to visit the 
field. But the obstacles in the way of 
accepting the call were increased through 
the want of a proper understanding on 
the part of members of the Swedish 
Augustana Synod, also an integral part 
of the General Council, who occupied 
that territory. A few months later the 
call was repeated, and when it was 
repeated again in October of the same 
year, he felt constrained to accept it as 
a call from God. 

In January, 1883, he went to Min- 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



803 



neapolis to begin the work, and removed 
his family thither the following March. 
He also visited St. Paul and Red Wing 
preparing the way for the organization 
of congregations. After a thorough 
canvass but very few Euglish Lutherans 
were found in Minneapolis, and a 
majority of those were entirely indifferent 
to the faith they had once avowed. In 
June, 1888, the first English Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in the great Northwest 
was organized with seven members under 
the name of St. John's English Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Church of Minneapolis, 
Minn., and a few weeks later the 
Memorial English Evangelical Lutheran 
Church of St. Paul was called into 
existence. For one year he stood alone 
preaching alternately on Sundays at 
St. Paul and Minneapolis, and fort- 
nightly on Friday evenings at Red 
Wing. In the fall of 1886 he organized 
the St. Paul English Evangelical Luth- 
eran Church at Red Wing, but regular 
Sunday service was not commenced 
until the following spring, owing to the 
difficulty in securing a proper room, 
after which he preached there every 
other Sunday evening for two years. 
In July, 1887, he went to Duluth for a 
week of much needed rest, not forgetting 
however the work of the church. Dis- 
covering several English Lutheran fam- 
ilies, he preached on Sunday both 



morning and evening in the Swedish 
church and arranged for service some 
weeks later. A second visit was made 
in September when an English congre- 
gation was organized and a Sunday 
School begun. 

The importance of an English Mission 
in the Western part of the city of 
Minneapolis, where no Lutheran church 
existed, led him in the summer of 1889 
to secure a lot in one of the best residence 
streets and build a neat church. The 
following November a Sunday-school 
was begun, and in March, 1890, Salem 
English Evangelical Lutheran congre- 
gation was organized. In June, 1890, 
Trinity English Evangelical Lutheran 
Sunday-school was organized in North 
Minneapolis and in November, the same 
year, he started a Sunday-school in 
Northeast Minneapolis, it being the 
fourth English Lutheran Sunday-school 
in said city. 

Although a Home Missionary, he 
always took the deepest interest in the 
Foreign work, and in the spring of 1890 
published a "History of the General 
Council's Mission among the Telegus of 
India." He is still pastor of St. John's 
English Evangelical Lutheran Church 
of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the pioneer 
English Lutheran Missionary of the 
Northwest. 




REV. PROF. P. C. TRANDBERG. 



On the 18th of August, 1832, was born 
a vigorous, blue-eyed boy on the island 
of Bornholm, in an old-fashioned country 
house, which still occupies its old site, 
although in a considerably improved 
condition. 

His mother, Gjertrud, was a handsome, 



quiet woman, and somewhat inclined to 
melancholy; while his father. Christen 
Mortensen Trandberg, possessed a more 
sprightly disposition, and frequently in 
song and music gave vent to his vivacity. 
These two characteristics of temperament 
in the parents left their impress upon 



804 



AMEKICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEY. PEOF. P. C. TRANDBEEG. 



the son, who in baptism received the 
name Peter Christian Trandberg. 

It is told that, when the child was 
presented for baptism, he was so strong, 
that he astonished the woman who 
carried him by kicking off the old- 
fashioned swaddling clothes with which 
his feet had been tied, not suffering 
anything to remain except the lighter 
and more convenient baptismal gown. 

This was a figurative indication of his 
regenerate longing for liberty. "Where 
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty ;" 
2 Cor. 3: 17. 

The days of his childhood were happy, 
although the sun of God's Spirit did not, 
as could have been desired, warm the 
home-fireside. 

In point of education the little island 
was deficient in those days, a poor 
educated teacher taught school in the 
parish where Trandberg was born. There 
was, however, a good school in a neigh- 
boring parish, but he was permitted to 
attend this but a short time. Thus it 
was brought about that Peter Christian 



Trandberg, to his great sorrow and 
regret, was obliged to leave the home 
of his childhood for the purpose of 
attending a school in the city of Eonne, 
on Bornholm, which was better adapted 
to meet the wants of a talented youth. 
While at home his business was to 
watch his father's sheep. At the thought 
of leaving home, the young shepherd 
often gave his painful feelings vent in a 
flood of tears, while he buried his head 
in the new, sweet-scenting hay — a fore- 
boding of the many tears he would have 
to shed for the Lord's sheep and lambs, 
in the fierce struggle with the wolf* who 
plots their ruin. 

In 1844 he entered the school at 
Bonne. In 1846 he was admitted as a 
regular student to the Latin School at 
Bonne. In about five and a half years 
(1846-1851), he finished the full course 
at this learned institution, and was 
graduated with the highest honors. 

By those who knew him in his child- 
hood and youth, he is said to have 
a very genial disposition. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



805 



While at the Latin School, however, 
he became so broken 'down in health 
and courage, by reason of mental over- 
exertion, that it was only by the most 
persistent effort that his father and the 
rector of the school could prevail upon 
him to continue his studies. 

In th': fall of 1851 he came to Copen- 
hagen, where he finished his College 
course in 1852, when he was admitted 
to the University of Copenhagen. Here 
he studied theology for five and one- 
half years, graduating in January, 1858. 

It was at this juncture that the great 
decisive change took place in the inner 
life of Trandberg. He was awakened 
and converted at the time, when he pre- 
pared for confirmation. In those days 
he spent many happy moments in child- 
like prayer and faith, in communion 
and fellowship with his Saviour, al- 
though he had, as yet, but little knowl- 
edge of the deeper mysteries of 
salvation. But in the midst of that 
general darkness and spiritual death 
which then prevailed among the people, 
he stumbled, and partially relapsed 
into the ways of the world. He, never- 
theless, observed a painful restlessness 
in his soul during his entire school-life. 
The faithful Spirit of God labored with 
him, and he suffered many inward 
struggles; nor did he live entirely with- 
out prayer. 

From several quarters did he receive 
spiritual impressions. No one, how- 
ever, so powerfully affected his heart at 
that time as the so peculiarly endowed 
Christian hero, Soren Kjerkegaard. By 
his writings he aroused many of his 
contemporaries to spiritual watchful- 
ness and activity. Especially after the 
death of Bishop Mynster, in 1854, did 
the working and power of God's Spirit 
become obvious. In the attack of 
Kjerkegaard upon The Official Christi- 



anity there was the thunder of cannon 
with fire and smoke. 

Some time after. Professor (later 
Bishop) Martensen, in a memorial 
speech held at Mynster's death, had 
called him "a witness to the truth — one 
of the right witnesses to the truth," did 
Kjerkegaard effectually speak out. 
With holy passion and consummate 
skill did he portray in glowing colors 
the character of a right witness to the 
truth. The struggle against the apos- 
tacy and the mediocre Christianity had 
now begun, and it continued for a short 
time with desperate fierceness. For a 
while it seemed as if the fire of God's 
spirit would entirely consume all the 
dry stubbles, which the builders, during 
the course of centuries, had constructed. 
But just then it happened that the hero 
(like "Brand" in Henrik Ipsen's poeti- 
cal work) was called away from the 
tragedy of this life (Kjerkegaard died 
in 1855 ) and the spiritually enervated 
and cowardly heroes triumphed, while 
those whose eyes were opened lamented. 
Among the latter was Trandberg. He 
accompanied his spiritual guide to the 
grave. 

By the study of Kjerkegaard's writ- 
ings, Trandberg received a lasting im- 
pression. Especially two important 
things were thereby brought distinctly 
before him, viz: The great apostacy of 
the Christian world, and the great im- 
portance and seriousness of Chris- 
tianity. 

And yet there was something that he 
lacked, the saving power of God had 
not yet entirely conquered him; but the 
time was not distant when the great 
change in Trandberg's life should occur. 

It was during the months of January 
and February, 1858. His school days 
were over. His mother had just died, 
and he had promised to become vicar. 



806 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



His spiritual struggle was exceedingly 
great. Then it was that the morning of 
salvation broke upon him. He com- 
mended himself with living and saving 
faith to Jesus. He came to a true and 
sincere conversion. 

On the 28th of April, 1858, he was 
ordained to the holy office of the gospel 
ministry in the Yiborg Domkirke. For 
two years he served as vicar of the Tjele 
and Vinge churches in Jylland. He had 
learned to know his own insignificance, 
and the greatness and all-sufficiency of 
God. Therefore he also had the un- 
divided affection of the congregations 
which he ministered to. For true hu- 
mility is that heavenly jewel which 
shines most beautifully when the rays 
of the sun of grace are reflected in it. 
Perhaps his preaching caused the 
greatest joy in the manor of Tjele, where 
he found his bride, his future wife, 
whose heart had become especially sus- 
ceptible to earnest Christianity and the 
saving power of Christ's love by her fath- 
er's, the chamberlain Luttichan, death, 
which had occurred a half a year before 
Trandberg's arrival. Indefatigably did 
Trandberg labor those two years in hut 
and mansion. 

The Lord then called him to a great- 
er work. By the spirit of God he was 
brought to apply in earnest the New 
Testament standard by true Christianity. 
Directed by Kirkegaard to a holy un 
derstanding of Gods word, he now com- 
prehended more fully than he had ever 
done before, what true Christianity is, 
viz : in a spiritual sense ( through self- 
denial) to sell all, and to buy the heav- 
enly pearl, Jesus, without money and 
without pay (through faith). Matt. 13: 
45, 46. 

He now voluntarily resigned his po- 
siton as vicar, and started out, trusting 
alone in the God of heaven. He went 
to his native island, Bornholm, for the 



avowed purpose of arousing the Born- 
holmians from their long, spiritual sleep. 
This happened in 1860. He asked his 
young wife whether she would give her 
consent to his proposed missionary en- 
terprise, even if it should cost their 
marriage, to which she answered: "Do 
whatever you regard to be the will of 
God." 

He then started out and began a work 
somewhat new and strange to the or- 
dained ministers of the state church, 
the mediocre spirits regarding it as be- 
ing irregular, while the more consider- 
ate witnesses of the Lord sanctioned it. 
Indeed, it did not cost Trandberg and 
his wife tlieir marriage, but they had to 
sacrifice many of the comforts which 
often cheer our lives in this sinful 
world. In the judgment of the indif- 
ferent Christians Mr. Trandberg was 
always regarded as traveling an irregu- 
lar way. He always remained in a po- 
sition unpaid by the state, and hence he 
often labored under the disadvantages 
of poverty and straitened circumstances. 
Often did he divide what he had with 
the common people who brought him 
their gifts. 

For three years (1860-1863) he lab- 
ored in his native island, Bornholm, 
partly as itinerant and revivalist inde- 
pendent of the state church, and partly 
as pastor vicarius for a couple of the 
ministers on the island. Hundreds and 
thousands were effectually aroused, and 
several of those were, earlier or later, 
brought to a true conversion. The 
ministers, who became alarmed at the 
awakening of their surroundings, while 
they preferred to sleep undisturbed 
their Seven-Summer-Sleep, endeavored 
to hinder his work, but their efforts were 
for the most part f utile. The churches 
were indeed closed for him; but in place 
of these, small chapels were built here 
I and there on the island, farm houses, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



807 



barns and liuts were opened for him. 

In 1863, on St. John's Day, the 24th 
of June, he resigned from the Danish 
State Church and organized "The 
Evangelical Lutheran Free-Church in 
Bornholm," which then numbered 1500 
members. 

On the 9th of November, 1863, he 
was married to Hansine Christiane 
Gottholdine Luttichan, born November 
4, 1835, a daughter of Hans Helmuth 
Luttichan, chamberlain to the manor of 
Tjele. With self-denying affection she 
has shared Tvith her husband both the 
stormy and the calm seasons of life. 
During fourteen years (1863-1877) he 
labored as pastor of the Bornholm 
Free-Church. 

A division occurred in this church 
(1864-7) occasioned by some of Trand- 
berg's lay-preachers, who had taken 
an extreme position with regard to 
Rosenius's views of the mysteries of 
salvation. These radicals proceeded in 
such an exclusive, intolerant and un- 
merciful spirit, that Trandberg could 
not work together with them. 

It is an acknowledged fact, that the 
devil becomes desperately mad whenever 
a living church is organized. This was 
evident also here. The tempter would 
break up the affectionate fellowship of 
God's children. Hence he assumed the 
air of an angel of light. He whispered 
into the hearts of God's children, — and 
by them to others, — such warnings as 
these: "Shun, shun, Pastor Trandberg! 
He knows not the way, the truth, and 
the Life!" They succeeded. Many turned 
their backs upon Trandberg, which 
again brought him sorrow and grief. 
But the arms of Jesus were present to 
uphold and carry the wounded soldier, 
and pour soothing oil into his wounds. 
He had escaped the dangerous poison 
of flattering admiration, but he was 
now attacked in open combat. With 



the strength and courage he had left, 
he still continued to labor a few years 
after this (1868) in a humble and 
despised position, with a small and poor, 
but affectionate and faithful flock of 
about 600 souls. 

Broken down in health by reason of 
over- work he resigned his position as 
pastor of the Free-Church in 1877. 
Still he remained another year in Born- 
holm, devoting the time partly to rest, 
and partly as traveling missionary. 

The following years, from 1879-1882, 
he labored chiefly as an independent 
itinerant in Jylland. 

The last eight years (1882 to 1890) he 
has been in North America. After hav- 
ing spent a few months in Warren, Pa., 
he moved to Chicago, where he still 
lives. He has devoted his time to the 
preaching of the gospel, partly in Chi- 
cago, and partly (especially during the 
summer months) around in various 
states of the Union. 

Although he is an orthodox Lutheran, 
he accepted a call from the Congrega- 
tional church as professor in their school, 
The Chicago Theological Seminary, 
owing to his somewhat liberal views, 
and in view of the chief aim of his life, 
viz.: the establishment of a free-church 
on a general and broad basis. This 
chair he filled for five years (1885-1890). 
On account of his Lutheran principles 
he was dismissed from this institution 
in April, 1890. 

By the assistance and grace of God it 
is his puri30se for the future to establish 
a "Free-Church Seminary" in Chicago, 
the object of which shall be to fit Nor- 
wegians and Danes for the gospel 
ministry. This seminary he opened on 
Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1890. 

His general and chief purpose, which 
he shares with all sincere and living 
preachers of God's word, is, by the 
power of God, to awaken the sleeping 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



masses, and bring them to Jesus, as also 
to provide spiritual food for the Lord's 
believing children. But besides this, he 
has also, since 1868, owned as his special 
aim, what he terms ''The Free-Church 
Idea." This idea he states thus: 

1. Church and state are essentially 
independent and entirely different 
powers. As such, they ought ever to 
have remained distinct and separate, 
although they ought, if possible, to have 
sustained a tolerant and peaceable re- 
lation to each other. But in the popu- 
lar and state-churches these have been 
mixed in an ungodly and pernicious 
manner. 

2. In the state-church the people of 
God have been robbed of their right 
and power of election, and the congre- 
gations have become powerless. The 
voice of the congregations must be 
heard in the calling and appointment 
of pastors. 



3. In the state-churches and in the 
popular churches is found an ungodly, 
offensive and unscriptural mixture of 
the unbelieving, and God's faithful 
children. This wars against the apos- 
tolic principle: 'Be ye not unequally 
yoked together with unbelievers,' 2 Cor. 
6:14. This abomination must be done 
away with, especially by enforcing 
church-discipline, according to the Di- 
vine injunction, Matt. 18:15-18. 

What a person loves he is willing to 
suffer for. Mr.Traudberg has loved the 
Free-Church idea, and he has not lacked 
opportunity to suffer for it. In the 
midst of all the vicissitudes of life— its 
struggles, victories and defeats, — one 
thing is settled in Trandberg's mind; 
the firm conviction, that a living free- 
church, by the power of God, will be 
established in God's favorable time 




REV. D. L. TRESSLER, Ph.D. 



Dr. Tressler was born in the village 
of Loysville, Pa., Febuary 15, 1839. He 
was the son of the late Col. John Tress- 
ler, who died at Loysville, A. D. 1859. 
His venerable mother, now (1880) in 
her seventy- third year still survives him, 
and cheered him with her presence and 
blessing in his last moments. He en- 
joyed the boon of a pious home, and 
was early brought under that excellent 
religious training upon which, both in 
the home and in the church, the denom- 
ination to which he belonged, and of 
which he became so distinguished an 
ornament, puts so much emphasis. At 
an early age he publicly confessed the 
Lord, and became a "chosen vessel," a 
standard bearer in the church of the 
Reformation. After having been faith- 



fully trained in the Catechism, he was 
admitted to the membership of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church by the 
solemn rite of Confirmation. There was 
no feature of his life which he so de- 
lighted to recall and dwell upon as the 
early religious training he received from 
his parents. He often spoke with de- 
vout gratitude of the simple, earnest 
piety of his father, and of the influence 
of his father's example. 

His early education was received in 
the public schools of his native town, 
and his preparation for college in the 
Loysville Academy, founded by his 
father, and of which he became prin- 
cipal in after years. 

In 1857 he was admitted to the 
sophomore class in Pennsylvania Ool 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



809 




REV. D. L. TEESSLER, PH. D. 



lege, and graduated with the first honor 
in 1860, The same year he became 
principal of the academy at which he 
had prepared for college. In the sum- 
mer of 1862 he gave up his position in 
the academy, and, having raised a 
company of volunteers chiefly from 
among his own students, he entered the 
army as their captain. He participated 
in the battles of South Mountain, 
Antietam, and Fredericksburg; in the 
latter engagement he was wounded twice. 
After his recovery he resumed his com- 
mand, and passed through the memora- 
ble battle of Chancellorsville. At the 
expiration of his term of service he was 
tendered a colonel's commission, which 
he saw best to decline. His military 
career was marked by that courage and 
fidelity to duty which brought him dis- 
tinction wherever he wrought. In the 
army, as in the parish and the school, 
he won the affection and esteem of all 
with whom he was brought in contact. 
A beautiful illustration of the regard 
in which he was held by his comrades in 
arms, was given at the "Grand Reunion 
102 



of the Regiment," at the close of the 
war, when he received an elegant gold 
watch from those whom he had taught 
in the school, and commanded on the 
field. After he returned from the army 
he entered upon the study of law, and 
was admitted to the bar in 1861. His 
legal career extends over a period of 
five years, and though short, it was long 
enough to secure to him, in the com- 
munity where he resided, the distinction 
of the "brilliant young lawyer." 

Dr. Tressler had rare gifts for this 
noble profession, and if had sought fame 
and wealth, it is not likely that he would 
have been disappointed had he continued 
in that particular sphere. But God 
gave him a great heart as well as a good 
mind, and he aspired to something 
nobler than the bubble of earth's fame, 
or the bauble of its gold. To a loved 
one he said, "If I wish to be rich in 
this world's goods, I will remain in the 
legal prof ession — if rich in the next 
world, I will enter the ministry." Ac- 
cordingly, in 1870, he removed to Men- 
dota, 111., and in the autumn of the same 



810 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



year entered the ministry of the Evan- 
gelical Lutlieran"_Church and was im- 
mediately called to Lena, where he 
labored with great acceptance until his 
removal to Carthage. How much he 
was esteemed as pastor and preacher, 
those to whom he ministered bear truth- 
ful and touching testimony. But all 
these various positions of trust, chal- 
lenging all that is noble in a true man- 
hood, were but stepping-stones to a 
higher place and a greater work, for 
which God would fit his servant. 

In 1872 he was elected a professor of 
Carthage College, and entered at once 
upon his new position. He very soon 
evinced the rare gifts of a college presi- 
dent, and was chosen to that responsible 
position in 1873. After serious thought 
and prayer he accepted the place to 
which he was appointed, and continued 
in it until he died. 

For this place Dr. Tressler was emi- 
nently endowed both by nature and by 
grace. With an experience in life so 
varied that it developed him on many 
sides, he brought to his task those mul- 
tiform gifts which rarely combine in 
one man. He had a clear, sprightly 
mind, was of quick perception, and able 
to retain, and happy to communicate to 
others the knowledge he possessed. His 
imagination was vivid without being 
extravagant, his judgment was well 
balanced, while his will, though firm, 
was cautious in its decision. His speech 
was fluent and graceful as his person, 
and yet free from empty and pompous 
parade. He was of modest mien, and 
carefully avoided undue prominence; 
and whilst quick to avail himself of any 
opportunity that would minister to the 
cause he loved so well, or to the com- 
mon good in any wise, he would take no 
advantage of his position to magnify 
himself. 

But the noblest and greatest endow- 



ment of Dr. Tressler was the manly and 
well rounded soul within him. A man 
of large sympathy and of unusual 
heart-power, it was not strange that he 
should be abundant in kindly ministry, 
and, without intent, secure to himself 
the admiration of all with whom he 
came in contact. Added to excellent 
administrative ability was his business 
faculty, which led the board of the col- 
lege, shortly after his election to the 
presidency, to lay upon him the addi- 
tional labor and responsibility of treas- 
urer of the institution, an ofiice involv- 
ing an amount of care and toil quite 
sufficient for one man alone. 

When on his death-bed he said to the 
Rev. Mr. Kuhl, who stood near by, 
"Dear brother, repeat to me those sweet 
consolations of the gospel. O, if I am to 
live, that my life may be more entirely 
consecrated to dear Jesus ! If I die, I 
will soon be with Him in glory." After 
a few moments of silence, he exclaimed 
"O, my dear, dear children, that they 
may live for Jesus and glorify Him in 
their lives, and meet me in heaven, and 
we will sing His praises forever to- 
gether. O, my dear mother, I wish she 
were here, that I might clasp her to my 
bosom. I know she will meet me in 
heaven." After a brief silence he said, 
"I repose it all — all in Him! Has Jesus 
paid it all? What then do I owe? Yes, 
I'll submit my all to Him. He'll save 
me. Isn't salvation greater than I?" 
On another occasion, naming the mem- 
bers of his childhood's and present 
home, he said: *'0, when all have as- 
sembled with Jesus — with Jesus! The 
Lord grant it! O, how delightful, how 
delightful! Singing with Jesus — all 
singing with Jesus!" Turning to his 
wife he said, "If your treasure was not 
laid up in heaven, and mine was not 
laid up there, your estate would be 
small; but the Lord will provide." 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



831 



Shortly before his departure, his wife 
said to him: "Pa, do you know me?" 
•'Yes," he answered feebly. "Pa, you 
are almost home; will you watch over 
us?" "Yes," he answered, and then 
added, "By the help of God we'll all 
meet there." 



Dr. Tressler fell asleep in Jesus on 
Friday morning, Feb. 20, 1880, in the 
forty-second year of his age. So lived 
and so died one of God's noblest wit- 
nesses, and one of the Church's most 
faithful, most self-denying servants. — 
"M. R." in Tressler Memorial. 




KEY. A. A. TRIMPER. 



A few years before his last illness 
Rev. A. A. Trimper gratified the desire 
of a friend, by putting on paper a brief 
autobiography. So artless and beauti- 
ful is this product of the good Brother's 
pen, that no memoir of him can be com- 
plete without it. Here it is under date 
of March 10th, 1879: 

*'I, Abraham A. Trimper, was born in 
the town of Clavarack, Columbia Coun- 
ty, N. Y., February 17th, 1816, and was 
baptized by Rev. Mr. Uhl, then pastor 
of the Lutheran church at Churchtown, 
Columbia Co. When eight years of age 
my father moved to Kinderhook, where 
we attended the Reformed Dutch church 
Rev. Dr. Sickles, pastor. When Rev. 
Jacob Berger organized a Lutheran 
church in Valatie, an adjoining village, 
my parents being Lutherans, they 
united with that church, and at about 
the age of eighteen or twenty years I 
was admitted to church membership by 
the rite of confirmation. I commenced 
my studies for the ministry at Kinder- 
hook Academy, but through the influ- 
ence of my pastor, Rev. Jacob Berger, I 
was sent to Hartwick Seminary, where I 
graduated in the literary department, or 
'preparandi course,' in the summer of 
1839. In consequence of the exercises 
of Hartwick Seminary being suspended 
to repair the building, I was sent again 
by my pastor, Rev. Jacob Berger, to 



Gettysburg, Pa., to study theology. In 
the fall of 1841, I was examined and li- 
censed by the Synod of the West, which 
convened that fall in the city of Indian- 
apolis, Indiana. This Synod then em- 
braced a part of Ohio and the States of 
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, 
Missouri, and west to the Pacific. 

A few months after the synodical 
meeting in Indianapolis, I received a 
call to the Lutheran church of this 
place (Lawrence, Kansas). This was 
my first field of ministerial labor. In 
the spring of 1844 I accepted a call to 
become pastor of the Lutheran church 
at Hillsboro, 111., the oldest or next to 
the oldest Lutheran church in the State 
of Illinois. This church had been or- 
ganized by my venerable predecessor, 
Rev. Daniel Scherer, who with a large 
colony of Lutherans emigrated from 
North Carolina. His son Jacob, after- 
ward Rev., was my room-mate at Get- 
tysburg, and by whose influence I was 
induced to seek the wild prairies of Ill- 
inois as a field of labor, and who fol- 
lowed me first as my successor at 
Indianapolis, and afterward to Illinois. 
He was an earnest and faithful Christian 
and minister, and died nobly at his post 
as a pioneer missionary of Lutheranism 
in the prairie states. I remained at 
Hillsboro until the fall of 1852, the first 
couple of years as a pastor exclusively; 



812 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



organized two or three churches in the 
adjoining country, and then became 
connected with the Hillsboro Academy 
as Principal, and which was afterwards 
donated to our Church (Synod of Illi- 
nois then) and became the nucleus of 
Hillsboro College, and which was after- 
ward removed to Springfield, the capital, 
and received the pretentious title of 
Illinois State University. 

This institution, I am sorry to say, 
partly through adverse circumstances, 
and very much no doubt to bad fiuan- 
cieriug, has gone the way of many other 
enterprises of a similar character. 

In the fall of 1852, in consequence of 
my own poor health and that of my 
family, I r( moved to Northern Illinois. 
Now for a time, I am ashamed to say, 
my changes were frequent. I was pas- 
tor of the Lutheran church of Oregon, 
Ogle Co., 111., and of Lena, Stephenson 
Co. , 111. I was here during the 'troublous 
times' of the war of the rebellion, and 
was obliged to leave on account of the 
hot political strifes and difficulties in 
the church. Thence I went to Dixon, 
111., and remained there until my health 
again gave way and I was obliged to 
resign my pastoral labor of the churches. 
While here, by the blessing of God, I 
was instrumental in building a large 
and excellent brick house of worship, 
and paid for, at least so nearly that it 
has never given them any trouble. I 
also organized two churches in the 
county that have for eight or nine years 
supported a pastor equally well, and 
independently of the town church. 

In 1869 I was obliged to seek a change 
and less close mental labor. At this 
time our people were agitating the 
question of starting another institution 
of learning. The brethren in the North 
were unwilling to undertake the her- 
culean task of resuscitating Illinois 
State University; the brethren in the 



South hated Mendota and regarded its 
competition as one cause of the failure 
of Springfield, and therefore would not 
unite on it as a Church institution. So 
there was no other way than to compro- 
mise on a new locality and commence 
literary work for the Church in the far 
West de novo. Carthage was agreed 
upon as the place, the citizens having 
made us the best proposition, and I was 
selected, or appointed, financial agent, 
because no one else wanted it, or would 
take it. I devoted three years to this 
work, and the result was the restoration 
of my health and $34,000 secured in en- 
dowment for Carthage College. This 
amount, it must be remembered, was 
obtained from our poor pioneer, mis- 
sionary churches in the states of Illinois 
and Iowa. A few hundred dollars were 
obtained by the agent by correspond- 
ence outside of these two states. But 
my travels were confined to Illinois and 
Iowa, except one brief visit to the Synod 
of Kansas, more to secure their co-opera- 
tion than that of procuring money. 

In the spring of 1878 I came to Law- 
rence, Kas., and have been pastor of the 
English Lutheran church here ever 
since, with the exception of one year. 

The author of the foregoing sketch 
was a descendant of a mixed ancestry — 
on the mother's side, German; and on 
the father's, French Huguenot. His 
decease occurred at Lawrence, Kas., 
Dec. 28, 1884. 

We often speak of a person whom we 
wish to praise: "he is a child of nature." 
Of Rev. Abraham A. Trimper a truth is 
told when we say of him : "He was a 
child of God." There was in him a 
beautiful spontaneity of the Christian 
spirit so unstudied, so quick and easy, 
that no one in contact with him, even 
only a few minutes, could fail to be im- 
pressed with the sincerity of his 
Christian faith. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



813 



REV. J. P. UHLER. 



Prof. J. P. Uhler was born in the 
vicinity of Easton, Pa., Aug. 26, 1854 
Receiving a common school education, 
he spent two years as a student in the 
Keystone State Normal School. This 
training gave the inspiration and laid 
the foundation for a teacher's calling. 
At the age of eighteen he was con- 
firmed in the Lutheran Church and 
taught twelve months in the public 
schools and a private Academy of 
Northampton and Carbon Counties, Pa. 

The desire for a classical education 
had by this time so grown, that he now 
entered the classical course of La Fayette 
College as a Freshman, although he 
was prepared for junior class in scienti- 
fic branches. The skillful teaching of 
certain college professors, especially of 
Professors Francis A. March, LL. D., 
and Joseph J. Hardy, A. M., gave new 
impetus to former inclinations, and two 
years were again devoted to the teach- 
ing of classics and mathematics in 
Trach's Academy, Easton, Pa. Three 
years more of study were now added in 
the Lutheran Theological Seminary, 
Philadelphia, Pa., and upon graduation 
there, he was ordained by the Lutheran 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania, at its 
meeting in 1881. Although desiring to 
enter the active ministry, two calls to 



professorship, were received and the 
Vice-Principalship of the State Normal 
School, at Kutztown Pa., having been 
offered to him as a Lutheran minister, 
was accepted, together with the chair 
of Higher Mathematics and Physics. 
Being called twice in two successive 
years by the Minnesota Conference of 
the Swedish Augustana Synod to a pro- 
fessorship in Gustavus Adolphus Col- 
lege, St. Peter, Minn., the chair of math- 
ematics and natural sciences was ac- 
cepted in 1882. 

The institution was then only in her 
formative struggles, being nothing more 
than a common academy, preparing 
students for other colleges. Since then 
the courses of study have developed 
from the high-school grade into the 
grade of the regular classical college, 
and now Gustavus Adolphus College 
compares favorably with any American 
college in the state, and is doing good 
service for the church in providing 
teachers for English and Swedish 
schools, as well as candidates for the 
Theological Seminary. During the first 
eight years of the college's growth, all 
the experience, skill and ability of a 
teacher were not only highly valuable, 
but had to be used to their ntmost. 



REV. J. UHLHORN. 



The folio wing is taken from Dr. Morris' 
"Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry:" 

"Among the many men of versatile 
talent and high mental culture which 
our Church has furnished, and who, in 
other spheres, would have far outranked 
many celebrities of other denominations, 



none deserves a more exalted position 
than Rev. Uhlhorn, formerly of Zion's 
German Church in Baltimore. He came 
to this country in 1824 or 1825, a young, 
highly accomplished, and rather fash- 
ionable eeclesiastic. . . He was en- 
dowed with an extraordinary retentive 



814 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



memory. I have heard him repeat odes 
of Anacreon and other Greek poets with 
perfect correctness. He could recite 
chapters of the Bible and of other books 
without scarcely missing a word. But 
these were not the most striking proofs 
of the strength of his faculty. Old Dr. 
D. Kurtz has told me that Uhlhorn 
could repeat a long Grerman hymn 
backwards, after reading it several times 
over. 



His powers of impromptu versification 
were wonderful. I have heard him 
recite long series of good verses upon 
any subject that may have come up, and 
on short ex tempore couplets he was 
unsurpassed. 

His manner in the pulpit would be 
considered as rather overstrained at the 
present day, but, in his more moderate 
mood, he was grand and impressive." 




KEY. JOHN ULEICH. 



Eev. John Ulrich was born near Ann- 
ville, Lebanon Co., Pa., on the 29th of 
July, 1808. He was the son of Adam 
and Ann Marie Ulrich. He entered the 
ministry in 1833, being one of the first 
students that came fi»om our Theologi- 
cal Seminary. His first charge was at 
Woodstock, Va., where he remained but 
eighteen months, when he was called to 
the charge of the church in Carlisle, Pa., 
where he remained eight years. From 
here he removed to Petersburg, Adams 
Co., Pa., where he preached for thirteen 
years. Thence he was called to Ship- 
pensburg, Pa., where he remained four 
years, and then removed back to Carlisle, 
Pa., where for the last three years, he 



supplied the Sulphur Spring charge. 
During his ministry of thirty years he 
enjoyed the confidence and esteem of 
his brethren in the ministry. For many 
years he was a prominent member of 
the Board of Directors of our Theologi- 
cal Seminary at Gettysburg. For three 
years he was president of the West 
Pennsylvania Synod, and was for a long 
time chairman of its Home Mission 
Committee. As a preacher he was 
plain and very earnest. As a pastor, 
we suppose but few men have ever been 
more faithful and untiring. He died at 
his home in Carlisle, Pa., May 16th, 
1862, leaving a widow, one daughter and 
two sons. — The Lutheran and Missionary. 




EEV. MILTON VALENTINE, D.D., LL.D. 



Eev. Milton Valentine, D.D. (Penn- 
sylvania College, Gettysburg, Pa., 1866), 
LL.D. (Wittenberg College, Spring- 
field, O., 1886), was born near Union- 
town, Carroll Co., Md., Jan. 1, 1825. His 
parents were Jacob and Kebecca (Pick- 
ing) Valentine. The family in this 
country is traced back to George Valen- 
tine who, according to the best informa- 



tion, came to America from the Ehine 
district of Germany some time in the 
early half of the eighteenth century, 
probably in connection with the bitter 
sufi'erings of the Protestants in the war 
of succession. 

His early schooling began at Union- 
town. He was confirmed as a member 
of the Lutheran church in Taneytown 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



815 



Oct. 28, 1843, then under the pastoral 
care of Rev. S. Sentman. Having pur- 
sued the necessary preparatory studies 
in the Taneytown Academy, he entered 
the freshman class in Pennsylvania 
College in the fall of 1846, and gradu- 
ated in 1850, delivering the Greek 
oration. About the middle of the senior 
year in college he was appointed tutor 
in the preparatory department in which 
position he continued for two years, in- 
cluding the greater part of which he 
was a student in the theological semi- 
nary. He entered the seminary in 1850 
and finished the course of studies in 
1852. He was licensed by the Synod of 
West Pennsylvania, at Mechanicsburg, 
in 1852, and at once began his ministry 
in supplying, for eight months, the 
pulpit of the Lutheran church in Win- 
chester, Va., during the absence of the 
pastor, Rev. Dr. C. Porter field Krauth, 
with his invalid wife at St. Thomas, 
West Indies. This supply covered the 
time of the meeting of the General 
Synod in the Winchester church in 1853. 
He was ordained by the Maryland 
Synod, Oct. 25, 1853, at its meeting in 
the Lombard Street Church, Baltimore, 
and spent a short time in missionary 
service in Allegheny, Pa., in connection 
with the nucleus which was afterward 
organized into the Trinity Lutheran 
Church, being at the same time pastor 
of the Mount Calvary Church at Char- 
tier's Creek, on the Ohio river below 
Pittsburg. In 1854 he accepted a call 
to the Greensburg pastoral charge, 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. In consequence 
of sore throat, disabling from preach- 
ing, this charge was resigned at the end 
of one year's service. Subsequently an 
invitation was received to enter the ser- 
vice of teaching in the theological semi- 
nary then at Lexington, S. C. This was 
declined, and a call to take charge of 
the Emmaus Institute at Middletx)wn, 



Pa., was accepted in 1855. At that time 
that institution was an academic school. 
The principalship of the institute was 
held nntil March, 1859, when he re- 
moved to Reading, Pa , having accepted 
a call to St. Matthew's Church, made 
vacant by the resignation and removal 
of Dr. J. A. Brown, to take the presi- 
dency of Newberry College, S. C. In 
1865 he received, but declined, a unani- 
mous call to the professorship of Eccle- 
siastical History, Homiletics, Church 
Government and Pastoral Theology, in 
Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio. 
In the same year he was elected to the 
chair of Ecclesiastical History and 
Church Polity in the Theological Semi- 
nary of the General Synod, at Gettys- 
burg, Pa., the work of which was en- 
tered a year later, in 1866. About a 
year later an earnest call to the presi- 
dency of Illinois State University was 
sent him, with a view to recover, if pos- 
sible, the fortunes of that embarrassed 
institution, but the call was declined. 
In the spring of 1868, upon the death 
of Dr. H. L. Baugher, president of 
Pennsylvania College, Dr. Valentine 
was chosen by the Board of Trustees as 
his successor. In reference to this, and 
the subsequent transfer of his labors to 
the College, Dr. H. W. McKnight, in 
his historical address at the semi-centen- 
nial of the College, July, 1882, says: 

"Unable to secure his acceptance of 
the call, without giving him time for 
further consideration, an arrangement 
was effected, to discharge the duties of 
the position during the summer session. 
At the regular meeting of the Board in 
August following. Dr. Valentine, reluct- 
ant to give up his professorship in the 
Seminary, in which he was ably serving 
the Church, declined the call to the 
presidency of the College, which he had 
been holding under advisement. Not- 
withstanding the disappointment occa- 



816 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



sioned by this decision, the Board at 
once unanimously elected him a second 
time. Under the pressure of this sec- 
ond call, he was induced to yield to the 
judgment of the Board and of many 
friends — a judgment which ha^ been 
fully confirmed by fourteen years of cul- 
tured, devoted and gratifying service, 
and is being confirmed anew by the gen- 
eral interest and joy of these days of 
jubilee. His formal inauguration took 
place in the College Church, at the close 
of the first term of his regular service, 
December 21st, 1868." 

Dr. Valentine remained president of 
the College for sixteen years, till in 1884, 
he was unanimously called as president 
and professor of Didactic Theology in 
the Theological Seminary of the Gen- 
eral Synod, made vacant by the death 
of Dr. C. A. Stork. The inauguration 
took place in the evening of Sept. 26th. 
His inaugural address, discussing some 
of the present demands in theological 
training, gave clear and emphatic ex- 
pression of his adherence to the Catho- 
lic Lutheran basis of the General Sy- 
nod: "I see no theological demand of 
our day in conflict with the doctrinal 
basis of the Seminary. Established, as 
it emphatically is, on the doctrinal 
teaching of the Augsburg Confession, 
it stands neither for Zwinglian nor 
Calvinistic, but for Lutheran Christian 



theology. As such it represents what 
is to my firm conviction the true ever- 
lasting gospel of the grace of God, — a 
correct exhibition of the fundamental 
doctrines of the divine word. Our 
position is to be that of true, positive 
Lutheranism, in clear and consistent 
contradistinction to other and variant 
systems of Christian doctrine. It is, 
however, — and must be, for the very rea- 
son that we are to insist on the best and 
truest type, — the Catholic Lutheranism 
of the Augsburg Confession, a Luther- 
anism in whose consistent trueness and 
freeness a Luther and a Melanchthon 
can worship side by side, and which 
presents our Church, as was meant by 
the Reformers, as revived apostolic 
Christianity for the world." 

In this position Dr. Valentine has 
continued to the present. He was edi- 
tor of The Lutheran Quarterly, 1871-75, 
and 1880-86. In 1885 he published 
"Natural Theology, or Rational Theism" 
(S. C. Grigers & Co., Chicago), which 
has been well received and adopted as 
a text-book in a large and increasing 
number of colleges and seminaries of the 
country. Besides numerous pamphlets 
and addresses he has written a 
number of articles for the Evangelical 
Review, The Lutheran Quarterly, Homiletic 
Review, Magazine of Christian Literature, 
and other journals. 




REV. N. VAN ALSTINE, D.D. 



Dr. Van Alstine was born March 21, 
1814, in Schoharie County, N. Y. He 
made a confession of Christ in 1830, 
and united with the Lutheran church 
of that place under the pastoral minis- 
tration of the Rev. P. Wieting. He 
was educated at Hartwick Seminary, 
Otsego County, N. Y., while Dr. G. B. 



Miller was its principal and theological 
professor. 

On the occasion of the semi-centennial 
celebration of his pastoral life he received 
among others the following congratula- 
tions : 

Wheeeas, the Rev. N. Van Alstine, 
of Raymertown, N. Y, will celebrate 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



817 



the semi-centennial of his entrance into 
the gospel ministry, on Sunday morning, 
the 10th instant; therefore be it 

Resolved, Tiiat we as a Conference 
extend to him our congratulations on 
his being permitted, through the bless- 
ing of God, to see and celebrate that 
eventful day, and that the prayers of 
this Conference be united to the Father 
of mercies, that He would graciously 
spare the health and strenght of our 
aged father, that his days of usefulness 
may yet be many. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of Con- 
ference be instructed to send him our 
congratulations, so that he may receive 
the same by Saturday of the present 
week. 

Action of Central Conference of 
Franckean Synod, October 6, 1886. 

John J. Dominic, Secretary. 



Second Lutheean Church at ) 
West Sandlake, N. Y. J 
To The Rev. N. Van Alstine, Greeting: 

Dear Brother: We desire to convey to 
you our hearty congratulation upon the 
completion of the fiftieth year of your 
service in pastoral life in the churches 
over which, in the order of Divine 
Providence, you have been called to 
oflSciate; and we wish to emphasize 
these sentiments, realizing that we are 
still reaping the benefits of your ten 
years' service as our pastor, and we 
further desire in this public manner, to 
express our unabated confidence in your 
Christian integrity and fidelity as a 
teacher of Divine truth. 

Signed in behalf of this church and 
congregation. 
Oct. 8, 1886. Joseph Uline, Clerk 



the celebration of the semi-centennial 
of your pastoral life — we, as a church 
and congregation, would present to you 
our most hearty congratulations. The 
twenty-one years of service among us in 
the pastoral relation were attended with 
gratifying and enduring results, the 
fruits of which still remain, and we 
desire to convey to you at this time and 
on this occasion, an expression of our 
abiding confidence in your character, 
and fidelity, and faithfulness as a Chris- 
tian and a minister of Christ. 

Signed on behalf of church and con- 
gregation. C. Dingman, 

John W. Davy, 
Oct. 10, 1886. Henry Walrath. 



The Church of Minden, N. Y. 
To the Eev. N. Van Alstine, Greeting: 
On this most interesting occasion — 
103 



Whereas, The Rev. N. Van Alstine 
has sent us an invitation to attend his 
semi-centennial services on the tenth of 
October, and 

Whereas, Many of our people have 
expressed a desire to be present ; therefore 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to 
our Brother, and as a token of our 
appreciation of his faithful service while 
our pastor, we will accept the invitation, 
and withdraw our service morning and 
evening on that day, and urge our people 
to attend said services, that they may 
personally congratulate our Brother and 
Father in Israel upon the completion 
of his fifty years' service in the active 
ministry. 

Resolved, That we will unite our prayers 
with those of his other spiritual children, 
to the Great Head of the Church, that 
he may be spared yet many days to 
preach the gospel with the same love, 
zeal and fidelity that have marked his 
ministry during the years past. 

Action of Church Council Sept. 19, 
1886. Clark Waterbury, 

East Schodack, N. Y. Clerk, 



818 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



REV. JACOB T. VOGELBACH. 



Eev. Jacob Traugott Yogelbach was 
born July 25th, 1814, at Kirchen, Grand 
Duchy of Baden, Germany. He came 
to America in 1834, entered the ministry 
and Pennsylvania Synod in 1836, served 
congregations in Harrisburg, Pittsburg, 
and Allentown, Pa., and took charge of 
St. Jacobus, Philadelphia, Pa., in 1857, 
where he remained until his death. 

A couple of years before his death 



he was disabled by several strokes of 
paralysis, which at first affected his 
throat and then his limbs, and finally 
caused his death, November 20th, 1880. 
He held a number of prominent ofiices 
in the Pennsylvania Synod, with which 
he was connected so long; and he served 
faithfully as a member of many import- 
ant committees. He bore a high repu- 
tation as pastor and preacher. 



EEV. JOHN LEWIS VOIGHT. 



John Lewis Voight was born in 
Mansfield, a town of Prussian Saxony, 
November 9th, 1731. He was regularly 
educated for the ministry, and, after 
having completed his academical and 
theological course, was, for several years 
a teacher in the Orphan House at Halle. 
He subsequently filled the office of In- 
spector in the same institution, and 
acquired a high reputation for fidelity 
and success in the discharge of his duties. 
It was in consequence of this that he 
was recommended as a suitable person 
for the missionary work, when the call 
was made for an increase of laborers 
in this country. He was ordained to the 
work of the ministry by the Consisto- 
rium at Wernigerode, and shortly after 
went to London, and thence embarked 
for Philadelphia, where he arrived on 
the 1st of April, 1764. He was received 
with great cordiality, and preached his 
first sermon the next Lord's Day, from 
the words, — "Let Mount Zion rejoice, 
let the daughters of Judah be glad, be- 
cause of thy judgments." The first few 
weeks after his arrival he spent in fill- 
ing appointments at Germantown, Prov- 
idence, and New Hanover; and then, by 



direction of the president of Synod' 
took charge of the congregation in Ger- 
mantown. This was in accordance with 
a rule which prevailed at that day, re- 
quiring every minister to labor for a 
season in that field which, in the judg- 
ment of Synod, was most in need of 
pastoral services, — the power of Synod 
being vested, in the mean time, with the 
presiding officer. Mr. Voight was, how- 
ever, in the course of the year, elected 
by the congregations themselves as pas- 
tor of the churches at Germantown and 
Barren Hill. 

Mr. Voight's connection with these 
congregations continued till the close of 
the year 1765, when he assumed the 
pastoral care of the congregation at the 
Trappe and New Hanover. For many 
years his residence was at the Trappe. 
He subsequently removed to Vincent, 
still retaining, however, his connection 
with the Trappe Church, and also serv- 
ing as pastor of one or two other congre- 
gations. The congregation at Vincent is 
in Chester County, not far from Phoe- 
nixville, and is now known by the name 
of Zion's Church. The church edifice, 
which is still understood to be in a good 



i 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



819 



state of preservation, was used, during 
the War of the Revolution, as a hospital 
for the soldiers. Mr. Voight was the 
first pastor of this church after the war. 
He spent the residue of his life in this 
region, and was highly respected both 
as a man and a minister. He died on 
the 28th of December, 1800, in the 
seventieth year of his age. He was 
buried in front of the church door, 
where a neat marble monument, erected 
at the time, by the congregation, still 
marks the spot where his ashes repose. 
He bequeathed his library to the con- 
gregation at Vincent. 

Mr. Voight was regarded by his con- 
temporaries as worthy of all confidence, 
— a man of simple habits, earnest piety, 
fervent benevolence, and an eminently 
exemplary life. His mind had been 
subjected, in early life, to very thorough 
discipline, and he had trained himself 
to a habit of untiring industry; and this, 
in connection with the strength of his 



moral and religious principles, imparted 
great energy and efficiency to his general 
character. He was deeply interested in 
his work as a minister of the gospel, 
and consecrated to it the whole vigor of 
his physical, intellectual and moral 
nature. No interest was so dear to him 
but that he could cheerfully sacrifice it 
rather than appear recreant to principle. 
He was distinguished for his habits of 
devotion — he never seemed to breathe 
so freely as in his approaches to the 
Throne of the Heavenly Grace. His 
confidence in God never yielded, even 
in the darkest hour. His life was 
animated by a zeal truly apostolic. With 
fewer infirmities than pertain to most 
good men, and with the Christian graces 
richly and harmoniously exhibited, he 
exerted an influence for good, which 
renders his memory a precious inherit- 
ance among the descendants of those 
whom he was instrumental of guiding 
to Heaven. — Sprague. 



REV. CHRISTIAN VOLZ. 



Pastor Christian Volz was born at 
Walddorf, in Wurtemberg, on the 29th 
of September, 1826. At the age of fif- 
teen he entered the Teachers' Seminary 
at Eszlingen. Later he became tutor at 
a deaf and dumb institute. In 1852 he 
came to Ann Arbor, Mich. Rev. Fried. 
Schmidt, whose kind hospitality he re- 
ceived, advised him to enter the minis- 
try. After his ordination he served sev- 
eral congregations in Michigan. In 
1857 he received a call from the St. 
John's Church in Buffalo, where Pastor 
Gunther had labored for more than 
twenty-four years. At the meeting of 
the Ministerium at Utica, in 1857, Pas- 
tor Volz was made a member of the 
northern district of the Ohio Synod. 



His congregation numbered at this 
time, over a thousand communicants. 
His heart beat warmly on behalf of the 
orphans and their Christian training. 
He was deeply interested in education. 
He sent hundreds of dollars to Colum- 
bus, Ohio, for the support of the Capi- 
tal University of the Ohio Synod, and 
in this he followed the example of Dr. 
Stohlmann. He regularly gathered alms 
for the Orphan Asylum, at Pittsburg, Pa. 
Finally he conceived the idea of estab- 
lishing such an institution himself. At 
this he made a beginning in 1864. On 
Sunday Latare, after having preached a 
sermon on the feeding of the five thous- 
and, he announced to his congregation 
his purpose of establishing such an in- 



820 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 




pajlor Cl)n|linn ID0I3 in Bufalo 




stitution to the honor of God and the 
relief of poor orphans. As one man, the 
congregation seconded his noble project. 
For this purpose, the house of the 
sainted Pastor Gunther was bought for 
$2,000. After having enlarged and re- 
modeled the building, it was appropri- 
ately dedicated as an Orphan Home, on 
the 9th of May, 1865. The Lord pros- 
pered the work, and through the kind- 
ness of charitable people, the sum of 
$3,716.14 was donated to the Home, be- 
sides considerable furniture and such 
like. Notvithstanding these liberal 
contributions, there was a debt of 
$1,541.42 resting upon the institution at 
its dedication. But "what is that 
among so many friends of the orphans"; 
thus argued the founder and first direct- 
or of the Orphan Home, Pastor Yolz, at 



the dedication service. At the first an- 
niversary there had already been re- 
ceived thirteen children into the Home. 
It was a day of thanksgiving and joy, 
because of the manifest help of the Lord, 
who had so abundantly prospered the 
work. Not only had the debt been paid, 
but a surplus of $3,042.81 had been re- 
ceived. In 1867 the number of orphans 
had risen to 27. Notwithstanding the 
number of children which was con- 
stantly increased, the treasury contained 
at the end of this year, a surplus of 
$3,986.70. It now became necessary to 
enlarge the Orphan Home. During 
the fourth year the number of children 
rose to thirty-seven. It was during this 
year, that the property at Sulphur 
Springs, N. Y., was added to the insti- 
tution. At the fourth anniversary, 



I 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



821 



which was celebrated ou June 27th, 1869, 
a large number of people from far and 
near partook in the festivities, of which 
a prominent feature was the dedication 
of the Orphan Home for Boys, at Sul- 
phur Springs. In 1871 the Orphan 
Home had to be enlarged. The addition 
was built of brick, while the old was a 
frame-building. In 1876 the Orphans' 
Home at Sulphur Springs was destroyed 
by fire. But this did not discourage 
Pastor Volz and his co-laborers. A new, 
beautiful, and massive building was im- 
mediately erected in the neighborhood 
of where the old building had stood. In 
1879 Pastor Volz lost his much esteemed 
co-laboress, Mrs. Louise Adelberg, who 
had acted as matron of the Orphan 
House for nearly ten years, fche being 
called to the Deaconess Institute at 
Baiern. This year the number of chil- 
dren amounted to ninety-five. With 
characteristic perseverance and Christ- 
ian devotion, Pastor Volz discharged 
his ever augmenting labors. Besides 
the supervision of liistwo Orphan Homes 
and the numerous cares connected with 



them, he faithfully ministered to a con- 
gregation of over two thousand com- 
municants. During the twenty-seven 
years of his pastorate, he baptized 6,702, 
confirmed 3,034, administered commun- 
ion to 49,971, married 1,675, and buried 
2,929. 

On Sunday, November 11th, 1883, he 
preached with unusual cheerfulness, it 
being the four-hundredth anniversary of 
the birth of Dr. M. Luther. On Wed- 
nesday evening, November 14th, he at- 
tended a meeting of the directors of his 
Orphan Home for Girls, when he was 
suddenly taken ill and died. Pastor 
Volz was married in 1856 to Miss 
Louise Schmidt, daughter of Pastor 
Fried. Schmidt of Ann Arbor, with 
whom he had three daughters. At his 
death he was fifty-seven years, one 
month and sixteen days old. His con- 
gregation erected a full-sized marble 
statue on his grave, which was unveiled 
with appropriate ceremonies, at the 
meeting of the Synod, at Buffalo, in 
1885. — Nieum's History. 



>>-^Nx-<« 



EEV. H. G. VOSSELER. 



Pastor Vosseler was born Oct. 30, 1829, 
in Wuertemberg, Germany, and attend- 
ed the public school in his native town. 
He afterwards gained admission to the 
Missionary Institute at Basel, where he 
remained for nearly five years. In 
January, 1855, he came to America, and 
was at first pastor of St. Michael's 
Church, in Harrisburg, Pa. From there 
he went to Wilkesbarre, Pa., in the 
capacity of a domestic missionary. He 
started three distinct congregations in 
a circuit of forty miles, which proved to 
be the nucleus for eight different 
churches in that locality, at present 



enjoying the greatest prosperity. After 
he had prepared the ground for the 
prosperous work of his successors. Pastor 
Vosseler went to Cvmberland, Md., in 
November, 1858, where he remained 
until 1867. He then received a call 
from St. Johannes' Church, in Wash- 
ington, D. C, and about the same time 
the Secretary of the Missions requested 
him to start a congregation in Frankfort, 
near Philadelphia. Believing that the 
latter place would give him a better 
chance to work, he refused the promising 
position in Washington, and went to 
work to start a congregation with the 



822 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



fifteen families whicli he had at his 
disposal. After he had been in Frank- 
fort for six weeks he made a contract 
for the erection of a new church building 
and schoolhouse, the cost of which was 
estimated at 114,000. He did not know 
how the amount was to be raised, but 
trusted in the Lord, and when he left 
his church three years later the debts 
had all been paid but $1,500. He then 
came to Brooklyn, where he took the 
position of the pastor of St. Matthew's 
Church, on North Fifth street, where 



he remained for fourteen years and six 
months until he was compelled, by 
certain difficulties in the congregation, 
to make room for Pastor Gustav Sommer. 
Pastor Vosseler spent a great deal of 
his time with literary work, and he also 
wrote a number of hymns and songs, 
which have partly been printed in 
religious periodicals. While he was 
pastor of St. Matthew's Church the 
congregation increased five times in its 
original size and the Sunday-school ten 
times. 




REV. A. WACKERHAGEN, D.D. 



Rev. Augustus Wackerhagen, D. D., 
was born in Hanover, Germany, May 
22, 1774 He was educated at Goettin- 
gen, and after the completion of his 
studies was for a time employed as a 
teacher in a seminary for young ladies, 
and also as a private tutor in a noble- 
man's family. He came to this country 
in 1801, and upon his arrival he became 
tutor to the only son of Mr. Bohlen, a 
wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, in 
whose family he remained three years. 
Whilst here he received a call from the 
churches of Schoharie and Cablekill, 
but did not accept because he had made 
arrangements to visit Europe. On his 
return voyage he was shipwrecked and 
lost everything he had. Finding Scho- 
harie still vacant, he accepted the call. 
This was in 1805. He remained there 
ten years, where he was active in the 
cause of the Bible society, three years 
before the American Bible Society was 
formed. 

In 1816 he became pastor of various 
churches in Columbia County, New 
York, and for a season taught a class of 
young ladies at his house. He also, at 



different times, taught young men the 
ancient languages, and for several 
years he had charge of the Academy 
at Clermont, where he died November 
1, 1865, in his ninety-first year. 

For many years he was a diligent 
student of the Bible. The Hebrew, 
Syriac, Greek, German, and French 
versions were daily consulted by him. 
The degree of D. D. was conferred on 
him by Union College in 1825. Ex- 
cept a sermon in the Lutheran Pulpit, 
the only work he published was 
a German volume on "Faith and Mor- 
als," Philadelphia, 1804. 

He was a faithful pastor, and some- 
times would ride fourteen or sixteen 
miles to see an invalid member of his 
church. Prof. Stoever thus speaks of 
him: "His funeral services were invari- 
ably prepared with the greatest care, 
and much valuable truth communicated, 
because, as he was wont to say, on such 
occasions many persons were present 
who, at any other time, seldom or never 
entered the sanctuary. He always 
specially addressed the mourners, the 
hearer, and the congregation. In the 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



823 



earlier years of his ministry, the irre- 
pressible instincts of his humanity and 
his great kindness of heart, led him to 
dwell on the best qualities of those who 
had just departed. It was his practice 
to say nothing but good of the dead. 
De moriuis nil nisi bonum. But in 
after years he modified his course, the 
result of additional experience, and of 
having incidentally overheard a con- 
versation between two fishermen en- 
gaged in their regular vocation on the 
Hudson. They had toiled all night, 
and had taken nothing; drenched with 
rain, exhausted with labor, disappointed 
and tired, they were not in a very good 
humor, which, in the one, showed itself 
in very profane utterances, the repeti- 
tion of the most terrific imprecations. 
This greatly shocked his companion who 
severely rebuked him, and inquired, 
"What would become of him when he 
died, if he used such language?" To 
which he replied: ''Oh! I shall be safe 
enough; for my friends will get Dr. 
Wackerhagen to preach my funeral ser- 
mon, and he will be sure to send me to 
Heaven." 

The unvarying kindness of his man- 
ners and heart, his genial hospitality 
and constant courtesy, were among his 
prominent characteristics. He was, in 
the full sense of the word, a Christian 
gentleman. He was most careful not 
to wound the feelings or injure the 
reputation of another. He was deter- 
mined in the maintenance of his own 
rights, but he was equally considerate 
of the rights of others. He was a man 
of great humility, always "esteeming 
others better than himself." The purity 
of his character was sullied by no stain, 
by no gross or unworthy acts. His life 
was beyond reproach or suspicion . He 
was a Christian from conviction, not 
from impulse; from love, not from fear; 
and he endeavored continually to exem- 



plify the sincerity of his principles in 
his conduct. His faith was simple and 
child -like in its exercises, his life labor- 
ious and useful. You could ever notice 
the sincere desire, the habitual, honest 
effort to obey God's word, to bring his 
life in harmony with its teachings, the 
struggle of an earnest soul towards what 
is good and best. And it was this that 
gave unity, efficiency and consistency 
to his character and permeated his en- 
tire actions. So calm and self-composed 
was he at all times, that scarcely a rip- 
ple disturbed the tranquility of his life. 
The impress of his character he left 
unto those who came under his influ- 
ence. His ministrations were practical. 
His great aim was not so much, that his 
people might profess Christ, as that 
they might walk in Christ's way, that 
they might be "neither barren nor un- 
fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, 
Jesus Christ," but faithful and exem- 
plary Christians, "always abounding in 
the work of the Lord." He labored 
with unwearied perseverance, with an 
unselfish devotion for the good of those 
committed to his charge. To them he 
devoted his best energies ; to their high- 
est welfare all his labors, his untiring 
efforts were steadily directed. 

He was emphatically a man of peace, 
scrupulously avoiding those measures 
which so often lead to the separation of 
friends, and most assiduously "endeav- 
oring to keep the unity of the spirit in 
the bond of peace." He had no sym- 
pathy with the controversial spirit of 
the day. He had no taste for the per- 
sonal polemics and the ecclesiastical 
strife which so often disturb the church. 
He was wont to say that these exhibi- 
tions were destructive to holiness of 
heart and the prosperity of Zion. When 
differences existed among the brethren, 
he always tried to assuage asperities, to 
pour oil upon the troubled waters. 



824 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



In his sermon on his death, Dr. Pohl- 
man speaks of him as "the faithful, 
zealous and consistent herald of the 
cross," and adds that "his character was 
no ordinary exemplification of the faith 
and the hope cf the gospel," that "his 
whole life and teachings were in perfect 
harmony with the gospel of Jesus 
Christ;" that "piety and prudence, 
patience and perseverance, were asso- 
ciated in lovely combination, and, as 
heavenly graces presided over his spirit, 
formed the habitual temper of his mind, 
and made him what he was, a perfect 
gentleman and the exemplary Christian 
divine." 

He was certainly a beautiful example 
of unceasing and honest labor, of Chris- 
tian serenity, dignity and self respect. 



uniting kind, affable and attractive man- 
ners with a happy, cheerful disposition, 
and a cultivated intellect, which ren- 
dered his society acceptable to the most 
intelligent and refined circles. Although 
his modest and unassuming character 
was impressed upon everything he said 
or did, in public and private, yet his 
influence in the church was very great, 
particularly in the ecclesiastical body 
with which he was connected. He was 
beloved, honored and trusted. Capacity 
and integrity gave him authority and 
won for him the highest confidence. 
For twelve years he presided over the 
New York Ministerium. He was also 
an original trustee of Hartwick Semi- 
nary, and in this capacity served for 
thirty years. — Morris. 




EEV. JOHN WAGENHALS. 



Rev. John Wagenhals was born in 
Gueglingen, Wuertemberg, Germany, 
April 16, 1799. In his youth he received 
the usual secular and religious instruc- 
tion of a German congregational school 
in his native village, and, after his con- 
firmation, he entered the Latin School 
in Stuttgart. His father intended to 
prepare him for the civil service, but at 
the age of eighteen years he determinded 
to seek his future in America. Here, 
by the leadings of Providence, he was 
constrained to devote himself to the 
service of the church, and after a course 
of instruction in theology, for which his 
previous studies had fitted him, he was 
admitted to the ministry by the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio. The 
first nine years of his ministry were 
spent in a laborious charge in the state 
of Ohio, in the counties of Carol, 



Columbiana and Tuscarawas. His work 
in this field, which was that of a pioneer 
missionary, served to develop in him 
those practical traits for which he was 
conspicuous. In 1829 he was called to 
a charge composed of a number of 
congregations in Fairfield county, in- 
cluding St. Peters, in Lancaster. Here, 
with the exception of four years spent 
in Lithopolis, in the same county, he 
resided till 1860. While laboring in 
this field he was elected Professor of 
Theology in the Seminary of the Joint 
Synod, at Columbus, which position he 
declined because he believed he could 
best serve the church in the capacity of 
pastor. In 1860 he followed a call to 
Circleville, where his labors were greatly 
blessed. The substantial church edifice 
in that place was erected duriug his 
pastorate. But after nine years of 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



825 



faithful and effective service in this 
place his failing health compelled him 
to resign his charge and retire from the 
duties of the ministry. In the following 
year he removed to Lancaster, where he 
had spent the first years of his lite. But 
his interest in the work of the church 
was not abated with failing strength; 
and he still continued to perform minis- 
terial acts and to preach occasionally 
when the regular pastor requested it, 
assisting Rev. Mechling at every com- 
munion until absolutely unable to do so. 
Including this last occasional service, 
his ministry, embraced a period of fifty- 
six years. 

Apart from his labors as pastor he 
several times held the office of President 
of the Joint Synod of Ohio, and of the 
District Synod with which he was con- 
nected. He was closely identified with 
all important movements of these bodies, 
and was several times intrusted with 
important missions to sister synods of 
the East. He greatly desired the union 
of all truly Lutheran bodies in this 



country on the basis of the confessions 
of the Church; and when the General 
Council was formed he took a very 
active part in connecting the District 
Synod of Ohio, of which he was a 
member, therewith. 

As a preacher he was conspicuous 
among his brethren for the simplicity, 
earnestness and clearness of his sermons. 
Whether he spoke in German or Eng- 
lish, he was on all occasions an eloquent 
preacher. In all his intercourse with 
the people he was not only the pastor, 
tender and conscientious, but also the 
personal friend. He readily won and 
retained the respect of those among 
whom he moved. He ministered faith- 
fully to three generations of his fellow- 
men. He was the contemporary and 
co-laborer with the Henkels, the Stecks, 
Jonas Mechling, Dr. Greenwald, Roth- 
acher and Spielman, only three of 
whom survive him. One of his sons 
and two of his sons-in-law are in the 
Lutheran ministry. He died at Lan- 
caster, Pa., Septembers, 1884.— 5. M, 5. 



BEV. E. E. WAGNER, Ph.D. 



Dr. Wagner is a young man of energy 
and of more than usual attainments for 
one of his years. He started to Witten- 
berg College at Springfield, O., in the 
spring of 1877, and took up and com- 
pleted the regular classical course of 
study, graduating with the class of 1881. 
After spending six months on the 
Pacific coast he returned to Wittenberg 
Theological Seminary, and pursued the 
full course of theology. Some time after 
having finished his course in theology, 
he took up and completed the three 
years' post-graduate course in philos- 
ophy and received the degree of Ph.D. 
104 



for work done. On the self-same day 
he left for Europe. On mid-ocean he 
preached to the passengers in the saloon. 
The purser was so touched by this 
earnest Paul-like appeal that he came 
up after the sermon and spoke to the 
young Doctor and said: "Perhaps God 
has sent you to show me the way." The 
purser was a well educated young Dane, 
speaking three languages. He was 
shown the way, and three months later 
he was in the seminary, and to-day is 
preaching the gospel. The Doctor 
spent three weeks in London, where he 
also preached one evening in Spurgeon's 



826 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




EEV. E. E. WAGNEK, PH. D. 



Tabernacle to a large and attentive 
audience. He then crossed over to Ger- 
many where for more than a year he 
attended lectures in theology and ex- 
perimental psychology under Drs. Weis, 
Stuckenberg, Zeller, Ebbinghaus, Hoff- 
mann and Christlieb at Berlin, Bonn 
and Heidelberg. He then went to 
Yienna and over the Eastern Alps 
across the Adriatic Sea to Venice, 
Bologna, Naples and Bome, where he 
spent the larger part of three months 
studying Christian archeology in the 
catacombs. He was driven from Rome 
by the heat of June and so turned to 
the North, crossed the Alps on foot, at 
St. Gotthard, and walked from one end 
of Switzerland to the other with a 
knapsack on his back. 

While in Paris he received the ap- 
pointment of the Home Mission Board 
to San Diego. He accepted this call 
and returned to the United States in 
the autumn of 1888. On Oct. 3, 1888, 
he married the only daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. Wm. Hawker, of Dayton, O., and 



immediately started for the field of his 
labors in the most southwestern corner 
of our country. Dr. Wagner has suc- 
ceeded in building up a large mission 
membership and will soon be able, with 
his ever increasing congregation, to 
erect a tine church. 

On his arrival in San Diego he was 
also elected, in connection with his 
mission work, to fill the chair of Ger- 
man in the San Diego College of Letters, 
which he has done very successfully for 
the last two years. 

The great-grandfather, Abraham Wag- 
ner, came over to America from the 
Rhine provinces of Germany, settled in 
Berks county. Pa., and became the pil- 
grim father of the family in America. 
Edwin Reuben Wagner, the subject of 
this sketch, was born in Kishacoquillas 
Yalley, Mifflin Co., Pa., in 1855. He 
was the fourth child of the six children, 
and the third son of four boys. In early 
childhood he manifested a desire to 
preach the gospel. His mother used to 
tell how, when only seven years old, he 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



827 



climbed up into an eld low apple tree 
and with his playmates gathered around 
him for an audience, his parents eaves- 
droppers, he repeated almost verbatim, 
the sermon he had listened to the pre- 
vious day. 

His early youth was spent on the 
farm mid the severe struggles and trials 
of obscure birth and poverty — double 
hindrance to an aspiring man, still there 
are more precious souls drugged and 
destroyed in the lap of luxury than ever 
starved in peasant hovels or mountain 
hamlets. His home was plain and 
simple, with food and raiment won by 
the hardest labor of the hands and sweat 
of the brow. Thus he grew up, nurtured 
by necessity of self-help and surrounded 
by a pure moral and mountain atmos- 
phere that gave to him a healthy body 
and a strong nature, so his home life 
was after all most fortunate. He com- 
menced hard labor at a very early age 
and still has most vivid recollections of 
the briers, brush and stones which con- 
tinue to invest the valley. A large part 
of the farm extends back from the valley 
to the mountain, and this was especially 
stony. Here the boys picked stones un- 
til the blood oozed from the finger ends 
and marked each stone. And again 
each winter's frost raised a new crop, 
so that their work became like that of 
Sisyphus, rolling away the stones each 
summer only to have them come back 
again in greater quantities each winter. 
As will be readily surmised this place 
yielded but a scanty supply for a family 
of eight, so that one morning, when he 
was still in his teens, he left the plow 
handles, unhitched his horses and said 
to his older brother : "I'm going to get 
a certificate." He started off to a village 
some five miles distant and, strange to 
say, without any preparation or review- 
ing of common school studies, he came 
back in the evening with a certificate to 



teach school in any district of the county. 
The next summer he attended an acad- 
emy near his home, and the following 
spring started, in company with his 
younger brother, Harr, to Wittenberg 
College, and this was the beginning of 
student life that continued for eleven 
years. 

This step was contrary to the father's 
wish, he having offered them seven hun- 
dred dollars each if they would remain 
on the "stony farm" with him until they 
arrived at the age of twenty-three; but 
craving as they did for an education, 
they could not be tempted with this 
seeming fair offer. They went through 
with the entire College curriculum and 
never drew one dollar from the small 
funds at home, farm, or from any be- 
nevolent fund of the Church, but ac- 
quired all their money by hard work 
and economy, and, strange to say, they 
never missed a class or failed in a sin- 
gle examination. In this hard struggle 
through College and for an education, 
there was in the student heart an un- 
wavering faith and a constant trust in 
the promises of God. They endured 
for a purpose and labored for an end. 
They had a good father and a conse- 
crated mother who taught them that 
prayer was the better half of study. 
Dr. Wagner has always felt that he was 
called and anointed of God to preach 
the Gospel. As he has often put it in 
his own desiring words, "I would rather 
be a good preacher than the richest or 
most honored king in the world." Since 
his earliest youth he has ever been 
guarded and guided that without the 
virtue, that Jesus Christ teaches, riches 
and honor are like a passing cloud. So 
he has labored since his ordination, 
nearly five years ago in Hopeful Church, 
Florence, Ky. While still at college he 
preached for two years at Bethel and 
Harshman alternate Sundays. In this 



828 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



short time he added almost one hundred 
members at Bethel and was instrument- 
al in building a fine church at Harsh- 
man with only fourteen members to 
commence with, and dedicating the 
building free of debt. He was editor 
of the Wittenberger during 1882-83, and 
his interesting letters and editorials 
called forth many favorable comments 
from the college world. He has con- 
tributed an article on the Lutheran doc- 
trine of the Lord's Supper, in Eev. 
Brandt's book on the collective teaching 
upon this subject. Also two chapters 
in Eev. Clark's History of Wittenberg 
College. He has delivered lectures 
upon "California," "The Christian Cata- 
combs of Rome" and "The Royal and 
Peasant Life of Germany." Dr. Wag- 



ner delivered lately a series of sermons 
on Christian Socialism, that were pub- 
lished in full in the papers of San 
Diego, and republished in Ohio and 
Pennsylvania, and translated into the 
Germau. These sermons were fresh 
and original and well deserved this 
extended circulation. He is a close and 
careful observer; has written a number 
of book reviews; contributed a great 
many articles to the Euangelht and Luth- 
eran Observer and the Golden Era. So 
that we see in the fervor and eloquence 
of his words and works the factors of a 
great and useful life. May his eyes 
long continue to sparkle with divine 
favor, receiving their light from Him 
who rules and sits above the arch of 
heaven. 




REV. J. WAGNER 



Rev. J. Wagner was born February 
1st, 1852, at Stone Church, Northamp- 
ton Co., Pa., and was confirmed as a 
member of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church at the age of fourteen years. 
He was privately prepared for college 
by his pastor. Rev. J. Ilgen Burrell, de- 
ceased. In the fall of 1867 he entered 
the freshman class of Pennsylvania 
College at Gettypburg, from which he 
graduated in June, 1871. In Septem- 
ber of the same year, he entered the 
Theological Seminary of the General 
Synod at Gettysburg, from which he 
graduated in June, 1874. He was li- 
censed to preach by the East Pennsyl- 
vania Synod, at Germantown, Pa., in 
the fall of 1873, and ordained at Wil- 
liamsport. Pa., by the Susquehanna 
Synod in June, 1874. He came to 
Hazleton, Pa., July 1st, 1874, where he 
organized an English Lutheran congre- 



gation with fifteen members. Decem- 
ber 17th, 1876, he dedicated his first 
church, costing $4,000. The congrega- 
tion increased in numbers so that June 
3d, 1888, he dedicated a second church, 
in which he now preaches, valued at 
$21,000. His present membership is 
343; the Sunday-school numbers five 
hundred. 

September 9th, 1880, he married Miss 
Mary E. Schleppy, by whom he has had 
two children, both living. 

For three years, 1881-1883, he served 
as se<"retary of the Susquehanna Synod. 
He is at present serving his second year 
as president of the same Synod. For 
several years he has been a director of 
the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. 
A number of sermons and addresses are 
his only publications, he having been too 
busy with pastoral labors to do much in 
the direction of authorship. He has 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



829 



done some work, however, in preparing 
young men for entrance into college and 
Theological Seminary classes; this in 
connection with his pastoral duties. 



His life has been an exceedingly busy 
one, and God has been pleased to crown 
his labors with a large success. 




REV. PROF. M. WAHLSTROM. 



Prof. M. Wahlstrom was born in 
Blekiag, near the city of Carlshamn, 
Sweden, November 28, 1851. He emi- 
grated to America with his parents in 
1854. He lived in Chicago two years, 
and for short periods, in Carpenterville^ 
Geneva, Montgomery and Aurora, Ills., 
until, in 1861, his parents bought a farm 
near Carver, Minn., where the days of 
his youth were mostly spent. He was 
confirmed in May, 1867, by Rev. P. 
Carlson at East Union, Minn., together 
with forty-six other catechumens. He 
attended a few months district school, 
now and then, until in 1869, when he 
entered St. Ansgars Academy, East 
Union, Minn. After the elementary 
training given there, he went to Augus- 
tana College at Paxton, Ford Co., 111.; 
and moved with the institution to Rock 
Island, 111., in 1875; took his A. B. 
degree there in 1877; entered the theo- 



logical seminary there the same fall; 
graduated from the same in 1879; and 
was ordained June 20, 1879, in Chicago. 
Prof. Wahlstrom married the same year. 
He received his A. M. degree from 
Augustana College in 1886. 

His mother died in 1856 and his 
father in 1890, reviving thoughts of 
Heaven and fatherland in the survivor. 
With two children, a son and a daughter, 
the life of Prof. Wahlstrom is lighted 
by these new lamps as the flames of a 
previous generation expire. As to his 
labors, this is an epitome. In 1871, 1875, 
1877 and 1878 he taught Swedish paro- 
chial school and supplied at times vacant 
charges. In 1874-75 he taught at St. 
Ansgars Academy, where he commenced 
his studies. After his ordination he 
labored about one year, 1879-80, as mis- 
sionary among the Indians and traveled 
through Colorado, New Mexico and 



830 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Indian Territory. As the condition of 
things was unfavorable to opening a 
mission and his health failed he accepted 
in 1880, a call as professor at Gustavns 
Adolphns College, St. Peter, Minn., 
which call he had once before received 
previous to his ordination. After one 
year's work as teacher, upon the resigna- 
tion of the former president, Kev. J. P. 
Nyquist, he was elected to the presidency 
of this institution in 1881, and has since 
held that position. His time and atten- 



tion has been divided between the duties 
of a president, professor and financier 
of the College, also being often called 
upon to perform ministerial work. They 
are educating there, yearly, from two to 
three hundred students, some for the 
ministry, some for the school-room, 
others for life's various vocations. Prof. 
Wahlstrom has for several years been 
chairman of Nicollet County Bible 
Society, and became a life member a 
short time since. 




KEY. C. F. W. WALTHEB, D.D. 



At the University of Leipzig, one of 
those high seats of German theology 
where rationalism was enthroned and 
ruled supreme, there existed toward the 
close of the thir i decade of the present 
century a small circle of students whom 
their academic fellow-citizens termed 
Mystics or Pietists or, less charitably, 
Hypocrites and Obscurants, who, though 
they were regular in their attendance 
on lectures, would spend the hours 
which'others devoted to the loud pleas- 
ures of the beer mug, in the seclusion of 



some quiet room, where they might have 
been found closeted with some obscure 
volume, the writings of Arndt, Francke, 
Spener, Rambach, Fresenius, or some 
other theologian of like character. A 
theological candidate of riper years and 
spiritual experience, named Kuehn, was 
the leader of this little band, and the 
path he endeavored to point out to his 
associates was a via dolorosa through 
dark depths of anguish and contrition, a 
series of experiences like those through 
which he had passed before he found 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



831 



peace and rest in the salvation which is 
in Christ Jesus. 

In the fall of 1829 this circle welcomed 
a young man of eighteen years, the son 
of a clergyman at Langenchursdorf in 
Saxony, a youth with a good classical 
education, who had until recently 'felt 
himself born for music only,' an art in 
which he had already become proficient. 
But when his father had declared that 
he would set him adrift without a 
farthing if he should turn musician, but 
promised him a thaler a week if he 
would study theology, the son set his 
face toward Leipzig and theology, and 
there we find him, young in years, slen- 
der of stature, in delicate health, shift- 
ing as best he could with his thaler a 
week, but turning to every advantage 
his rare talents and the opportunities 
for gaining treasures of knowledge 
offered at the university. At the outset 
he had not even a Bible of his own, and 
when he purchased one from his allow- 
ance, he was left penniless, until, on the 
following day, he received a letter from 
his father containing the only extra 
thaler which ever came to him from 
that source at such a time. 

The young student was Carl Ferdi- 
nand Wilhelm Walther. An elder 
brother, who was also a student at the 
university, introduced the youth to that 
circle of Pietists mentioned above. Soon 
the younger Walther was far gone in 
the direction in which the influence of 
Kuehn and others was exerted; his soul 
was filled with anguish under the pangs 
of a troubled conscience ; sighs and sobs 
and tears gave evidence of the storm 
that raged in his bosom and threatened 
to engulf every hope and to shut out 
every ray of consoling light which had 
dawned in his soul. While he was 
struggling with despair, God used the 
gentle hand of a woman to draw him 
from the precipice. The wife of the 



revenue ofiicer at Leipzig, v/hose home 
had been opened to young Walther, 
perceived the trouble of the pious youth, 
and from her lips came words of com- 
fort drawn from that ever flowing foun- 
tain, the Gospel of Christ, and from her 
heart many a fervent prayer rose to the 
throne of grace that the peace of God, 
which passeth all understanding, might 
be granted to that troubled soul; and 
her words and her prayers were abun- 
dantly blessed. 

Yet, God in his wise providence led 
young Walther to seek spiritual advice 
and consolation also from another, from 
a man who was in future years to be in- 
strumental in leading him across the 
ocean. Martin Stephan was the pastor 
of a Bohemian congregation which wor- 
shipped in St. John's church at Dresden, 
a preacher who had for years preached 
to vast multitudes that flocked to his 
pulpit, not for the purpose of hearing 
words of polished eloquence — for such 
they would have sought in vain in that 
unostentatious church in the suburbs — 
but because Stephan preached what was 
then very rarely heard from German 
pulpits, Christ, and him crucified. Be- 
sides, Stephan was renowned far and 
wide as a spiritual adviser who had a 
profound knowledge of the human heart 
and was ever ready to minister what 
each individual soul required. This 
man one day received a letter from a 
stranger, a student at Leipzig, who dis- 
closed to him his innermost heart and 
solicited an answer. In due time the 
answer came, and when Walther held 
the letter in his hands, and before he 
broke the seal and read the contents, he 
prayed to God that he would keep him 
from accepting vain counsels and con- 
solations, if such should be contained 
in the pages before him. But after he 
had read Stephan's letter, he was like 
one who had been lifted from hell into 



882 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



paradise, and his tears of anguish were 
changed into tears of joy. 

A year and another year passed away, 
and then young Walther's days seemed 
nearly numbered; pulmonary disease 
was doing its work and forced him to 
relinquish his studies and seek rest and 
relief at home. During these weary 
months he found in his father's library 
the works of Luther, and here he laid 
the foundation of the intimate acquaint- 
ance with the writings of the great Re- 
former which distinguished him in later 
years. In the spring of 1832 he returned 
to the university, improved in health, 
but without hope of ever becoming 
physically able to work in the ministry. 
He completed his studies, passed his 
first examination, and was then a pri- 
vate tutor from 1834 to 1836. In 1837 
he was ordained to the ministry in the 
village church of Braeunsdorf in Saxony, 
in the midst of a congregation which 
for forty years and more had not heard 
the Gospel of Christ preached from its 
pulpit and had sunk deep in intellec- 
tual, moral, and religious depravity. 
The form of public service, the hymn- 
book, the school books were, like the 
school teacher and the superintendent, 
steeped in rationalism, and when Wal- 
ther, true to his vow and to the sym- 
bols of the Lutheran Church, which he 
had sworn to follow and maintain, en- 
deavored to work a change toward 
sound Lutheranism, stumbling blocks 
without number were thrown in his way, 
until his troubled conscience was beset 
on every side, and in several cases his 
orthodoxy led to litigations, of which he 
was held to pay the costs. 

But Walther was not the only Luth- 
eran in Saxony who suffered under the 
rod of a rationalistic and unionistic 
regime, and when in those days Stephan, 
who had as early as 1811 enter- 
tained the thought of leading his fol- 



lowers to distant lands, looked toward 
the United States of America as an 
asylum of true Lutheranism, to which 
his attention had been directed by Dr. 
Benjamin Kurtz, of Gettysburg, and 
finally came forth with a definite plan 
of emigration, Walther with others 
caught up the signal given by a man 
who stood so high in their estimation. 
In September, 1838, as many as 707 
persons had entered their names upon 
the rolls; ministers, school teachers, 
lawyers, physicians and artists gave up 
their positions, married men and women 
left their husbands and wives, parents 
their children, children their parents; a 
part of their joint possessions was turned 
over to a common treasury; four ships 
were chartered at Bremen, and a fifth, 
the Am alia, was also occupied by mem- 
bers of the company and three other 
passengers. All of these ships left 
Bremerhafen in November, 1838. The 
Copernicus arrived at New Orleans on 
the last day of the same year, the Johann 
Georg, the Republic, and the Olbers in 
January, 1839; the Amalia with her 
crew and passengers disappeared and 
has never been heard of since. 

The passengers of the four ships con- 
tinued their pilgrimage to St. Louis, 
then a city of about 16,000 inhabitants. 
Stephan had prevailed upon his follow- 
ers to make him their bishop and to 
sign a document in which they pledged 
themselves to allegiance and obedience 
toward their hierarchical leader. He 
surrounded himself with every kind of 
luxury, and during the few months of 
his rule he drew from the common 
treasury more than 4,000 thalers for his 
own sustenance and comfort. But to 
secure a still more unlimited exercise of 
his power, he aimed at isolating the 
community under his sway. A tract of 
land was purchased on the right bank of 
the Mississippi river in Perry county, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



833 



Mo., comprisiDg 4,440 acres, and here 
the emigrants went into camp and amid 
untold hardships began to build up a 
number of Saxon colonies, Wittenberg, 
Altenburg, Frohna, etc., names which 
to this day remind the surviving pioneers 
and their children of the tearful experi- 
ences of those times of half a century 
ago. A small flock of little more than a 
hundred souls remained in St. Louis and 
chose the elder Walther for their pastor. 
Stephan, who had also repaired to 
Perry county, ruled like a Pasha. His 
faith, too, by this time, had become more 
Mohammedan than Christian. A mag- 
nificent episcopal palace had been 
planned and was in process of construc- 
tion. Then there came a revelation 
which fell like a thunderbolt among the 
colonists. One dark night the younger 
Walther, of whose tribulations at the 
university we have spoken above, ar- 
rived with a steamer from St. Louis. 
He came ostensibly to consult with 
Stephan concerning a number of Luth- 
eran emigrants who had come chiefly 
from Berlin by way of New York, and 
were now ready to join the Saxons in 
the colonies. But to a young theologi- 
cal candidate who had come from New 
York with the "Berliners," he conflded 
his secret. It was in one of the dor- 
mitories for the colonists, and though 
all of the men seemed fast asleep, the 
conversation was carried on in Latin, 
and the Latin sounds attracted the at- 
tention of the physician, Dr. B., who 
was lying on the straw not far away, 
and lie heard, what he and others had 
suspected before, that Stephan had been 
leading a life of shameful immorality 
and had now been found out through 
the confessions of several of his victims. 
Soon after, a considerable number of the 
emigrants who had remained at St. 
Louis arrived on the steamers Prairie 
and Toledo ; a formal council was held, 
105 



and Stephan was solemnly deposed from 
his ofiice. Provided with ample means 
of sustenance, he was taken across the 
Mississippi river in a skiff and landed 
near Devil's Bakeoven, a grotesque rock 
at the water's edge. He afterwards 
found his way into the interior of the 
state, and in 1846 he died in a log cabin 
a few miles from Ked Bud, 111. 

At first the colonists were stunned 
and bewildered and knew not what to do. 
Such had been Stephan's extravagance 
and mismanagement that the funds of 
the emigrants were far spent, and abject 
poverty stared them in the face. The 
ministers, of whom there were six, and 
the several candidates, were troubled by 
the question whether the colonists con- 
stituted Christian congregations with 
authority to call ministers, and many of 
the laymen entertained similar doubts 
concerning the right of the ministers to 
hold their office here after having left 
their charges beyond the sea. Walther, 
too, was for a long time tossed about by 
doubts and fears. But better counsels 
prevailed, and soon things gained a 
more favorable aspect. In the midst of 
all their hardships and poverty, the 
candidates Fuerbringer, Brohm and 
Buenger, with the aid of the ministers 
Walther, Loeber and Keyl had organized 
a school of learning in which Religion, 
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, 
and English, History, Geography, Math- 
ematics, Natural Philosophy, Natural 
History, Mental Philosophy, Music and 
Drawing were to be taught, and in a log 
cabin erected by the professors and 
their friends, the school was opened 
which has since developed into two dis- 
tinct institutions, Concordia Seminary 
in St Louis, Mo., and Concordia Col- 
lege at Ft. Wayne, Ind., both of which 
are flourishing to-day and have edu- 
cated hundreds of young men for the 
ministry in the Lutheran Church. The 



834 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



first faculty consisted of Ottomar Fuer- 
bringer, Th. Jul. Brohm and Joh. Fr. 
Buenger, and the log cabin has been 
preserved to this day. 

The younger Walther was soon the 
acknowledged leader in the colonies. 
Stephan had never been quite at ease 
on Walther's account and had even 
stigmatized him as his Judas, and when 
Stephan had been unmasked, it was 
Walther who fought down the doctrinal 
errors which that hierarch had taught, 
that the Lutheran Church was the 
Church, without which there was no 
salvation, that the ministry was a medi- 
atorship between God and man, and en- 
titled to unconditional obedience in all 
things not in conflict with the word of 
God, that questions of doctrine were to 
be decided by the clergy alone, in whose 
hands also rested the power of the Keys. 
"With these and similar Eomanizing 
tenets, Stephan had imbued his follow- 
ers; but with convincing clearness 
Walther set forth the truth, until it held 
the field victorious, and at a later day, 
the weapons tried and found true against 
Stephanism were again drawn and 
wielded with like success in the en- 
counters with Grabau and the Buffalo 
Synod. 

In January, 1841, the elder Walther 
was called to rest, and his brother was 
chosen to succeed him as pastor of the 
"Saxons" at St. Louis, who were then 
still worshiping in the basement of the 
Episcopal church. A parochial school 
was kept in a house on Poplar street. 
Both the congregation and the school 
increased rapidly, and in 1842 Trinity 
church was erected, with a basement for 
school rooms. In 1844 Cand. Buenger, 
who since 1841 had been in charge of 
the school, was made assistant minister 
to Walther. In the same year a branch 
school was opened in another part of 
the city, and this school was the germ 



of Immanuel's church, which was or- 
ganized in 1847 and erected a house of 
worship in 1848, where henceforth to 
the end of his days Buenger officiated 
as pastor. 

But while thus the trowel had been 
busy, the sword had not rusted in the 
scabbard. Separatistic elements had 
caused much trouble in the congrega- 
tion, until their leader was removed by 
the mighty hand of God 

In 1844, the congregation at St. Louis 
resolved on the publication of a religious 
periodical which had been planned by 
Walther, and in September of that year, 
the Luther aner made its first appearance. 
To secure the publication of this and 
the following numbers, many members 
had subscribed for two copies, and the 
congregation had agreed that if the 
expenses should exceed the receipts, the 
deficit should be covered from the com- 
mon treasury or by free contributions. 
From its very beginning the Lutheraner 
gave forth a clear and decided, uncom- 
promising ring, and the type of Luth- 
eranism which it advocated was to the 
generation of those days a strange 
phenomenon, so strange that by many 
it was not even recognized as Lutheran- 
ism at all, and chiefly for this reason 
Walther made it his object to show 
from the writings of the Fathers of the 
Lutheran Church that he was not 
promulgating new tenets, but the doc- 
trines of our Church as laid down in 
her confessions and in the writings of 
her best representative teachers of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
especially of Luther, the prophet of the 
latter days. This, not an undue, un- 
lutheran reverence of the Fathers, 
prompted Walther to introduce into his 
doctrinal expositions numerous extracts 
from the works of those earlier theo- 
logians; not as authorities, but as 
witnesses he called them forth from the 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GKAPHIE8. 



835 



dust of oblivion, and before many years 
Germany was being ransacked for those 
old parchment-bound volumes, covered 
with mould and cobwebs, and Jewish 
dealers wondered what people wanted 
with those mummies in the American 
backwoods whence came the growing 
demand, and by and by astonishing 
prices were paid for what had long lain 
unnoticed as unmarketable dross. 

In the spring of 1846 Dr. SihJer and 
two other ministers, Ernst and Lochner, 
had a conference with Walther and other 
Saxon Ministers at St. Louis. Sihler 
and Ernst had severed their connection 
with the Synod of Ohio. Wyneken had 
given strength to the movement at a 
conference held at Cleveland in 1845. 
The formation of a new synod was now 
taken into consideration by the congre- 
gation at St. Louis and the clergymen 
there assembled. In nine meetings the 
draft of a constitution, in which every 
vestige of hierarchical leaven had been 
most carefully avoided, was discussed, 
and in the last of these meetings it was 
resolved that a similar conference be 
held in the same year at Ft. Wayne. 
This conference met in July; sixteen 
ministers were present. Six others had 
signified their full sympathy with the 
object in view. The constitution with a 
few modifications being approved, it was 
resolved to complete the formal organi- 
zation of the synod at Chicago in April, 
1847. There the "German Evangelical 
Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and 
other States" was formed by twelve con- 
gregations, twenty-two ministers and 
two candidates. Under the constitution 
which was adopted and signed at this 
meeting and, with a few alterations, is 
in force to-day, only those ministers 
whose congregations had entered into 
membership with the Synod, and the 
lay delegates by whom some of these 
congregations were represented, were 



entitled to suffrage, other ministers being 
only advisory members. The first per- 
manent officers were Walther, president; 
Dr. Sihler, vice-president; Husmann, 
secretary; F, W. Barthel, treasurer. 
The "Lutheraner" was made the official 
organ of the Synod, with Walther as ed- 
itor. A missionary committee was 
chosen, and various other measures gave 
evidence of the earnestness with which 
the assembly entered upon the task of 
building up Zion in the land of their 

pilgrimage 

From 1878 to 1888 the synod has well 
nigh doubled the number of its ministers. 
The joint synod at present consists of 
thirteen district synods, the Western, 
the Middle, the Eastern, the Illinois, 
the Iowa, the Canada, the Wisconsin, 
the Minnesota and Dakota, the Nebraska, 
the Southern, the California and Oregon, 
and the Kansas Districts. The number 
of ministers, including the professors in 
the colleges and seminaries, according 
to the statistics of 1888, is 1030, the 
number of school teachers, 617, that of 
congregations, not including unorgan- 
ized missions, 1480, that of communicant 
members, at a low estimate, 279,150. 
The missions of the synod are the Home 
Missions, carried on among the Germans 
in this country by the District Synods, 
Emigrant Missions in New York and 
Baltimore, Missions among the Jews, 
English Mission, and conjointly with 
other synods of the Synodical Conference, 
a Negro Mission. The higher institu- 
tions of learning for the education of 
ministers and school teachers are, besides 
those mentioned in the narrative and 
still in operation, a college at Milwaukee, 
Wis., a preparatory collegiate institute 
at Concordia, Mo., and another in New 
York. In these schools upward of 900 
students were in 1888 instructed by 
forty professors. Of benevolent insti- 
tutions, there are within the synod an 



886 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



institute for the deaf and dumb at 
Norris, Mich , eleven asylums for orphans 
and invalids, and several hospitals. The 
periodicals published of the synod are 
"Der Lutheraner," "Lehre und Wehre," 
a homiletical magazine, and an educa- 
tional monthly; of the Synodical Con- 
ference, the "Missionstaube" and the 
"Lutheran Pioneer;" besides, eight 
religious periodicals published by con- 
ferences, societies, or individuals within 
the Synod of Missouri. The synod 
publishes its own hymn-books, school- 
books, Bibles, prayer-books, almanacs, 
etc., all of which, together with the 
periodicals and a voluminous theolog- 
ical literature contained in the synodical 
reports and other publications in the 
form of books and pamphlets, issue from 
the synod's Concordia Publishing House, 
the total receipts of which in 1888 were 
$152,357.30. 

Of the patriarchs of the Missouri 
Synod, but few are now among the 
living here below. Wyneken, the ven- 
erable father, was president of the joint 
synod from 1850 to 1864, when Walther 
was again elected to this office. In 
1876, Wyneken, after a protracted 
illness, fell peacefully asleep in Jesus 
at San Francisco, Cal. Walther, who 
had received the title of Doctor Theo- 
logiae from Capital University, of Co- 
lumbus, O., was relieved of the presi- 
dency in 1878, when the present incum- 
bent, Kev. H. C. Schwan, of Cleveland, 
O., was chosen. Yet the eve of Wal- 
ther' s life was a time of vigorous activity 
in the service of the Master. He wrote 
copiously for the press; he presented 
theses at synodical meetings, at which 
he was eminently the theological teacher; 
he was regular in his lectures to the 
students of the seminary from which 
hundreds of his pupils have gone forth 
into the ministry. When at the meet- 
ing of the Western District in 1868 he 



had completed a series of eloquent the- 
ological discussions, each of which had 
lasted several hours, he closed with 
tears and in faltering accents; he felt 
that his work was done. His physical 
energies were fast failing, and the synod 
unanimously resolved that he should 
rest. The new term at the seminary 
was opened without him. During the 
feeble months which followed, the con- 
gregations at St. Louis and many of his 
brethren from various parts of the synod 
joined in celebrating the fiftieth anni- 
versary of his ordination to the ministry. 
Time passed on, and the venerable 
Doctor was slowly but steadily sinking, 
and while, in the spring of 1887, the 
joint synod was in session at Fort Wayne, 
on the 7th of May, the Lord called his 
weary servant to his eternal rest. 
Thousands of members of the Missouri 
Synod and of sister synods, from all 
parts of the country, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, and from Canada to the 
Gulf, formed the greatest funeral pro- 
cession St. Louis has witnessed, as they 
followed the precious dust of this great 
man in Israel to its last repose. — Prof, 
A. Graebner. 



Dr. Charles Hodge, of Princeton, in 
his "Systematic Theology," says paren- 
thetically that no one knows Luther 
who has not read his letters. So we 
may justly say that no one can form an 
adequate conception of the secret of 
Dr. Walther's extensive influence who 
has not read his sermons. His high 
reputation as a scholar in Lutheran and 
patristic dogmatics, his untiring zeal as 
a controversialist, his skill as a public 
debater, the personal magnetism which 
communicated his enthusiasm to all his 
pupils, his wonderful executive ability, 
of which the development of his Synod 
is the best proof, are at once recalled 
with the mention of his name. That a 



i 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



837 



man of such rare ability and such warm I 
Christian earnestness would be 



an 1 



interesting and instructive preacher, 
would be naturally expected, but would 
not lead us to infer the great eminence 
in this department which he actually 
possessed. Fifteen years ago, when Dr. 
A. Bromel completed his "Homiletische 
Charakterbilder," in which he made a 
scientific analysis of the most prominent 
preachers of the Christian Church, his 
list of nineteen names began with 
Chrysostom and ended with Walther. 
This is certainly a high tribute. While 
we may doubt whether he will leave 
such a permanent impress as a preacher 
on the future of the Church as this 
indicates, this volume sufiiciently shows 
that he deserves the highest considera- 
tion and careful study by students of 
Homiletics. 

His sermons on the Gospels suggest 
the Professor of Dogmatics far more 
than do these occasional discourses. 
They are the warm and living utterances 
of one who, while learned in the litera- 
ture of theology, knows far more of 
theology as "an eminently practical 
wisdom" than as a technical science. 
They are not simple repetitions of what 
has been said very well a hundred times 
before; but the individuality of the 
preacher and the peculiar character of 
the relations of both preacher and 
people constantly color the sermon. 

Unlike many great theologians. Dr. 
Walther is a master of style. We are 
not apt to think of him as a rhetorician, 
and yet he unconsciously shows the 
very highest qualities in this direction, 
sometimes rising to an eloquence that 
would not suffer by comparison with 
the best classical models. "In Walther," 
says Dr. Bromel, "the form is maintained 
with the greatest accuracy. Everything 
stands in its proper place. From be- 
ginning to end, all is carefully arranged 



and divided. The form shows how he 
labored on his sermons; how he thought 
and felt, in order to present everything 
both externally and internally with 
entire correctness. As in a vessel, the 
fulnees of his thoughts are contained in 
the form of his sermon. This form he 
fills up to the very brim; but the firm 
vessel holds all together. Within the 
form, however Walther moves iil the 
freest manner. He prays so ardently; 
he quotes the most precious verses and 
passages; he knows how to speak so 
forcibly from heart to heart; he knows 
always, as one of deep experience, how 
to put the chief theme of the gospel, 
consolation in the forgiveness of sins, 
in the centre, — that from beginning to 
end he is heard with the greatest joy. 
The old preachers of the Lutheran 
Church are so hard for us to use, be- 
cause their form of preaching is so 
entirely foreign to our mode of dis- 
course. We have to do violence to 
ourselves, in order to avoid taking 
offense at their modes of expression. In 
Walther it is entirely different. He is 
as orthodox as John Gerhard, but as 
fervent as a pietist, as correct in form 
as a university or court preacher, and 
yet as popular as Luther himself. If 
the Lutheran Church will bring its 
doctrines again to the people it must be 
as faithful and definite in its doctrine, 
and as interesting and thoroughly 
adapted to the times in form, as is the 
case in Walther. He is a model preacher 
in the Lutheran Church. How different 
would it be with the Lutheran Church 
in Germany if it had many such preach- 
ers!" — Luth. Church Review. 



The following are some of Dr. Wal- 
ther's writings: Der Glaube; Ueberden 
Tod; Advents Predigt; Synodal Predigt; 
Reformation; Tanz und Theater; Sym- 
bol. Buecher; Lord's Supper; Luther- 



838 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



ische Brosamen; Pastoral Theologie; 
Evangelien Postille; Epistel Postille; 
Gestalt einer Ortsgemeinde ; Predesti- 
nation; Gnadenwahl; Luther's Name; 
Pfingstfest; Fleisch und Lueste; Oster 
Predigt; Bibel-Geselschaft; Unter- 
schreiben d. Symb. Buecher; Jubelfest 
Predigt; Iowa Synode; Der Concordien- 
formel Kern und Stern; Die Lutherische 
Kirche die wahre Kirche Gottes ; Kirche 
und Amt; Eeview of Dr. Stellhorn's 



Tract on Predestination; Theses ueber 
die Pflicht eines Christen, u. s. w.; Eef- 
ormations Predigt; Warum haDgen wir 
so fest an die Lutherische Kirche? 
Waram sind d. Symb. Buecher unbe- 
dingt zu unterschreiben?; Warum soUen 
wir unser Luthers, denen Namem wir 
tragen, nicht schamen?: Die Kirche der 
Reformation ; Warum sollen wir den be- 
kanten Schriften unserer Lutherische 
Kirche auch noch fest halten ? 



.>-vai^>*<< 



REV. H. H. WEBER. 



Rev. H. H. Weber was born Aug. 4, 
1860, in the city of Philadelphia, Pa. 
His parents were both German, and 
until he was six years of age he could 
not speak an English word. He was 
baptized and confirmed in a German 
Lutheran church. In 1874 he entered 
the large wholesale dry goods and notion 
house of Sam'l Bevant & Co., of Balti- 
more, Md., and for four years acted in 
the capacity of entry clerk and salesman. 
Iq 1878 he entered the freshman class 
of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, 
Pa., and graduated in 1882, with second 
honors, and delivering the honor oration 
in German. He immediately continued 
his studies in the Theological Seminary 
at Gettysburg, Pa., and in 1885 was 
graduated from that institution. He 
was ordained to the holy ministry in the 
fall of 1885 in St. Mark's church of 
Baltimore, Md., and was called as mis- 
sionary in the eastern part of the city 
for the purpose of forming an English 
Lutheran church in a large German 
community. In four years he gathered 
a congregation of over 600 members, a 
Sunday school of 700, had a church 
property worth $30,000, and one of the 
most benevolent congregations in ^the 



in 



Maryland Synod. He was called 
August, 1889, to the General Secretary- 
ship of the Board of Church Exten- 
sion of the General Synod Lutheran 
Church in the United States, which 
position he accepted and removed to 
York, Pa., the headquarters of the Board. 

In the fall of 1890 he was also elected 
business manager of the Lutheran Mis- 
sionary Journal, having a circulation of 
over 16,000 monthly. He has furnished 
for some time the personals and church 
news of Tke Lutheran Evangelist, and 
latterly of The Lutheran Observer, 

Whilst pastor at Baltimore, Md., he 
published two small books, one entitled 
"Grace Church; her history, work, and 
organization"; and another, "Additional 
Questions and Answers in connect 
with the study of Luther's Catechism." 
He has been also a frequent contributor 
to our church papers. i; 

In May, 1890, he was married to Miss ' 
Emma Crist, of Baltimore, Md. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1890, he refused a 
pressing call to become the pastor of St. 
Matthew's English Lutheran Church, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y. He frequently offici- 
ates at church dedications. 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



839 




REV. J. H. WEBER, AM. 



Rev. J. H. Weber, A.M., was born in 
Cherry Valley, Otsego Co., K Y., Aug. 
17, 1844. His father's name is Jacob 
and his mother's Eliza, nee Seeber. They 
were both members of the Evangelical 
Lutheran church of GardnDrsville, of 
which Rev. Philip Wieting was for 
many years the pastor. Mr. Jacob 
Weber was a farmer and had two sons 
who grew up on the farm, helping father 
in the daily and annual round of agri- 
cultural toil. Alson, the younger 
brother, followed in the father's foot- 
steps and is a successful tiller of the 
soil in Westford, Otsego Co., K Y. 
James Henry, the older brother and 
subject of this sketch, early developed a 
preference for books and mathematical 
studies, and delighted in going to school 
rather than manual labor. At the age 
of four years he entered the public 
schools of his native village, and later 
attended select schools; then studied 
Latin with Prof. A. S. Knight, A.M., 
and in 1861, at the age of seventeen, he 



entered Hartwick Seminary, Otsego Co., 
IST. Y., to prepare for the holy ministry 
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
At the age of fourteen James had been 
confirmed by his devoted pastor, who 
remained his personal friend to the end 
of his eventful life. Among Mr. Weber's 
maternal ancestors and relatives there 
were many teachers, doctors, lawyers 
and preachers. When James was but 
about three years old he lay one evening 
in his trundle bed, when his paternal 
grandmother, thinking the child was 
asleep, bowed beside the bed and prayed 
that the little boy might be restored to 
health (for James was a feeble and 
sickly child) and earnestly besought the 
Lord that her dear little grandson, 
"Jimmy", might grow up to be a good 
Christian man, and commended him to 
her covenant-keeping God. That prayer 
was heard and never forgotten. A few 
years later, at the age of about seven 
years, James one day visited his maternal 
grandparents, and came in just at the 



840 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



time of family worsliip, and, as was their 
custom, grandpa offered prayer first, 
then grandma prayed, and both in the 
German language which they supposed 
the little boy could not understand. 
Grandma Seeber prayed earnestly that 
little James might become physically 
well and strong, and grow up to become 
a preacher of the gospel. This prayer, 
which James fully apprehended, joined 
with the prayer of earlier years, so im- 
pressed his young and tender heart and 
mind that he had no peace until he 
found it in Christ, nor rest until he de- 
cided fully to study for the ministry. 
Both grandmothers entered into their 
heavenly rest without ever knowing that 
their grandson had observed their 
prayers, or had chosen the ministry as 
his life-work. What cannot prayer ac- 
complish, i. e., Hannah and Samuel? 
'^The effectual fervent prayer of a right- 
eous man availeth much." 

Eev. Dr. Sternberg was principal of 
the Hartwick Seminary and Eev. Dr. 
G. B. Miller was the professor of 
theology when Mr. Weber entered, in 
1861. He finished the classical course 
of four years in this institution. Then 
taught public school for one year, when 
he returned to Hartwick Seminary and 
entered the theological department and 
took the full course of three years, and 
was one of the members of Dr. Miller's 
last class, who carried him to his grave. 
The following were the members of the 
class: Eev. G. W. Enders, D.D., of 
Christ's Church, York, Pa.; Eev. Prof. 
James Pitcher, A. M., principal of Hart- 
wick Seminary; Eev. F. F. Buermeyer, 
pastor in New York City; Eev. J. P. 
Krechting, of New Germantown, N. J. ; 
Eev. P. H. Turner, pastor of the Luth- 
eran Church of Gardnersville, N. Y., 
who died in September, 1871; Eev. J. 
H. Weber, A.M., pastor of Zion's Luth- 
eran Church, Sunbury, and Eev. S. W. 



Young, pastor of the Lutheran church 
of Venango, Pa., who was then in the 
second year of his course. When this 
class enter. d on its theological course 
Dr. Miller said: ''If God will spare my 
life to see you boys through the course 
I will be ready to die." In February of 
the third year, after completing church 
history, he examined the catalogue and 
reviewed the course of study and then 
said: "Young gentlemen, you have had 
all that any other class had before you; 
we will continue exegesis, and you know 
where your weakest points are; read up 
for the examination next June." That 
afternoon he taught his last lesson, and 
at the close remarked to Mr. Weber: 
"My work is done! My work is done!" 
A few weeks thereafter Dr. Miller en- 
tered into his heavenly rest. Mr. Weber 
graduated from Hartwick Seminary in 
1869. He was licensed by the Frankean 
Synod June 1, 1869, and ordained June 
5, 1870, at Avoca, N. Y. During his 
last year of the theological course Mr. 
Weber supplied the pulpits of the Luth- 
eran churches of Leesville and Centre 
Valley, N. Y., and as pastor served them 
another year and added seventy mem- 
bers to the charge during the last year. 
He then accepted a call to Avoca, N. Y., 
which church he served somewhat over 
one year, to the satisfaction of the 
people and the general community. 

On Aug. 4, 1868, Mr. Weber married 
Miss Julia E. Sommers, of Sharon, N. 
Y., a great grand-daughter of Eev. Peter 
N. Sommers, the pioneer Lutheran 
minister of Schoharie county, N. Y. 
This union was blessed with two sons, 
W. Clarence, born Aug. 9, 1871, at 
Avoca, N. Y, who is now a member of 
the sophomore class in Wittenberg Col- 
lege, and George Henry, born Oct. 22, 
1882, at Ashland, Pa. These are prom- 
ising boys and inspire hope for a useful 
future. On Nov. 6, 1871, Eev. Weber 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



accepted a call to the Evangelical Luth- 
eran church, of Minden, N. Y., and took 
charge of that pastorate, where he 
preached and labored with great accept- 
ance for eight years. This church was 
greatly edified and multiplied in mem- 
bership and increased in its benevolent 
contribution, and was the banner church 
of the Fraukean Synod. Rev. Mr. Weber 
also served the church at Newville, N. 
Y., and re-organized the Lutheran 
church of Bethel, where but one mem- 
ber only remained, and greatly built up 
and strengthened the Lutheran cause in 
the surrounding vicinity. 

June 15, 1879, he received a call from 
the Lutheran churches of Ashland and 
Gordon, in Schuylkill Co., Pa, This 
call he accepted, and took up his abode 
in the beautiful and commodious par- 
sonage of Ashland. Here he labored 
successfully for about eight years. The 
church at Gordon became self-sustain- 
ing and called for its pastor the Bev. 
W. G. Thrall, on March 1, 1886. Dur- 
ing the first year of his labors at Ashland 
a gracious quickening occurred in the 
entire charge, which added 105 members 
to the church and greatly strengthened 
and revived the membership. The 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the found- 
ing of the church at Ashland was cele- 
brated in June, 1883, with great en- 
thusiasm and gladness. Bev. W. H. 
Heisler, the founder of the church, 
preached the sermon on Saturday after- 
noon. Bemarkable at this service was 
the fact that Bev. Mr. Heisler and all 
the original charter members, on invita- 
tion of Pastor Weber, held a most 
pleasant reunion at the parsonage. Bev. 
F. W. Conrad, D. D., LL.D., preached 
on Sunday morning, when ^3,500 was 
raised toward building a new church. 
The last service in the old church was 
held on Easter Sunday, 1884. The 
corner stone of the new church was laid 
106 



in June of the same year. The dedica- 
tion took place Jan. 20, 1885. The 
church complete cost $11,000, all of 
which was paid or provided for on the 
day of dedication. Ashland prospered 
and multiplied in membership and good 
work in both the church and Sunday 
school, and Pastor Weber and his wife 
were exceedingly popular and beloved, 
not only by his own people but by all 
the community. In June, 1887, he ac- 
cepted a call from Christ Evangelical 
Lutheran Church of Sharon, Wis. In 
his farewell sermon at Ashland he re- 
ported a membership of 222, a net gain 
of 122 above all losses. The Sunday 
school had doubled its numbers. He 
said: "When I came here you had a 
debt of $1,600 on the parsonage, and an 
old church building which we sold for 
$100. We now have paid this debt and 
built this church and paid for it, with 
the exception of $1,000, which also is 
provided for. ^ Your benevolence has 
increased from $36 a year, the amount 
paid by my predecessor, to $232 raised 
during the last ten months on the ap- 
portionment." The church of Ashland 
exceedingly regretted the departure of 
Bev. Mr. Weber and his family. At 
Sharon, Wis., they were received with 
great kindness and generosity. For two 
years Mr. Weber ministered to this 
people, adding thirty-six to the member- 
ship. The old parsonage was sold and 
a new and commodious one built in 
Sharon, a village of about 1,000 inhab- 
itants. The church prospered in all 
its departments. 

The Zion Lutheran Church of Sun- 
bury, Pa., elected Bev. Mr. Weber and 
extended him a call June 9, 1889. He 
accepted this call and began his ministry 
here on September 1, 1889, and con- 
tinuing in charge to the present time. 
During this time of fifteen months he 
has added 269 members to the church. 



842 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



The Sunday-school has increased from 
550 to nearly 1,000 members. A mission 
Sunday-school has been organized in 
the third ward with a membership of 175, 
three months after its organization, and 
there is a good prospect for a second 
Lutheran church in Sunbury. This 
church has now 630 members, a large 
and overflowing Sunday-school, and 
growing Woman's Missionary Society, 
a very live and active society of Christian 
Endeavor of 180 members, a pastor's aid 
society consisting of active Christian 
women, who meet with the pastor once 
a month and consult about the welfare 
of the church and aid him in visitation 
of the sick, the poor and strangers, and 
in many ways supply the offices of 
deaconesses. During the ministry of 
Rev. Weber's predecessor, the Rev. G. 
W. Shannon, now of Philadelphia, Pa., 
a magnificent church and chapel and 
very convenient parsonage were built at 
a cost of $32,000, of which $8,000 
remained unpaid. This debt has been 
nearly all paid since Rev. Weber's 
incumbancy, and will be completely 
liquidated in the near future. Peace, 
harmony and prosperity prevail, and 
pastor and people are happy in mutual 
love and esteem. In 1887 Pennsylvania 
College of Gettysburg, Pa., conferred 
the degree of A. M., eausa honoris, upon 
Rev. Mr. Weber, in recognition of his 
talent and efficiency. Mr. Weber has 
written occasional articles for various 
church and local papers and publishes 
a parish paper, and has evinced literary 
activity and taste. He has a book 
outlined, but not written, because his 
pastoral work has absorbed all his time. 
He is "up and doing" continually, visit- 
ing among his large flock and taking a 
lively and sympathetic interest in all 
their temporal and spiritual affairs, and 
his people appreciate and reciprocate 



his well directed energy in their behalf. 
He is always popular among the young 
people and children, and ever welcomed 
by the aged and infirm, and the sick 
chamber is cheered by his presence. 
But in the pulpit he feels most at home, 
and here he is a clear, fearless and 
forcible speaker; an argumentative, logi- 
cal,direct, ad hominem, scriptural preacher. 
Lutheran in doctrine and cultus, prac- 
ticing catechetical methods, and observ- 
ing the festivals of the church and in 
general following the Christian year. 
Mr. Weber in his earlier life and minis- 
try was rather anti-liturgic, but in later 
years, by wider reading and study as 
well as by observations and experience, 
has become thoroughly Lutheran in 
doctrine and practice and moderately 
liturgical, and is growing along these 
lines. Rev. Mr. Weber uses very few 
notes in the pulpit, he prepares copiously, 
and then delivers freely and extempora- 
neously. He has a good voice, strong 
and clear, and enunciates plainly and 
distinctly, so that all can readily hear 
and understand him, and has the reputa- 
tion of "making the deaf to hear". 
Pastor Weber is of a nervous tempera- 
ment and very sympathetic disposition 
and of a hopeful spirit, inclined to be 
cheerful and jocose, is fond of a good 
laugh and easily provokes others to 
laughter. When Pastor Weber entered 
the ministry he was weak and feeble 
in health and supposed by his friends 
to be marked for an early tomb; but the 
ministry of the Word, with all its cares 
and labors, has acted like a charm upon 
his physical being. He now is the 
image of health, and his rosy cheek, 
rotund corporeal proportions, his ringing 
laugh and quick and springy step attest 
the good digestion and excellent health 
he enjoys. 




AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



843 



REV. A. J. WEDDELL. 



Rev. A. J. Weddell, the subject of 
this brief sketch, is one of the oldest 
Engh'sh Lutheran pastors now living, 
having been engaged in the active work 
of the ministry nearly fifty years. He 
is a native of Maryland, of Lutheran 
parentage, born near Frederick City, 
baptized by Rev. David F. Schaeffer, 
D.D., and confirmed by Rev. S. W. 
Harkey, D.D. Having received his 
preparatory education in the schools 
of his native place, he graduated at 
Pennsylvania College in 1842, and was 
licensed to preach the gospel by the 
Synod of Maryland in 1843, His first 
field of labor was Canton Chapel, Balti- 
more. Not content with the limited 
sphere in which he was laboring, and 
moved by the urgent appeals for minis- 
ters in the West, he resigned his charge, 
and following the guidance of provi- 
dence went to Ohio, then still mission- 
ary ground, and became pastor of the 
English Lutheran congregation in 
Tarlton and vicinity. During the two 
years of his labors two new churches 
were erected and his congregation en- 
joyed a high degree of prosperity. 
The English Lutheran congregation in 
Lancaster having become vacated, he 
became the pastor and labored success- 
fully until, prostrated by the malarial 
diseases of that locality, he was com- 
pelled to remove to a more healthy part 
of the country. He next labored in 
Somerset and Zanesville, and after- 
wards became pastor of the College 
Church in Springfield, Ohio. Here he 
found a pleasant and intelligent congre - 
gation. But, he was soon involved in 
the doctrinal discussions of the times. 

The Definite Synodical Platform had 
just been sprung upon the Church, and 
Springfield was one of the centers from 
which it originated. After laboring 



there nearly three years, and not being 
in harmony with the new movement, he 
returned to Maryland and became pas- 
tor of the English Lutheran Church in 
the City of Cumberland, where he re- 
mained eleven years, passing through 
the fearful and trying period of our 
Civil War. Cumberland, situated upon 
the boundary of Virginia and Maryland, 
was the scene of constant military 
occupation and political strife, interfer- 
ing seriously with all social and religious 
interests. But whilst a number of con- 
gregations were left vacant, our Luth- 
eran pastor remained, caring for his 
congregation, and administering to the 
spiritual wants of many of the citizens 
and soldiers who sought his services. 

We next find him pastor of the Luth- 
eran Church of the Trinity in ISTorris- 
town. Pa. There his leading work was 
performed. The congregation had been 
involved in most bitter strife. But as 
if guided by the great Master they had 
extended a call to Rev. Weddell to be- 
come their pastor, and by the help of 
God, gentleness and prudence, he in 
time restored harmony to the discordant 
elements and began a period of com- 
parative peace and prosperity that ex- 
tended over his ministry of twenty 
years. But failing health and increas- 
ing age pressed upon him, and towards 
the close of 1887 he resigned the active 
duties of the pastorate and was retired 
by a kind and grateful people as pastor 
emeritus with an annuity for his pas- 
toral support. 

As a preacher, theologian and man of 
scientific and literary attainments he 
occupied a high position in the com- 
munity in which he has lived and min- 
istered so long. He preaches occasion- 
ally in his congregation, but on account 
of his infirmities seldom goes beyond. 



844 



AMEBICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



During all his ministry lie has been a 
frequent contributor to various religious, 
secular and literary journals, and his 
writings in prose and poetry, if collected, 
would form several large volumes. In 
his declining years his pen is still active, 



and his productions often appear in 
local papers and in different Lutheran 
periodicals. His sermons are ornate 
and highly polished, albeit plain and 
simple, and his delivery animated and 
impassioned. 




REV. A. C. WEDEKIND, D. D. 



One of the most laborious and most 
successful pastors in the North and 
East is Rev. A. C. Wedekind, D.D., of 
New York City. His prodigious labors 
for so many years are surprising and 
wonderful. They prove a health and 
strength of mental and bodily powers, 
and a holy consecration to the work of 
Grod, that commands admiration. Such 
work, and so well performed, requires 
not only a strong will and willingness, 
singleness of purpose and energy, but 
that which is greater than these all, 
namely, a holy love for which no sacri- 
fice is too great when made for Grod and 
the good of man. From the first hours 
of personal acquaintance with this truly 
great and good man, we have learned to 
admire, honor and revere him for the 
purity of his life, the greatness of his 
work, his scholarly attainments, and his 
holy devotion to duty. During the 
twenty years of an acquaintance our 
first impressions of him have deepened, 
and in and since the hours spent with 
him, in his "labors abundant", we have 
had indeed ample facility to learn to 
appreciate him, and ample ground and 
reason to let our honor, reverence and 
love for him increase as the years roll 
on. He is, indeed, worthy of a promi- 
nent place in the annals of Lutheranism, 
in his day and generation. 

Pastor Augustus C. Wedekind first 
saw the light of day in Friedrichs-Ruh, 



Kingdom of Hannover, Germany, being 
born in June 16, 1824. Coming to this 
country when he was a child, his parents 
resided for years in York, Pa., that 
stronghold of Lutheranism in the 
Keystone State. At the age of seventeen 
he left York to pursue his classical and 
theological studies in Gettysburg, with 
a view to becoming a Lutheran pastor. 
He entered the preparatory department 
in 1841, and having finished his studies, 
in college and seminary, he was admitted 
into the ministry, in the year 1848, at 
the age of twenty-four, and has now 
preached and labored in the ministry 
for the period of forty- two years. On 
the day of his graduation he delivered 
the German oration. 

He has been pastor successively and 
successfully, of the Fayetteville Charge, 
Pa., 1848-9; Zion's Church, Lebanon, 
Pa., 1849 to 1862; St. John's Church, 
Lancaster, Pa., 1862-5. In the year 
1865 he removed to the mighty metropo- 
lis of our great country, and has lived and 
labored there ever since with the most 
pronounced success. He was pastor of 
St. James English Lutheran Church 
from 1865 to 1879, a period of fourteen 
years, or one year longer than he spent 
with Zion Church in Lebanon . Severing 
his connections with St. James Church, 
in 1879, he received and accepted a call 
to St. John's Church, in Christopher 
Street, New York City, and has labored 



AMEKICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



845 



in this church with marked success also. 
He preaches with equal fluency, correct- 
ness, earnestness and ability in both 
German and English, every Sunday to 
the large congregation belonging to this 
church, which is one of the largest 
Lutheran congregations in all our land, 
numbering several thousand souls. Not 
only has he wisely and successfully 
introduced and maintained the English 
services as well as the German, but he 
has also succeeded, and grandly at that, 
in having the entire church remodeled 
and tastefully and elegantly improved 
throughout the interior and also beauti- 
fied externally. Then, too, a large and 
commodious, elegant and well-arranged 
Sunday School building has been erect- 
ed alongside of the church, all of whose 
appointments answer well for the pur- 
poses intended. No one except a 
minister of much experience or a student 
of church work, can fully appreciate the 
tact, untiring energy and skill required 
on the part of a pastor in a great city, to 
bring about such costly and grand 
improvements. To the honor of the 
congregation, the excellent council, but 
above all to pastor Wedekind belongs 
the credit of having almost transformed 
St. John's church and school building in- 
to so elegant and well-appointed edifices. 
The positions of honor and trust 
pastor Wedekind has held are many. 
He has been President of a number of 
different district synods, as East Penn- 
sylvania, New York and New Jersey 
Synods, has again and again been a 
delegate to and a prominent member of 
the General Synod. Since 1856 he has 
been a trustee of Pennsylvania College, 
Gettysburg. He has been for years. 
Corresponding Secretary of the General 
Synod's Foreign Mission Board, Director 
of the American Tract Society, Director 
of the American and Foreign Christian 
Union, etc. 



In 1867 Pennsylvania College be- 
stowed on him the honorary degree of 
D. D., which he has worn with credit to 
himself, the institution giving it, and 
the Church. 

Blessed not only with a robust frame, 
strong constitution and talented mind, 
but also with a strong, sonorous, round, 
full voice, he has been an ever welcome 
speaker, being sought far and near. 
His intense earnestness adds to the fire 
of his eloquence, and so he is, indeed, 
a fine preacher. At meetings of Con- 
ference, Synod and General Synod, in 
college commencements and theological 
seminary graduation exercises, church 
dedications, etc., he has rendered the 
Church and her people many a noble 
and grand service, with his scholarly 
addresses, systematic, scriptural, logical 
and eloquent sermons or learned lectures. 
He stands out as a prominent figure in 
church assemblies for forty years and 
more. 

Not only laborious as a pastor in his 
large and growing flock, not only 
laborious as a preacher and public 
speaker with his many-sided abilities, 
has he served the Church well, but also 
with his pen. Many an able article has 
appeared from his pen in our Church 
papers. For several years he was one 
of the editors of The Christian at Work. 

His lecture on the Eleventh Article 
of the Augsburg Confession was printed 
in The Lutheran Quarterly and his admi- 
rable address before the Lutheran Diet, 
in 1877, in ''The Educational and 
Sacramental Ideas of the Lutheran 
Church in Relation to Practical Piety," 
appeared amid the proceedings of the 
Diet, which was one of the most select, 
scholarly assemblage of Lutherans this 
country has ever witnessed. 

Being a native of the kingdom of 
Hannover, the land that gave Muhlen- 
berg to America, and that has maintained 



846 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



its pure Lutheranism in cultus and 
doctrine, so Dr. Wedekind is a sound 
Lutheran and belongs to the conservative 
element of the General Synod. He 
wears the Lutheran robe, believes 
thoroughly not only in her doctrines, 
but also in the customs and usages of 
the Lutheran Church, and ever labors 
to have her customs more observed and 
her doctrines more appreciated. 

Eich in experience, still full of the 
vigor of life, animated by a hopeful 
buoyant spirit may he reach the fiftieth 
anniversary of his labors in the ministry, 



and for many years afterward may he 
be spared to his beloved wife whom he 
married October 6, 1859, to his excellent 
and admirable children, to his great 
congregation, and to our dear great 
Church, to labor for God and man, until 
fully ready and ripe for Heaven, and 
fully weary of the duties and toils of 
earthly life, God shall take him to the 
better world to enter which he helped 
thousands who shall greet him with joy, 
and to enjoy the rest, peace, happiness 
and glory he preached to men on earth. 
— Amieus. 




EEV. AUGUST WEENAAS. 



Eev. August Weenaas was born in 
Norway of poor parents, and was edu- 
cated for the Lutheran ministry at the 
Christiania University, from which in- 
stitution he graduated with honor. 
While serving a pastorate at a place 
called Loppen he received, on New 
Years eve, 1866, a letter from Eev. S. 
M. Krognass, then of Chicago, 111., to 
the effect that he had been authorized 
by the Scandinavian Augustana Synod 



to write Eev. Weenaas, and urge him to 
accept the Norwegian chair of theology 
the Swedish-Norwegian Seminary 



m 



at Paxton, 111. In the summer of 1867 
the Synod sent Mr. Weenaas a formal 
call, promising to assist him with a cer- 
tain sum of money while taking a brief 
post-graduate course at the Erlangen 
University, pay his passage to America, 
and give him an annual salary of $1,000. 
After considerable hesitation Mr. 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



847 



Weenaas concluded to accept the call; 
resigned his pastorate at Loppen, left 
his family at Christiania, and in the be- 
ginning of February, 1868, went to 
Erlangen where he attended for some 
time the lectures of the learned uni- 
versity professors Dr. Thomasius, Dr. 
V. ^Zetzwitsch, Dr. Frank, and others. 
The Easter vacation he spent at Neuen- 
dettelsau, where he became personally 
acquainted with the famous and vener- 
able Rev. Wilhelm Lohe. Having re- 
turned to Christiania from his tour 
to Germany in May, 1868, he sailed for 
America with his family in the first part 
of July, arriving at Paxton, 111., about 
Aug. 1, and beginniug his labors in the 
seminary in September. The faculty 
now consisted of four professors. Dr. 
Hasselquist, Dr. Cervin, Dr. Harkey and 
Prof. Weenaas, the latter instructing in 
Systematic and Practical Theology, 
Symbolics, Latin and Norwegian. Owing 
to the difficulties of maintaining a united 
Norwegian and Swedish seminary, the 
question of dividing the institution ac- 
cording to nationality had been consid- 
ered for some time, when, at a pastoral 
conference and mission meeting held in 
Bostwick Valley, Wis., Prof. Weenaas 
was chosen to prepare a motion with 
reference to the matter, to be submitted 
to the following synodical meeting, to 
be held at Moline, 111., in 1869. Mr. 
Weenaas's report to the Moline meeting 
is probably found in Den norske Luther- 
aner or in the minutes of the meeting. 
The result was that a division of the 
seminary, according to nationality, was 
resolved, and the Norwegians decided to 
establish a separate school under the 
title of Augsburg Seminary, with Prof. 
Weenaas as president. A three story 
brick academy building was purchased 
for $3,500 at Marshall, Wis., where, on 
Reformation Day, 1869, Augsburg Sem- 
inary and Marshall Academy was opened 



with appropriate ceremonies, this being 
the first Norwegian Lutheran seminary 
in America. 

Prof. Weenaas took active part in the 
movement which resulted in the friendly 
separation of the Norwegians from the 
Scandinavian Augustana Synod, at the 
meeting held at Andover, 111., in June, 
1870; and he was one of the organizers 
of the Conference for the Norwegian- 
Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America at the following meeting of 
a part of the Norwegian brethren, held 
at St. Ansgar, la., in August of the 
same year. From January, 1870, to 
June, 1876, he edited the official paper 
of the Conference called Lutheraneren og 
Missionsbladet. 

For three years (1869-1872) Prof. 
Weenaas served as theological professor 
and president of Augsburg Seminary at 
Marshall, Wis., besides carrying on an 
extensive correspondence in the interest 
of the school and the conference, mak- 
ing numerous missionary tours, and 
regularly serving with the preaching of 
the Gospel congregations at Stoughton, 
Marshall, Madison, Winneconne, Win- 
chester and Primrose, Wis. In July, 
1872, he removed to Minneapolis, Minn., 
whence the seminary had been removed, 
and where he about the middle of Sep- 
tember again resumed his labors. 

At the meeting held in Eau Claire, 
Wis., 1873, he was chosen to make a 
trip to Norway during the summer va- 
cation for the double purpose of making 
application on behalf of the Conference, 
for organic union with the Norwegian 
Mission Society, and calling an assistant 
theological professor for Augsburg 
Seminary. 

Accompanied by Rev. Falk Gjertsen 
he left for Norway immediately after 
the Eau Claire meeting, returning to 
Minneapolis September 20th, after hav- 
ing successfully presented the above 



848 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



mentioned application, and secured the 
services of S. Oftedal as assistant pro- 
fessor. 

Immediately after his departure from 
Norway, his faithful wife, a sister of 
Rev. N. Aversen, died at Minneapolis 
during confinement, September 6th, the 
child also dying ten days later, which 
sad news Prof. Weenaas did not learn 
before he reached Chicago. He was 
thus left a widower with four children, 
the youngest about two years and the 
oldest about nine. In the summer of 
1875 he married a younger sister of his 
first wife with whom he has had eight 
children, only three of whom are living. 
Of his six children after his first mar- 
riage, also only three are living. 

In the fall of 1875 Prof. Weenaas 



resigned his position as president and 
professor at Augsburg Seminary, and 
after having visited and said a touching 
farewell to a large number of the congre- 
gations in the Conference, he returned 
with his family to Norway during the 
summer of 1876, after having spent 
eight years of hard and faithful work in 
the upbuilding of our Lutheran Zion 
among his countrymen in America. 
Upon his return to Norway he received 
appointment as pastor at Sondmore. 

Besides having contributed numerous 
articles to various papers both in Amer- 
ica and Norway, he is the author of the 
following books: Ogsaa e*t Ord om 
Moderkirken, Kortfattet Kirkehistori, 
Wisconsinismen, Tolv Pradikener, M'n- 
deblade, Afskedspradiken. 




EEV. FREDEEICK W WEISKOTTEN. 



Eev. Frederick William Weiskotten, 
the first one bearing this name that came 
to America, was born June 24, 1816, at 
Neukirchen, about six miles from 
Cologne on the Ehine, Germany. He 
was educated at the Mission Institute 
at Barmen; came to this country in the 
spring of 1847 in answer to a call for 
pastors, and was licensed the same year 
by the Lutheran Ministerium of New 
York. He began his labors at West 
Leyden, Lewis Co., N. Y., held services 
also at Watson and Croghan, and occa- 
sionally preached at Boonville, Oneida 
Co., N. Y. Eeceiving a call to a small 
German mission at Miltonsburg, Monroe 
Co., 0., he accepted, and was then 
ordained at Mount Eaton, O. Unable 



to endure the climate, he resigned, and 
served temporarily at Mansfield, O., 
Erie, Pa., and Albany, N. Y. In the 
month of May, 1855, he became pastor 
of St. John's Church at Syracuse, N. Y. 
Here he served faithfully for a period 
of eight years, the congregation during 
this time erecting a fine new church, and 
doubling its membership. After a brief 
illness of congestive fever, he gently 
fell asleep in the full assurance of faith, 
on May 21, 1863, at Syracuse, N. Y., 
aged 46 years, 10 months, and 27 days. 
Two of his sons are in the ministry: 
Rev. Frederick W. Weiskotten, of Phila- 
delphia, Pa., and Rev. Samuel G. Weis- 
kotten, of Jamestown, N. Y. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



849 




KEY. FEEDERICK W. WEISKOTTEN. 



107 



850 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHTES. 




REV. F. W. AVEISKOTTEN, A.M. 



Frederick William Weiskotten, after 
studying at Syracuse and Hartwick, N. 
Y., Philadelphia, Pa., and at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin, Germany, was ordained 
in St. Mark's, Philadelphia, by the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania, June 10, 
1868. His first charge was Elizabeth- 
town and Mt. Joy, Lancaster Co., Pa. 
In February, 1873, he became pastor of 
Salem Church, Bethlehem, Pa., and 
the same year became Secretary of 
second conference of the Ministerium 
of Pennsylvania. In 1875 one of the 
editors of the Church Messenger, a position 
he held for ten years. The same year he 
was elected a member of the committee to 
prepare the German Sunday-school 
book of the General Council. From 1878 
to 1880 was German Secretary of Minis- 
terium of Pennsylvania. Since 1879 
he was editor of the Kinder-Blaettchen. 



In 1879 he issued the Festival Seasons 
of the Church Year, illustrated; also. 
Life of Christ in Pictures. Since the 
same year a Director of the Theological 
Seminary at Philadelphia. In 1880 he 
published Biblical History for Schools 
and Families, with numerous illustra- 
tions and maps. October 1st, 1881, he 
became pastor of St. James' Church, 
Philadelphia. For four years, beginning 
with 1882, he was German Secretary of 
the General Council. He was co-editor 
of Siloah, the organ of German Home 
Mission Committee of the General 
Council from 1882-88, and secretary of 
said committee during the same period. 
Since 1882 he has been Secretary of the 
Publishing Committee of the General 
Council. In 1885 he issued a Map of 
the Second Conference of the Ministe- 
rium of Pennsylvania. In 1888 he 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



851 



traveled througli Egypt and Palestine. 
Since November, 1888, he was editor in 
chief of Missionsbote, German organ of the 
General Council's Committee on Foreign 
Missions. He issued at various times: 
Bilderlust, Tannenreiser, Glueckliche 



Stunden, etc. He prepared Biblische Ge- 
schichten fur die Jugend, in Holman's 
Family Bible ; and in 1890 he published 
a Map of the First Conference of the 
Ministerium of Pennsylvania. 



EEV. EEUBEN B. WEISEE, D.D. 



Eev. Reuben Benjamin Weiser, D. D., 
son of Benjamin and Catherine (Hide) 
Weiser, was born at Womelsdorf , Berks 
County, Pa., Dec. 29th, 1807. He took 
a preparatory course and pursued his 
theological studies at Gettysburg, Pa. 
He was licensed in 1832 by the West 
Pennsylvania Synod, and in 1834 was or- 
dained at Somerset, Pa., by the same 
body. He conducted a school for 
young ladies in Martinsburg, Va., from 
1835 to 1837, and was principal of a 
Female Seminary at Belford, Pa., from 
1842 to 1846; during this time he also 
prepared a number of young men for 
college. He was appointed agent to 
collect money for the College at Gettys- 
burg, which position he held from 1840 
to 1841. He was the General Agent 
for the American Tract Society for 
Easton, Pa., from 1849 to 1853, during 
which time he resided at Chambersburg, 
Pa. He was one of the founders of 
Wittenberg College. His first charge 
was at St. Thomas, McConnells and 
Mercersburg, Pa. We next find him at 
Martinsburg, Va., from 1835 to 1837. 



He then removed to Woodsboro, Md., 
where he remained from 1837 to 1840, 
serving seven congregations. He served 
ten congregations and built five 
churches at Bedford, Pa., from 1841 to 
1846. He then removed to Selinsgrove, 
Pa., in 1846, where he remained about 
three years. Four years later he re- 
moved to Loysville, Pa., remaining two 
years. From 1862 to 1864 he served at 
Canton, 111., and at Forreston, 111., from 
1864 to 1866. Manchester, Md., was 
his next residence remaining there from 
1866 to 1869, and the same year he re- 
moved to Mahanoy City, Pa., and 
remained there one year. From 1870 
to 1872 he was at Minersville, Pa. He 
then removed to Colorado in 1872, 
where he remained until his death. 
The title of D.D. was conferred upon 
him by Pennsylvania College in 1876. 
He was married to Sarah Bossart, Sept. 
10, 1833, who, with four children sur- 
vives him. He died Dec. 8, 1885, at 
Georgetown, Col., of general debility, 
aged 77 years, 11 months and 9 days. 




852 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




REV. PROF. E. J. WERNER. 



Rev. Prof. E. J. Werner was born in 
the vicinity of Hudiksvall, Sweden, 
March 27, 1852. His pious parents 
brought him up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord. But at the 
time he was attending catechetical 
instruction preparatory to confirmation, 
he felt that he had gone astray and had 
sinned against his Father in Heaven. 
By reading of the Scripture he found 
the way of salvation in Jesus Christ, and 
returned to his ever loving Father. 
After having worked on the farm and 
spent some time in learning a trade, 
until he was about seventeen years old, 
he attended a Normal Institute. Having 
graduated from this school he received 
a position as a public school teacher. 
During this time he got from the 
school superintendent an excellent testi- 
monial and recommendation for his 
success in teaching. 

Longing for more knowledge he first 
took private lessons in Latin, German, 
and mathematics, and then he entered 
a college at Upsala, where he studied 
for several years. By over-work in 



studying his health failed, when he was 
advised to cross the ocean for restoring 
his health. Thinking that he who 
obeys the adviser is wise ( Swedish 
proverb ), he decided to visit the much 
spoken of and great land beyond the 
Atlantic Ocean. In August, 1878, he 
landed at Boston, Mass. That journey 
had a good effect upon his weak consti- 
tution, and when in America he found 
himself so strong, that he made up his 
mind to pursud his studies at the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Rock Island, 111. 
As one among the best of his class he 
graduated there in the spring of 1880. ' 
About the same time the Board of 
Directors of the Augustana College and 
Theological Seminary extended a call 
to him as a teacher of that institution; 
but not seeing his way clear he declined 
and instead accepted a call from a con- 
gregation. He was ordained to the 
ministry of the gospel at the Synodical 
meeting, held by Augustana Synod in 
Des Moines, Iowa, in June, 1880. For 
six years he served a Swedish Lutheran 
congregation at Chisago City, Chisago 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



853 



Co., Minn., as a pastor. During this 
time he was for some years the statisti- 
cian of the Minnesota Conference and 
1885-86 its secretary. In 1886 he was 
called to a chair as professor in Gustavas 
Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn., 
where he is still working. 



The first year at the above named 
College he taught Greek, Swedish, and 
Christian Doctrine. The following year, 
when he accepted a permanent call, his 
subjects were reduced to Christian 
Doctrine, Swedish Language and Lite- 
rature. 




REV. J. H. W. WERTZ. 



Rev. J. H. W. Wertz was born June 
12th, 1820, and died April 23d, 3883, in 
the sixty-third year of his age. Al- 
though deprived of the benefits of a 
classical and theological training, yet, 
with a strong and vigorous mind, by dil- 
igent study and close application he 
fitted himself for much usefulness in 
the Church. His preaching, in style 
was a pattern of simplicity; it was so 
plain that no one could go from his 
church asking the meaning of what 
they had heard; and his sentiments were 
so eminently pure and devout that the 
Word of God, in his mouth, was seen to 
be truth. He studiously adapted his in- 
structions to the wants and attainments 
of the masses, avoiding in his preaching 



such questions as minister to disputes 
rather than to godly edifying. And 
while he thus preached the Gospel to 
the masses, his appeals derived no small 
degree of force and efficacy from an 
affectionate and animated delivery, and 
a life which exemplified what he taught. 
The leading topic of his discourses were 
— the bondage of man by sin — the 
necessity of a deliverer — the manner of 
our redemption — the danger of not clos- 
ing with it — the power of grace to deliv- 
er us. And blessed are those whose 
purity of doctrine and holiness of life 
are liable to as few exceptions as his, 
and who labor as earnestly and dilig e t- 
ly in the cause of their Master and 
Saviour as he. 



REV. PHILIP WIETING. 



Mr. Wieting was a son of Rev. 
Christopher Wieting, and was born in 
the town of Minden, Montgomery Co., 
N. Y., on September 23d, 1800. Whilst 
but a lad his father died, leaving him 
with other children to the care of a 
devoted Christian mother. She early 
consecrated him to the ministry, and her 
prayers and teachings no doubt exerted 
great influence in forming his character. 

In 1818 he entered Hartwick Semina- 



ry and took an extended and thorough 
course of instruction under that able 
professor, Rev. Dr. Hazelius. He com- 
pleted his education in 1825. 

In early life he attended a course of 
catechetical instruction under his father 
and had been admitted to the church 
by the rite of confirmation. He seems, 
however, not to have experienced any 
decided change in his religious charac- 
ter until after he entered the seminary. 



854 



AMEBIOAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 




REV. PHILIP WIETING. 



He professed to have been converted 
during his sojourn there, under a ser- 
mon preached by that noted evangelist, 
Rev. Charles G. Finney. 

During the summer of 1825, he com- 
menced preaching at Le Roy, JefiPerson 
county, N. Y., under the direction of his 
theological professor. On the 6th of 
September, 1825, he was licensed to 
preach, at the same time with Messrs. 
Jacob Berger and J. W. Eyer, by the 
New York Ministerium, at Rhinebeck, 
Dutchess county. He was ordained by 
the same body at its session at Cobles- 
kill, N. Y., on the 3d of September, 1826. 
After his ordination he spent nearly 
two years laboring as a missionary in 
what was then known as " The Black 
River Country," making his home at 
Lowville, in Lewis county, N. Y. 

On the 1st of November, 1828, he 
received and accepted a call from the 
churches at Sharon and Durlach, after- 
wards New Rhinebeck, in Schoharie 
county. Here he located, and here he 
spent the greater part of his ministerial 



life, runniug through a period of forty 
years. 

In 1830, Mr. Wieting took an active 
part in the formation of Hartwick Synod, 
and was one of its chief founders. He 
was in ardent sympathy with the 
Synod in its efforts in behalf of temper- 
ance and of revivals. In the latter 
movement especially, he was very con- 
spicuous, and during many of the reviv- 
als which occurred in the first few years 
after the organization of Synod, he 
preached with remarkable power, and 
with great success. Very many were 
awakened and converted by his earnest 
and faithful presentation of the great 
truths of the Gospel. 

In 1836, in company with the Revs. J. 
D. Lawyer, L.Swackhamer and William 
Ottman, Mr. Wieting withdrew from the 
Hartwick Synod, and organized the 
Franckean Synod. 

On the 1st of October, 1868, Mr. 
Wieting preached what is termed his 
"Fortieth Anniversary and Valedictory," 
at Gardnersville, and repeated it at 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



855 



Lawyersville the following Sabbath. 
At both these places, Mr. Wieting had 
organized congregations and erected 
churches, and these were amongst the 
fruits of his ministry. It was amongst 
these people that he had preached 
acceptably and usefully for the period 
of forty years. This, as far as is known, 
was the last sermon he ever preached. 

Mr. Wieting closed his eventful and 
laborious career at Cobleskill, N. Y., 
September 7, 1869, aged 68 years, 11 
months and 16. days. He was buried at 
Slate Hill Cemetery, in the town of 
Sharon, Schoharie, Co., N. Y. The 
funeral services took place on the 9th 
of September, in the presence of an 
immense concourse of people, who had 
come to manifest their reverence for the 



deceased preacher. The Kev. N. Van 
Alstine delivered an able and appropriate 
sermon. Kev. A. P. Ludden also paid 
a just tribute to the memory of Brother 
Wieting. Few men have labored more 
faithfully and successfully in his sphere 
than he did. Few have exerted a greater 
influence, and few have done so much 
as he did in impressing his character 
upon those amongst whom he exercised 
the pastoral office. He was a man of 
undoubted piety, great integrity, and 
enlarged benevolence. Hundreds have 
been led to Christ through his instru- 
mentality, who will bless God for his 
ministry, and hundreds still cherish his 
memory with the warmest Christian 
affection. — Hist. Hart. Synod. 



REV. H. L. WILES, D. D. 



Rev. H. L. Wiles, D. D., was born in 
Frederick Co., Md., July 15th, 1840. 
His parents were John and Catherine 
Wiles, his father having died when he 
was four years old. He was the young- 
est of eight children. His mother was 
a woman of force of character, exem- 
plary piety and ardent love for the 
church of her choice. He grew up 
under the influence of his mother, to 
whom he was tenderly attached to the 
day of her death. At the early age of 
ten years he went forth into the world to 
make his own living and help his wid- 
owed mother. He wrought upon the 
farm in summer, and attended school in 
winter, until at the age of eighteen years 
he was prepared for college. 

His academic training was under the 
direction of Professors Sprecher and 
Hough. His catechetical instruction 
was obtained from Rev. Charles M. 



Klink, while pastor of the Lutheran 
Church at Middletown, Md., by whom 
he was received into church . Dr. Daniel 
Haurer, of all his pastors, is the one to 
whom he looks back with the profound- 
est respect, and one who made the first 
religious impressions upon him, and 
turned his thoughts toward the ministry. 
At eighteen, he entered the Freshman 
class at Wittenberg College, and gradu- 
ated at twenty-two with the second 
honors of his class, maintaining a very 
high degree of scholarship all through 
his course. He immediately entered the 
Theological Department from which he 
graduated in 1864. In the spring of 
1864, he received and accepted a call to 
the Lucas pastorate, in Richland Co., 
Ohio, composed of four congregations, 
in a sadly divided state. Order was soon 
brought out of chaos, the Holy Ghost 
attended his ministry with such mani- 



856 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



f estations of his power, that old difficul- 
ties were soon forgotten, the old 
churches were too small to accommodate 
gathering crowds which flocked to his 
ministry, and many souls were hopefully 
converted and united with the church. 
During the seven and one-half years of 
his ministry in the Lucas charge, three 
new churches were built, 728 added to 
the church membership, and the benev- 
olence increased ten-fold. 

Believing that the time had come 
that the Lucas pastorate ought to be 
divided into two, and seeing the impos- 
sibility of making a division as long as 
he remained in the field, and having 
received a pressing call from Wooster, 
another church suffering from internal 
differences, he accepted the call and 
began his labors with that church in 
the fall 1871. The difficulties here 
soon vanished, the spirit of God came 
in power upon his Church, and very 
many were added to the number of such 
as shall be saved. Soon the old church 
here, too was found inadequate to ac- 
commodate the people who desired to 
have the word of life from his lips. A 
more eligible lot was secured and a 
church of nearly two and a half times 
the dimensions of the old one was erect- 
ed at a cost of thirty-one thousand 
dollars. In the meantime, having not 
only extended the circle of his acquaint- 
ance and endeared himself to the 
students of Wooster University, the 
new church was almost as well filled as 
had been the old one. 

Here he labored for twelve and a 
half years with great success, adding 
to the membership of his church more 
than six hundred and fifty. While here 
the fame of his success having gone out 
into all the Church, he received many 
invitations to become the pastor of some 
of the best churches and most inviting 
fields in our denomination. These he 



steadily declined. Having gone to 
Wooster to put our Church in the front 
rank, in that University town, he never 
turned aside from his purpose until it 
was accomplished. While pastor at 
Wooster he was elected president of 
Carthage College to succeed Dr. Tress- 
ler. This he also declined. 

But having accomplished the purpose 
of his heart in Wooster, and having re- 
ceived a unanimous and pressing call 
from the First English Lutheran Church 
of Mansfield, a far less inviting field, 
and believing it to be God's call, he, 
however, accepted it against the unani- 
mous wish of his people, and removed 
to Mansfield. 

As soon as he began his work in his 
new field, God's blessing accompanied 
his work and many began to inquire 
what they must do to be saved. Here 
he has labored amid many difficulties, 
enough to crush a man of less force of 
character, but nevertheless the growth 
of his church has been unparalleled in 
the city. He has added to its member- 
ship more than 700 in seven years. 
And notwithstanding a second church 
has been organize 1, out of his, he has 
the largest congregation in the city, 
with a membership of over 700 and a 
Sabbath School of over 1000. 

Dr. Wiles is a plain gospel preacher 
of great power. He despises clap trap, 
and believes if men are saved they must 
be saved through the means of grace as 
we have them in the Church, and es- 
pecially the Lutheran, He has great 
powerover men, especially young men. 
He has always enjoyed the confidence 
and undivided love of his people. He 
is now engaged in the erection of a new 
and large church edifice on one of the 
finest sites in the city. The church 
building will be the largest in Mansfield. 

Soon after he entered upon his work 
as pastor at Mansfield he was elected as 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



857 



Professor of Christian Theology in the 
Theological Seminary of Wittenberg 
College to succeed the Rev. Dr. 
Sprecher. 

In the year 1876 the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity was conferred upon him by 



the Faculty and Board of Wittenberg 
College. 

During the first year of his ministry 
he was married to Miss Effie J., daugh- 
ter of Dr. J. Routzahn, of Springfield. 
Two sons were born to them. 




REV. JACOB WINGARD. 



Rev. Jacob Wingard was a native of 
Lexington District, S. C, and was born, 
I think, in the year 1801. His father, 
Jacob Wingard, was a plain farmer, and 
this son was brought up on the farm, 
receiving only a common-school educa- 
tion, until he had reached the age of 
about twentj^-one. He had been always 
exemplary in his deportment, but, at 
this period, he received a new and spir- 
itual view of Christianity, and hence- 
forth gave evidence of living under its 
power. He very soon formed the pur- 
pose of preaching the gospel; and into 
that purpose it was evident that all the 
vigor and energy of his soul entered — 
it was his ruling passion to convert sin- 
ners from the error of their ways and to 
save souls from death. He abandoned 
his agricultural pursuits and commenced 
the study of theology, under the direc- 
tion of a Lutheran clergyman in his 
neighborhood. At the age of about 
twenty-four he was licensed to preach 
the gospel by the Synod of South Caro- 
lina, and commenced his labors at once 
in Lexington District, making his prin- 
cipal preaching station Sandy Run. 
Notwithstanding his lack of early ad- 
vantages, he took rank at once with the 
most popular preachers of the day. For 
two years he labored in this field with 
great fidelity and acceptance; and then, 
feeling most deeply his need of more 
mature preparation for the ministry, he 
108 



resigned his charge and went to Gettys- 
burg Theological Seminary, to prosecute 
a course of study. Here he continued, 
a vigorous and successful student, for 
two years, and then returned to his 
father's house, in South Carolina, where 
he remained till the close of life. His 
enfeebled health obliged him very soon 
to abandon the habit of preaching regu- 
larly, and, at no distant period, he was 
obliged to retire from the pulpit alto- 
gether. He gradually wasted away,> of 
consumption, and finally took a tri- 
umphant departure from earth, amidst 
many loving hearts that would fain have 
detained him longer, in February, 1830. 
I never knew Mr. Wingard until af- 
ter his return from Gettysburg, in 1829, 
but from that time I knew him well to 
his dying day, and preached his funeral 
sermon. He was somewhat below the 
medium stature, of a delicate formation, 
with an aquiline nose and projecting 
chin, with black hair and dark eyes and 
complexion. His eyes were set deeply 
in their sockets, and the expression of 
his countenance was decidedly intellec- 
tual, though it was only when he was 
roused to action that his face could be 
said to be in any degree animated. He 
had the highest natural advantages for 
being an attractive preach er . His voice, 
though not very loud, was uncommonly 
sweet, and its tones vibrated upon your 
ear like the strains of a flute. It was 



IB58 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



manifest that lie had never made pulpit 
oratory a study; but he spoke with 
perfect simplicity amd naturalness out 
of a richly endowed mind, and a heart 
glowing with love to Christ and his 
cause. His preaching was always ex- 
temporaneous. He had a good deal of 
gesture, but it was so entirely the 
prompting of nature that it produced its 
effect upon you almost without your ob- 
serving it. The staple of his preaching 
was intensely evangelical; and so was 
the spirit which he constantly breathed; 
and this, in connection with the un- 
wonted strength and fervor of feeling 
which he brought to his work, may be 
said almost to have marked a new epoch 
in the history of the Lutheran Church 
in South Carolina. He was a great 



friend to prayer meetings, and protract- 
ed meetings, and extra efforts of various 
kinds, and was regarded by some as 
sympathizing pretty strongly with some 
of the characteristic features of Meth- 
odism; though his substantial loyalty 
to his own Church was, I believe, never 
questioned. There is no doubt that the 
fact of his having come up, as he did, 
from out of the midst of the people, — 
retaining all his sympathies in their 
habits of thought and feeling, had much 
to do with the extraordinary impression 
that he produced; but there was that in 
the character of his mind and heart, 
which, independently of the action of 
circumstances, would have made him a 
man of mark at any time and anywhere. 
— Wm. D. Strobel, in Spr ague's Annals. 




KEY. W. C. WIRE, A.M. 



Rev. W. C. Wire, A.M., was bora in 
Lovettsville, Loudoun Co., Va. His 
parents, Peter and Mary Louisa, were 
devout members of the Lutheran church 
and consecrated their son to Christ in 
Holy Baptism in early infancy, and 
appreciating the advantages of educa- 
tion they spared no pains to afford their 
son all the advantages of the best schools 
and, at the age of twelve years, he was 
an efficient surveyor and had made 
corresponding progress in the regular 
course of study. In his thirteenth year 
he entered the store of his uncle J. C. 
Stoneburner, doing business under the 
firm of J. C. Stoneburner & Bro., and 
was so attentive and diligent to business 
that he lost but three days from his 
post of duty during five years. The 
large business done by this firm gave 
him an insight into business tact and 



afforded an excellent school in which to 
learn human nature, which with the 
Christian example and strict business 
principles of his uncle J. C. Stonebur- 
ner, who rigidly required every duty to 
be performed promptly and correctly 
according to the Divine rule of right, 
contributed in no small degree to direct 
our subject in the line that has led him 
to the success which has crowned his 
labors. Although flattering business 
offers were made him he felt it his duty 
to study for the ministry. Entering 
Roanoke College he took the regular 
course and graduated with one of the 
honors of his class, the Latin oration. 
His first position was principal of Baric 
Academy, Ya. After studying theology 
privately, and for two years in a class 
under Rev. D. F. Bittle, D.D., he was 
licensed to preach by the Synod of 



AMEEICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



859 




EEV. W. C. WIRE, A. M. 



Southwestern Yirginia, and took charge 
of the Zion's Lutheran Church in 
Jacksonville, the county seat of Floyd 
Co., Ya., where he was eminently suc- 
cessful. He was next called to the 
pastoral charge of St. Paul's Church, at 
Burkittsville, Frederick Co., Md., where, 
in connection with his pastoral duties, 
he founded the Burkittsville Female 
Seminary which, as principal, he con- 
ducted successfuly for ten years drawing 
pupils from eleven states of the Union 
and from Washington, D. C. In the 
autumn of 1877, he accepted a call to 
St. John's Church, Mechanicstown, Md., 
and again entered upon pastoral work 
and was eminently successful in improv- 
ing the church property and in building 
up a strong congregation, adding to the 
membership, over all loss by death and 
removals, 353 members. 

In 1886 he organized the Lutheran 
Reunion at Pen Mar, of which he still 
continues to be chairman, and which is 
annually attended by from ten to twenty 



thousand Lutherans, and which has sug- 
gested the numerous Lutheran reunions 
which are now held in different local- 
ities of the church. 

In 1887 he accepted a call to St. 
Paul's Lutheran Church at Littlestown, 
Pa., which he still most efficiently and 
successfully serves. 

He married Mary Jane Dillard, of 
Salem, Ya., which union was blessed 
with two daughters, Lorena Floretta and 
Lula Estella, the former of which died 
at the age of four years. 

As a preacher he possesses a clear, 
pleasant, penetrating voice, and in pre- 
senting truth he is not only logical and 
concise, but lucid, earnest and forcible, 
which with a knowledge of human nature 
a good judgment of character, fine exec- 
utive efficiency and ability, as an organ- 
izer and systemiser, persevering and 
faithful in the performance of the duties 
he undertakes, combined with becoming 
modesty, but a fearless will power, 
sanctified by the truth which he often 



860 



AMEBICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



expresses as his life motto, "The chief 
aim of man should be to glorify God 
and enjoy him forever," have made his 



life thus far one of more than ordinary 
success and usefulness. 




BEV. KABL M. YON WEANGEL, D.D. 



One of the most interesting and effi- 
cient men who took part in the Swedish 
Mission in America, was Karl Magnus 
von Wrangel, who, in 1759, received the 
appointment of Provost of the Swedish 
churches on the Delaware, in which 
capacity he labored there for about nine 
years, returning to Sweden in 1768. He 
belonged to one of the most distin- 
guished families in Sweden — that of the 
great General von Wrangel, who had 
distinguished himself in the army of 
Gustavus Adolphus, and afterwards in 
conjunction with Bauer and Torstensson, 
showed that he was no unworthy scholar 
of the great soldier. Karl Magnus von 
Wrangel had studied in his native coun- 
try at Westeraas and Upsala, and then 
going to the University of Gottingen, in 
Germany, receiving there the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity. Soon after this he 
was nominated as a Court Preacher in 
the Boyal Chapel in Stockholm, but at 
the request of the archbishop, Samuel 
Troilius, relinquished this for the Pro- 
vostship of the American Mission. In 
this position von Wrangel's labors were 
of the most active and influential char- 
acter. He reorganized the decaying 
Swedish churches, procured new and 
improved charters for them from the 
government of Pennsylvania, and united 
them into a compact body. He also 
added several new congregations* to 
their number. He published (in Dr. 
Franklin's printing office) a translation 
of Luther's Shorter Catechism into 

*Clay'8:Annal8, p. 125. 



English* — probably the first appearance 
in English of that well-known manual 
of the elements of Christian doctrine. 
We are told by Dr. Clay that "he pos- 
sessed a most winning and captivating 
eloquence," so that "he was usually 
obliged to preach in the open air on ac- 
count of the great crowds who attended 
upon his ministry." But Dr. Clay is 
mistaken when he says "that he was, 
upon his return to Sweden, made a 
Bishop." On the contrary, although 
upon his return he received the position 
of "First Court Preacher," he died (in 
1786) as the Bector of Sala. He occu- 
pied, however, a distinguished position 
among the Swedish clergy, and was one 
of the founders of the Swedish Society 
"Pro fide et Christianismo," which was 
established in 1771. — Acrelius' History of 
New Sweden, 



From Dr. J. W. Mann's "Life and 
Times of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg" 
we copy the following interesting account 
of Dr. Wrangel: "In the same month 
and year in which Bich. Peters had 
visited Muhlenberg, another stranger, 
who in subsequent times came infinitely 
nearer to his heart, the Bev. Chas. 
Magnus Wrangel de Saga, Provost of 
the Swedish church on the Delaware, 
pastor of the Wicaco ( Gloria Dei ) con- 
gregation at Philadelphia, paid his 
respects to him in his quiet rustic home 
at Providence. He arrived in the after- 
noon of August 24th and enjoyed the 



*Nachrichten aus Pennsylvania, pp. 384 and 867, 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



861 



hospitality of his host and family until 
August 26, 1760. It was the first time 
the two men had met, and they at once 
began to form an intimate friendship. 
Wrangel had come with the special 
intention personally to invite Muhlen- 
berg to be present at the yearly conven- 
tion of the Swedes at Wicaco church, 
September 14 and 15. . . . He is often 
spoken of as "a young man" when he 
arrived in this country, and, in fact, in 
the performance of his duties as pastor 
and provost exhibited the zeal and vigor 
of the prime of life. It is certainly a 
proof of his talent, education, and energy 
that during his career in America he 
preached the gospel in German and in 
English no less than in Swedish. Fre- 
quently he interchanged pulpits with 
Muhlenberg, who then in Wrangel's con- 
gregations preached in English, which 
was understood equally as well as the 
Swedish by many of his hearers, and 
even better by a considerable number 
of the younger s:eneration. Wrangel 
must have been a fluent preacher, of 
much fervor. He was often necessitated, 
when visiting congregations, to preach 
in the open air, the church being too 
small for the number of his auditors. 
His religious fervor was to a large 
extent of the Halle type, but, while he 
was meditative and demanded personal 
experience and Pietistic inwardness, he 
was certainly not quietistic, but, like 
his friend Muhlenberg, unceasingly 
active in preaching the gospel, in build- 
ing up congregations, and in searching 
after the spiritually destitute within, 
and even beyond the limits of his 
diocese. 

One of his missionary journeys in 
the search after dispersed Swedish set- 
tlers took him across Jersey down to 
Egg Harbor, at that time considered by 
Philadelphians as an ultima thule. As a 
friend he was very sympathetic, and 



ever ready to share the burdens lying 
on others. To Muhlenberg he often 
acted as assistant. He participated in 
the affairs of the German Lutheran 
congregations and gave his advice and 
labor, and at times was present at 
meetings of vestries and congregations, 
where his opinion also carried weight. 
It happened not merely once that in 
Philadelphia he stayed with Muhlenberg 
so late that only on the following day 
he returned to his own house, a mile or 
more distant, near the Wicaco Church. 
At other times the same happened to 
Muhlenberg, who had to be satisfied 
with the accommodations which his 
bachelor friend, Wrangel, could offer 
him. Wrangel sought to come into 
contact with all those in whom he dis- 
covered that form of piety which was 
to him of uppermost concern, viz.: per- 
sonal, individual experience of grace. 
He entertained friendly relations with 
Whitefield, and, without sympathizing 
with the extravagancies of his adherents 
outside of and within the Episcopal 
Church, was among the advocates of 
the Methodist movement, which in 
these years was pushing itself to the 
foreground in the religious world. 

In a letter of the Episcopal mission- 
ary, Hugh Neill, to the secretary of the 
Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, dated Oct. 17, 1763, we read: 
"Mr. Duche, one of the assistant minis- 
ters of Christ Church at Philadelphia, 
and Mr. Wrangel, the Swedish minister, 
have appeared more openly than the 
others in preaching up his (White- 
field's) doctrine and espousing his 
cause; they have set up private meetings 
in town, where they admit of none but 
such as they deem converted. The Swed- 
ish missionary, Mr. Wrangel, has set up a 
week-day lecture within a small distance 
of my Church of Oxford, north of Phil- 
adelphia City, with a view to make some 



862 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



impression upon my people, but he 
hath failed hitherto." 

For a time Wrangel delivered lectures 
on Monday evenings in a private house 
at Philadelphia. The house not giving 
room enough to all the attendants, the 
German Lutheran vestry allowed him 
St. Michael's church for that purpose. 
The lectures were delivered in English. 
Muhlenberg speaks of them as being 
mainly excellent exegetical expositions 
of Bible passages. He was himself a 
regular attendant whenever time would 
permit. We never meet with a trace 
indicating that Wrangel went into any 
extravagances, or that during his ad- 
ministration any disorders took place, 
but this did not prevent three of the 
Swedish pastors under his supervision 
from lodging complaints against him 
with the ecclesiastical authorities in 
Sweden. They (Kev. Messrs. Borell, 
Wicksell and Hegeblad) refer especially 
to his Pietistic proclivities, but seem to 
have made no impression in Sweden. 

Of the pastoral activity of his clerical 
friend Muhlenberg thus speaks in his 
diary (April 18th, 1762): "Dr. de Wran- 
gel, at the present time Swedish provost, 
preaches on Sunday forenoon in Swedish 
in his own church (Wicaco); in the 
afternoon he goes on horseback a dis- 
tance of six miles to a congregation on 
the other side of the Schuylkill, and de- 
livers a second sermon; in the evening 
he again preaches in his own church, 
and this third time in English. Every 
fourth week he undertakes a laborious 
tour through the province of Jersey to 
his destitute congregations. Through 
the week-days he visits other scattered 
outposts of his church, goes from place 
to place, holds catecbizations in the 
houses, and in spite of his indescribable 
labors and exertions among his dispersed 
sheep, he is willing from time to time to 
visit the destitute flocks of poor German 



Lutherans, and to bring joy by admin- 
istering to them the means of grace, al- 
though he could give convincing proofs 
that he has laid upon him more than 
enough work among his own nation. 
Some might think that personal inter- 
ests have an influence in this matter, but 
there is not the least room left for such 
thoughts, since here the poorest flocks 
of Lutherans are referred to, and Provost 
Wrangel cannot be moved to take a sin- 
gle penny from the Germans". 

When, in 1768, Wrangel visited Eng- 
land, on his recall to Sweden, Richard 
Peters, then rector of Christ Church at 
Philadelphia, introduced him to the 
Bishop of London by a letter from 
which we cull the following: " . . The 
Rev. Dr. Wrangel, whom I have made 
bearer of this letter, on purpose to 
introduce him to Your Lordship, is of 
the first rank among those missionaries 
that have been sent from Sweden, and 
is now on his return to Sweden after an 
absence of nine years. Before he came 
here he was in high esteem with the 
King of Sweden, and is one of His 
Majesty's domestic chaplains. His Maj- 
esty, indeed, appointed him commissary 
of the Swedish churches here and rector 
of the old Swedish church at Wicaco, in 
the neighborhood of this city, as a 
parochial pastor. I can truly say he 
was indefatigable. . . . He knows all the 
affairs of this province and the state 
of religion and the situation of our own 
and the German churches, and I most 
humbly recommend to Your Lordship 
to enter into a free and full conversation 
with him " 

As a pastor, Wrangel was very 
conscientious. To regulate his visits 
he made lists of the parents, children, 
and servants, and noted both their 
profeetus and defeetus. On Sunday, an 
hour before the beginning of the public 
services, he gave an exegetical explana- 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



863 



tion of a passage of the New Testament, 
adding a practical application, delivered 
a sermon of about three-quarters of an 
hour's length, and questiond his hearers 
about its contents. . . . He and J, 
Nic Kurtz made, in the autumn of 1761, 
a tour of visitation to New York and 
the New Jersey congregations and 
attended a college commencement at 
Princeton, to which Wrangel was espec- 
ially invited. 
In the same work Dr. Mann writes: 



"Wrangel may have erred in some of 
his views and intention, but the sincerity 
of his heart cannot be doubted. He 
was undeniably inclined to unionistic 
principles and favored an amalgamation 
of the Lutheran and the Episcopal 
Churches. His strongly developed Pie- 
tism, his warm sympathy with White- 
field and his views and methods, caused 
some distrust among the Swedish pas- 
tors over whom he was placed as 
overseer." 




REV. ANDREAS WRIGHT. 



Rev. Andreas Wright was born at the 
Storvedde farm, Naro Parish, Namdalen, 
Norway, Sept. 13, 1835. When he was 
seven years old his mother departed 
from this life with a perfect faith in her 
Redeemer. During her life she faith- 
fully instructed her children in the 
Word of God, and taught them to read. 
When she felt the near approach of 
death she called little Andreas to her 
bedside and said: "You must not for- 
get the Word of God that I taught you." 
At this he cried bitterly, but could not 
realize the extent of his misfortune in 



losing a tender and loving mother. He 
was her sixth child. As his father was 
in close circumstances, Andreas, at an 
early age, was compelled to herd the 
cattle, sheep and goats, but had at all 
times a great desire to read and learn, 
and eagerly studied all books and docu- 
ments he could obtain. This was, how- 
ever, comparatively little, as his father 
possessed but few books. In the paro- 
chial school, which generally lasted five 
weeks each year, he learned to write 
and figure to some extent, which the 
children in that community seldom had 



864 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



the opportunity to do, at those times. 
Andreas was small and weak, and had 
no desire to engage in the sports of 
other children, so he was allowed to 
take some of the teacher's books, and 
with great eagerness spent his recesses 
in reading them. After six weeks in- 
struction, with reference to confirma- 
tion, he received the report "Excellent," 
and was confirmed in "Garstad Church 
on Vigten," in 1850. His thirst for 
knowledge increased with his years. 

Two years after his confirmation a 
school teacher was appointed to that 
parish who had learned the German 
language. From him Andreas learned 
to read and understand some of it. As 
yet he had not the right conception of 
the fear of God, though he had a pro- 
found respect for the teachings of the 
Word, and regularly attended services. 
At the age of twenty-two, however, he 
was converted. The instrument God 
employed for his conversion was a lay- 
preacher. Within three years after 
this change, he began holding devotion- 
al services for people whom he assem- 
bled for the purpose. 

In 1860 he emigrated to America, 
and settled in Bostwick Valley, Wis., 
where he resided for two and a half 
years. Here also he assembled people 
and instructed them in the way of sal- 
vation and singing hymns. From 
Bostwick Valley he moved to Washing- 
ton township, Vernon Co., where he 
pre-empted a piece of land. The laud 
was rough, and clearing it cost a weary 
labor, which destroyed much of his 
vitality. Nevertheless, however, he es- 
tablished, and continued every Sunday, 
a Sunday School, in the neighborhood, 
and frequently spoke the Word of God 
to the people in the immediate vicinity. 



In the spring of 1870 he received a 
call from a small congregation on Coon 
Prairie, Wis., to become its pastor. He 
returned the letter with the positive 
declaration that he felt unworthy to 
undertake the profession. But when 
the call was repeated, he, with consid- 
erable hesitation, consented to be or- 
dained, provided the ministerium con- 
sidered him competent. In the fall of 
1870, he therefore attended a special 
meeting of the Norwegian Augustana 
Synod, was examined, and ordained by 
Rev. O. J. Hattlestad, in the Norwegian 
Lutheran Church on Jefferson Prairie, 
Sunday, October 9, 1870. In 1871 he 
accepted a call from Trinity Church at 
Rushford, Minn. This congregation he 
has steadily served since, together with 
one at Fountain, Minn., and others. 
In 1878 he accepted a call from a con- 
gregation at Highland, Minn. At this 
time, by diligent application, he had 
become an able preacher, and was in 
every respect a self-made man. 

At the meeting of the Synod in 1885, 
he was elected president of the Norwe- 
gian Augustana Synod, re-elected at the 
annual meetings of 1886, '87 and '88, 
but owing to several reasons, the latter 
years he declined the office. At an 
annual meeting in Neenah, Wis., he, 
with two others, was appointed to edit a 
children's paper, which was called the 
Bcernebudet. Again at the annual meet- 
ing in Springfield, la., 1884, he was 
elected to issue Luihersk Kirketidende, 
which had for a time been dead. He 
continued both successfully, until they 
were, in 1891, turned over to the new 
organization. The United Lutheran 
Church of America, to which he now 
belongs. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



865 



REV. R. F. WEIDNER, D.D. 



Among the many Lutheran clergymen 
of Pennsylvania German origin one of the 
most scholarly is undoubtedly Revere 
Franklin Weidner. He was a Lehigh 
county farmer lad, born at Centre Val- 
ley, near Allentown, Nov. 22, 1851. 
During his academical course at Muh- 
lenberg College he was noted for pro- 
ficiency in the mathematics. Before his 
graduation, as honor man of the second 
class, 1869, and during his attendance 
at the Philadelphia Theological Semi- 
nary, 1870-1873, he developed those 
linguistic traits which have shaped his 
career and marked him out as a scholar 
and educator. In Greek he sat under 
President Muhlenberg, in Hebrew un- 
der Dr. Mann. His theology was 
learned from the lips of Dr. C. Porter- 
field Krauth. 

Succeeding Prof. Richards as pastor of 
Grace English Church, Phillipsburg, N. 
J., 1873-8, he prepared the way, by extra 
German services, for a German Church, 
and at the same time prosecuted the 
study of Anglo-Saxon under the cele- 
brated Dr. March, of LaFayette Col- 
lege, Easton. After a year spent as Dr. 
Seiss' assistant in the Church of the 
Holy Communion, Philadelphia, he be- 
came pastor of St. Luke's, Philadelphia, 
which flourished greatly under his 
ministry. 

Meanwhile he was unconsciously in 
training for the theological chair in Aug- 
ustana Swedish - English Theological 
Seminary at Rock Island, 111., to which he 
was called in 1881. The steps were : tutor- 
ship at Muhlenberg, 1868-9; professor- 
ship of English Literature at Muhlen- 
berg, 1875-7; editorial writer on the Luth- 
eran, 1878-1880; translator of Daniel 
with annotations, for Seiss' "Voices of 
Babylon," 1869; student of Hebrew, 
109 



Sanskrit, Arabic and Biblical Exegisis; 
author of a brief popular "Commentary 
on Mark," 1881; and founder and editor 
of The Lutheran Church Review^ 1882- 
1885, a Philadelphia Seminary alumni 
publication. 

With the matured fruit of a wide 
range of reading, a chaste English style, 
a genius for hard work, methodical 
habits of study, enthusiasm in his 
special lines of research and a penchant 
for book-making, Prof. Weidner, at the 
age of thirty, went West, exchanging 
the Pennsylvania Synod for the Swedish 
Augustana Synod. His specific chair is 
that of Hebrew and Biblical Exegesis of 
the Old and New Testaments. He has 
also lectured on dogmatics and ethics, — 
all in the English language. In conse- 
quence the Synod < ontains a large body 
of men able to officiate in both languages. 
Prof. Weidner at first endeavored to 
carry on English mission work in the 
Synod, but soon found more encourag- 
ing occupation in preparing theological 
text books. Though in most cases based 
on German works or on Dr. Krauth's 
seminary lectures, they have been not 
merely translated but condensed, anno- 
tated, in fact, wrought out to make them 
express the author's convictions and to 
adapt them to class-room use. 

He has been associated in summer 
school work with two Chicago men, 
Prof. W. R. Harper, the pioneer in the 
revival of the study of Hebrew, and 
Dwight L. Moody, founder of the Bibli- 
cal Institute, Chicago. Prof. R. spends 
most of the summer lecturing at Chau- 
tauqua, N. Y., Northfield, Mass., and 
other summer schools. His works are : 

1882.— Explanation of Luther's Small 
Catechism. 

1885. — Theological Encyclopaedia and 



866 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Methodology. Based on Hagenbach and 
Krauth. Part I. Introduction and Ex- 
egetical Theology. 

1886.— Ditto. Part II, Historical The- 
ology. 1, Sacred History. 2, Biblical 
Theology of the Old Testament. Based 
on Oehler. 

1886-7. — Studies in Obadiaii in Luth- 
eran Church Review. 

1888.— System of Dogmatical Theol- 
ogy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
Part I, Prolegomena. Based on Luthardt . 

1889. — Introductory New Testament 
Greek Method: Part I, Fifty Lessons 
on Gospel of John. Part II, Greek 
Text of John (according to the critical 
text of Westcott and Hort) with 
Vocabularies. Part III, Elements of 
New Testament Greek Grammar (This 
book is an application to New Testament 
Greek of Harper's method.) It is one 
of the most valuable of Dr. W.'s works. 

1890.— Studies in the Book. First 
series, containing studies on the New 
Testament Historical Books, the Gen- 
eral Epistles, and the Apocalypse, with 
alternate lessons on the Person and 
Work of the Holy Spirit and the Order 
of Salvation. Prepared for Moody's 
Biblical Institute. 

1890. Studies in the Book. Second 
series, The Early Epistles of Paul. Also, 
Third Series, The Later Epistles of Paul. 

The Professor announces as in press 
four volumes of Old Testament Studies: 
1, The Pentateuch; 2, The Historical 
Books; 3, The Prophetical Books; 4, The 
Wisdom Literature. 

1891.— Theological Encyclopedia. Part 
III, Practical Theology. Based on 
Krauth. Christian Ethics. Bibical 
Theology of the New Testament, 



2 vols. : 1, The Teaching of Jesus and 
of Peter; 2, Of Paul and of John. 

He announces a commentary on Mat- 
thew, vol. 2 of Dogmatic Theology, con- 
taining Theology, on the Doctrine of 
God, and a volume on Eschatology. 

All of Dr. Weidner's publications are 
scholarly and up to tiie times, yet keep 
within the lines of the Lutheran confes- 
sions. He has not been infected by the 
"new theology," but opposes positive 
truth to negative criticism. In the 
theological classroom he has shown 
himself at once a thorough drillmaster 
and an inspiring preceptor. Arrange- 
ments are being consummated for the 
opening of the General Council's Theo- 
logical Seminary at Lakeview, Chicago, 
with Prof. Weidner as head of the 
faculty. He now resides at Lakeview. 
He will temporarily serve St. Paul's 
English Church, Chicago. This will 
bring him into a great literary center, 
where he can prosecute his theological 
researches with the aid of some of the 
best libraries in the land. He retains 
half of his duties at Rock Island. 

During a European tour of Sweden 
and Germany, Prof. Weidner met De- 
litzsch, Luthardt, and other leading 
scholars of our Church. In 1885 Car- 
thage College, 111., made him a Doctor 
of Divinity. He is a member of the 
American Oriental Society and of the 
Society of Biblical Literature and 
Exegesis . The title of D . D. was conferred 
on him by Carthage College in 1887. 

Dr. Weidner is a large man physically, 
with jet black hair and eyes, black 
beard and ruddy checks. 

In 1878 he married Miss Emma Jones, 
of Philadelphia.— 17. K. F, 




AMERICAN LUTHEBAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



867 




REV. R G. D. WYNEKEN. 



Mr. Wyneken was born at Verden, 
Hannover, May 13, 1810. He graduated 
from the Gymnasium of his native city 
and also from the universities of Got- 
tingen and Halle, where he studied 
theology. Having heard of the great 
spiritual need existing among his coun- 
trymen in North America, he resolved 
to become a missionary among them, 
and accordingly came to Baltimore in 
the summer of 1838, where he met Rev. 
John Hasbart who had lately organized 
the Second German Evangelical Luth- 
eran St. Paul's Church in that city. 
After a brief stay with Rev. Hasbart 
Mr. Wyneken received, on Hasbart's 
recommendation, a call from the Mission- 
Committee of the Pennsylvania Synod 
to go as missionary to Indiana and 



preach the gospel to the scattered Ger- 
man protestants there, and, if possible, 
organize congregations among them. 
Mr. Wyneken accepted the call and 
in September, 1838, he started upon his 
missionary journey. At Fort Wayne 
he organized a church which he served 
until he returned to Germany in October, 
1841, which journey he undertook partly 
to seek medical treatment for a throat- 
trouble that he had contracted on his 
missionary journeys, but especially to 
plead among his countrymen the spiiit- 
ual need of his countrymen in America. 
While in Germany he traveled through 
Nurnberg, Erlangen, Dresden, Leipzig, 
etc., and interested some of the most 
influential men, such as Lohe, Prof. 
Karl von Baumer, Dr. Sihler, P. Baum- 



868 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



gart and others in the American Mission. 
With the assistance of Lobe and Raumer 
he wrote a small book entitled: "Die 
Noth der deutschen Luther aner in 
Nordamerika." On account of Wyne- 
ken's very successful labors both in 
Germany and America in the interest 
of the German Lutheran Mission in 
America he has deservedly been called 
the "father of this Mission." In the 
summer of 1843 Mr. Wyneken returned 
to America, together with a number of 
other German Lutheran Missionaries, 
whom he had prevailed upon to devote 
themselves to the cause of American 
Lutheran Missions. Wyneken again 
took charge of his congregation at Fort 
Wayne, Ind. He then belonged to the 
old "Synod of the West" which consisted 
of "so-called Lutheran ministers in 
Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and Ken- 
tucky." On account of Wyneken's 
loyalty to the Lutheran faith, especially 
after his return from Germany, he was 
frequently stigmatized even by his own 
brethren as an "old school Lutheran," 
a "Catholic" a "disguised Jesuit," etc. 

In December, 1844, Pastor Hasbark 
resigned from St. Paul's Church at Bal- 
timore, and the congregation called in 
his place Mr. Wyneken, who was for- 
mally inducted into his office as pastor 
on March 9th, 1845, by the old Dr. 
Daniel Kurtz. 

During his pastorate at Baltimore, he 
severed his connection with the General 
Synod, and at its convention in St. Louis, 
June, 1848, he joined the German Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio 
and other States, which was organized 
at Cleveland, Ohio, in April, 1847. Mr. 
Wyneken is said to have been the first 
pastor in America that publicly opposed 
secret societies, and his congregation 
at Baltimore was the first to amend its 
constitution so as to exclude from its 
membership all such as belonged to any 



secret order. With the exception of 
Pastor Brohm, of New York, he is said 
to have been the first who fully preached 
the Gospel according to the old Luther- 
an Confessions. 

In 1850 he received a call from the 
Trinity C Imrch, at St. Louis, where he 
was installed on Sunday Jubilate of that 
year. During his first year at St. Louis 
he was chosen president of the Synod, 
and four years later, when the Synod 
was divided into four district synods, he 
was chosen general president, which po- 
sition he held until 1864, when Profes- 
sor Walther was chosen in his place. 

On account of over- work as president 
of a large synod and pastor of a large 
congregation Wyneken became broken 
down in health, wherefore it was deemed 
necessary for him to be relieved of part 
of his duties. Hence he left the city of 
St. Louis in 1859, and removed with his 
family to Adams Co., where he spent 
the winter. In the spring of 1860 
he settled down on a manor in the 
neighborhood of Fort Wayne, which 
was presented to him by a few wealthy 
friends. Here he lived until 1864, Rev. 
G. Schaller, vicariating for him at St. 
Louis. In 1851 Wyneken and Prof. 
Walther were elected delegates of the 
Synod to visit Germany for the purpose 
of bringing back, if possible, Rev. W. 
Lohe from his Romanizing and Judais- 
ing errors to the evangelical truth. 
Lohe gave them a cordial reception, but 
otherwise very little was accomplished. 

Wyneken was also an examplary man 
in his relation as husband and father. 
On Aug. 31, 1841, he was married to 
Marie Sophie Wilhelmine Buuck, the 
next oldest daughter of "Father Buuck," 
of Adams Co., who bore him thirteen 
children. In 1864 h 3 received a call from 
the Trinity Church at Cleveland, which 
he accepted and where he was installed by 
his old friend Rev. W. F. Hussman on 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



869 



Nov. 7th. Wyneken was a man of action, 
although he has written but comparably 
little. Among the many articles from his 
pen in Lehre und Wehre, are the following: 
Eine Erklserung Herrn Pharrer Lohe's 
nebst einigen daran hsengenden B.^merk- 
ungen ; Die Methodisten. The Lu: .leraner 
contains more than a dozen articles from 
his pen. Die Noth der Lutherischen 
Kirche, is a historical work, which he 



did not finish. His letters under the 
name of "Hans" are very interesting. 
His last work of this kind is his "Allen 
Respect vor den seligen Harms! Nur 
keine Menschen - vergotterung, und 
keiuen Kultus lebendiger oder verstor- 
berner Heiliger in der Lutherischen 
Kirche." Mr. Wyneken died May 4, 
1876, at San Francisco, Cal., where he 
had gone for his health. 




REV. MARTIN L. WYNEKEN. 



It was on the fifteenth of December, 
1844, that pastor Wyneken and his 
brother Heinrich, at present professor 
in the seminary at Springfield, 111., 
perceived the light of the world. His 
father F. C. D. Wyneken, was pastor at 
Fort Wayne, Ind., 1876. His mother 
was Sophie Wyneken, born Buuck. 
The happiness of the father at the 
birth of the two boys will appear from 
the following words written to his 
mother: "Never was I happier than 
to-day. Never did I receive such costly 
Christmas present! The faithful God 
has given me two baby-boys, and to 
honor this event I let something be 
spent: Two wax candles burn on my 
table!— ^mm^. Kal, 1877. 

When the two brothers had attended 
the parochial school and an English and 
classical high school, they both entered 
the Gymnasium, Feb. 25, 1858, and in 
Sept. 1865, the theological seminary at 
St Louis. Three years later, June 11, 
1868, Martin was graduated from the 
seminary and received the character 
"very good." He did not, immediately 
accept a call to the ministry, having 
resolved to take a course in an English 
college. He, however, received a very 
urgent call from Fort Smith, Ark., 



which he accepted, perceiving it to be 
a call from God. He was ordained 
Sept. 17, 1868, by Rev. Runger, assisted 
Dr. Walther and Prof. Craemer. Mr. 
Wyneken was among the pioneer 
Lutheran ministers in Arkansas. 
Besides Fort Smith, he also served 
Van Bur en and Little Rock. His daily 
round of work he describes in a letter to 
his brother : "At half past seven o'clock 
in the morning I read with the cate- 
chumens, whom I have taught to read 
and write in the evening school. From 
nine to four I teach school every day. 
After school, from four to six o'clock, I 
spend two hours visiting the sick, etc. 
After supper I have a class of grown 
people whom I instruct in the catechism. 
Besides this I also teach a class of grown 
people to read and write German and 
ppend an hour every week with a singing 
class." As an illustration of his un- 
daunted character the following example 
may serve: On one occasion, when Mr. 
Wyneken had proven from the Word of 
God that a Christian ought to shun the 
lodges, one of the members of his con- 
gregation arose and exclaimed, "Rev. 
Pastor! from such a judgment I appeal 
to the public opinion." To this Mr. 
Wyneken replied, pointing to the ceil- 



870 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



ing, "Just as little as I concern myself 
about that fly, just so little do I care 
about the public opinion in matters 
pertaining to the Word of Grod." 

On Oct. 13, 1872, he married Clara 
Blitz, daughter of the president of the 
"Western District of the Missouri Synod. 

In 1876, he was called by the Trinity 
congregation at Cincinnati, Ohio, where 
he was installed, May 14. In January, 
1879, he took a vacation, being advised 
to seek a southern climate on account of 
ill-health. At his departure for New 
Orleans, he wrote to Prof. Wyneken: 
"Forget me not in your prayers. I often 
feel as if I preached yesterday for the 
last time. The congregation also seemed 
somewhat anxious." The rest, medical 
treatment and southern climate im- 
proved his health, so that he again be- 
gan to preach; but his voice finally 
failed him, and just as he was nomi- 
nated as candidate for the directorship 
of the School-teachers' Seminary at 
Addison, 111., he was obliged to resign 
from the active ministry. In the sum- 
mer of the same year, he went to Colo- 



rado, where his health again considera- 
bly improved, but his voice did not 
return. Later he went to St. Louis, 
thinking that he might be able to make 
himself useful in some way in the syn- 
odical book-concern of the Missouri 
Synod at that place. 

At this time his wife was prostrated 
by a severe illness which threatened to 
take away one, who, by her persevering 
faithfulness during his prolonged ill- 
ness, had made herself indispensable to 
him. But the good Lord remembered 
mercy in judgment, and restored her 
again. In January, 1880, he removed to 
his brother-in-law's. Rev. Buehler , in San 
Francisco, and thence to Los Angeles. 
His health having improved somewhat 
again, he removed fourteen miles from 
Los Angeles, where he secured a house 
and three acres of land, by means 
of which, besides the office of postmas- 
ter, which had been offered him, he 
endeavored to maintain himself and 
family. He died of consumption Sun- 
day, Oct. 19, 1884, being about forty 
years old. — Luther aner. 




REY. J. H. WYSE. 



Rev. J. H. Wyse is regarded as one 
of the rising Southern pastors of our 
Lutheran Church. He was born in 
Lexington, S. C, Feb. 14, 1861, just pre- 
vious to the time when the cannon of 
varying political opinions placed in 
jeopardy the continuity of the republic; 
but which, under the eyes of God, far- 
seeing beyond those of man, ended 
their cadences with brethren yet 
brethren, and nation yet nation, and the 
entire land one of sadly proven valor. 
J. H. Wyse was brought up on a farm. 



He entered Roanoke College, Yirginia, 
in the autumn of 1882, and graduated in 
June, 1885. Having been deeply im- 
pressed by the earnest and stirring lec- 
tures of his instructor, Dr. L. A. Fox, he 
decided at the end of his collegiate 
course, to study for the eacred ministry. 
In September, 1885, he entered the 
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 
and completed his course at the semi- 
nary in May, 1888. 

The perfect union which religion even 
more than politics may give a country 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



871 



is evinced in the circumstance tliat from 
his graduation on the northern seaboard, 
J. H. Wyse next appears as assistant 
missionary at St. Paul, Minn., in the 
northwest, in a latitude above the south- 
ern boundary of some of the British 
North American colonies. Here the 
young Southron wins favorable opinions. 
After three months, in October, 1888, a 



call from Mount Pleasant charge, in 
North Carolina, causes him to retrace 
his steps. After serving God as pastor 
at this place, Rev. Wyse was called in 
November, 1889, to the pastorate in 
Bethlehem, Newberry Co., S. C, which 
is his present field of ministerial labor. 
—W. S. 



REV. JOHN C. W. YEAGER. 



Rev. John Christian William Yeager 
was a native of Breslau, Prussia. He 
was born August 27, 1783, and came to 
this country while he was yet in his 
childhood. He early connected himself 
with Zion's Church, Philadelphia, and, 
for several years, gave instruction in the 
parochial school. Feeling that he was 
called to the work of the Christian 
ministry, he studied theology under the 
direction of his pastor, the Rev. Dr. 
Helmuth. He was licensed to preach 
the Gospel by the Synod of Pennsyl- 
vania, at its meeting in 1891. 

Mr. Yeager, at the commencement of 
his ministry, took charge of our Luther- 
an interests in Bedford, where he con- 
tinued in the faithful performance of his 
duties until he was disabled by the in- 
roads of disease. Night and day he was 
engaged in his benevolent mission, and 
many souls were given to his ministry. 
He was emphatically the Apostle of 
Lutheranism in Bedford County, and to 
his efforts most of the churches in that 
region owe their origin. In 1840 he re- 
linquished his connection with the Bed- 
ford, Schellsburg, and other churches, 
and the last few years of his life his 
labors were confined to Friends Cove 
and the immediate vicinity. His health 
had become very much impaired by his 



onerous and manifold duties. His phy- 
sical constitution gradually began to 
yield under the influence of excessive 
labor and constant exposure. The last 
year of his life he was very feeble; yet 
he was still anxious to be employed in the 
service of his Master, the great work to 
which he had consecrated his powers. 
When he could no longer go out among 
his people, he was in the habit of send- 
ing to individuals the publications of the 
American Tract Society, writing with 
his pencil, on the margin of the tract, 
some suitable text of Scripture, or a 
word of admonition or encouragement. 
To all who visited him at his home he 
had some message from the Gospel to 
present, some comforting or instructive 
truth to offer; and by his patience and 
meekness, his gentleness and goodness, 
his beautiful and holy example, he show- 
ed the sincerity of his principles and the 
influence of his religion. He met the 
final summons, not only with quiet sub- 
mission, but with Christian triumph, 
bearing the most unequivocal testimony 
to the Redeemer's all-sustaining power 
and grace, anticipating with joy the 
glorious rest to which death would in- 
troduce him. He died on the 17th of 
April, 1844, in the sixty-second year of 
his age, He was buried beside the 



872 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



church edifice at Friends Cove, a large 
concourse of sorrowing friends, in whose 
grateful hearts he still lived, gathering 
around his grave to testify their grief. 
The solemn occasion was improved by 
appropriate discourses by the Rev. W. 
G. Laitzle, of the Lutheran, and the 
Rev. J. Ziegler, of the German Refom- 
ed Church. 

Mr. Yeager was twice married. His 
first wife was a widow, by the name of 
Cruse. From this marriage there were 
two children, one of whom became a 
physician. He was married, a second 
time, to Mary Magdalene, the widow of 
Jacob Schaeffer. She survived him 
several years, and died in April, 1863, 
in the eighty-ninth year of her age. 

Mr. Yeager was of medium height, 
but slender, and rather delicately 
formed. His voice was feeble, but unus- 
ually soft and sweet. Perhaps it was 
this that gave origin to the soubriquet 
of the sweet preacher of Bedford, by 
which he was so generally known. His 
hair was very black and retained its 
color to the last. He always wore a 
white cravat, and a black coat which 
reached down half way below his knees. 
In his dress he was neat without being 
finical. 

He was highly esteemed for his ex- 
cellent personal qualities. He was a 
man of warm and genial spirit, of an 
affectionate disposition, and a model of 
meekness and patience. His heart was 
simple and transparent as childhood. 
No one ever suspected him of a sinister 
motive or a disingenuous act. All who 
knew him loved him. "He was the best 
man," writes one, "I ever met — so tender 
and lovdy and heavenly-minded, that I 
scarcely hope to see his like in this 
world. He was as much like St. John 
as I can well conceive. Few men have 
lived who had the power to attract more 
strongly or to bind more tenderly to his 



own the hearts of warm and loving 
friends. He was a father to his people 
— the old rejoiced in him as a friend, 
the children loved him as a parent, and 
you could often see him walking the 
streets with a dozen or more hanging 
around him, some having hold of his 
hands and others of his coat, frisking 
and playing beneath his smiles. No 
one could know him without loving him. 
He was the idol of his family. Any 
person who wished to see a miniature 
of Heaven, had only to spend a few days 
under his hospitable roof. Such sim- 
plicity, affection and harmony are not 
often met with in this world." He was 
an earnest, living Christian, illustrating 
in his own life the power and blessedness 
of the gospel, and uniting with sincere 
humility, active usefulness — visiting the 
widow and the fatherless in their afilic- 
tion, he kept himself unspotted from 
the world. Kind and considerate in his 
intercourse, affable and always amiable, 
the savor of his lovely temper rested 
upon every circle in which he mingled 
— his example was a regular sermon, his 
presence a continual benediction. He 
loved the work to which he had conse- 
crated himself — his whole heart was in 
the service. Preaching Christ was his 
constant employment, his chief pleasure. 
Although his field of labor embraced a 
large territory, which rendered it neces- 
sary for him to be constantly in the 
saddle, yet he never seemed to grow 
weary. It was quite common for him, 
in fulfilling an appointment in some 
distant congregation, to rise at midnight 
and start on his journey. His heart 
went forth in tender sympathy with his 
flock, and the salvation of souls was the 
one idea, the single object, of his minis- 
try. His preaching was characterized 
by great simplicity and directness. No 
one could plead more earnestly with 
sinners, or present more comforting 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



873 



truths to the distressed, or awaken in 
the hearts of believers a greater hunger- 
ing and thirsting after righteousness, 
than he. And his warm and glowing 
words, his manner, tones of voice, 
attitudes, were in entire keeping with 
the solemn service, in which he was 
engaged. He was, as might be expected, 
eminently successful in guiding inquirers 
and leading the people of God to higher 
attainments in piety; and his unwearied 
Christian activity was, by the Divine 
blessing, the means of salvation, per- 
haps, to thousands of souls. His minis- 



try was attended with many signal effu- 
sions of the Holy Spirit, and abounded 
in most remarkable fruits, the result, as 
it seemed, of that intense whole-hearted 
devotion to the good of his fellow-men 
and the glory of God, which was the 
crowning excellence of his life. The 
influence of his character is still felt 
wherever he was known ; an impression 
of moral worth, heavenly-mindedness, 
unwavering faith and apostolic zeal has 
been produced upon the tablet of the 
memory which time can never efface. — 
M. L. Stoever, in Sprague*s Annals. 



REV. JOSHUA YEAGER. 



Rev. Joshua Yeager was born Sep- 
tember 23, 1802. He was baptized by 
his father in infancy and, after careful 
and conscientious instruction in the 
principles of the Christian religion, was 
confirmed and received by him into 
communion of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. Rev. Johann Conrad Yeager, 
the father of Rev. Joshua Yeager, and 
his mother, Barbara, whose maiden 
name was Schmidt, were both born in 
York county, Pa., near the town of York. 
In the house of Father Yeager regular 
instruction was given by the head of 
the family to all its members, on week- 
day evenings, in reading, writing and 
arithmetic. The opportunities for a 
very liberal education, of course, were 
necessarily limited, when compared 
with the present time. But what was 
lacking in a secular education was 
abundantly supplemented by the relig- 
ious instruction imparted under the 
paternal roof. In those days religious 
instruction was regarded as "Haupt- 
sache," a part of our education, which 
now, alas! is not only made secondary, 

110 



but in many families totally neglected. 
The pious fathers of that elder day 
practiced the divine injunction, "Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God," in in- 
structing in, and impressing on the 
hearts and minds of the young, the 
great plan of salvation. To delegate so 
important and vital a matter to the one 
hour's instruction a week in the Sunday 
School, where such instruction is oft- 
times very imperfectly given, and to the 
secular week-day school, where no relig- 
ious teaching is tolerated, would have 
been justly looked upon with holy hor- 
ror and righteous indignation by the 
men of God of a hundred years ago, 
who realized the solemn responsibility 
of their office as priests at the family 
altar. Reading of the Scriptures and 
writing out what was remembered, to 
the extent of a sheet a day, constituted 
part of his home instruction in the 
family of Father Yeager. His son 
Joshua had, it is true, received this 
thorough instruction, yet his education 
was quite limited in the sense that the 
word * 'liberal education" is, at present, 



874 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 




Eev. Joshua Yeagee. 

In his Pulpit on liis Eightieth Birthday. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



875 



understood. After lie had attained the 
age that he could make himself useful 
on the farm, his daily employment 
consisted in manual labor, which, on a 
farm of 236 acres, left but little time for 
study or recreation. 

While following the plow one summer 
day, his father came out and accom- 
panied him to the farther end of the 
field. Joshua could hardly reconcile 
this unusual occurence. But, when the 
end of the furrow was reached, his 
father said to him: "Wait a little while. 
I have something to tell you. I want 
you, with God's help, to become a min- 
ister." This unexpected suggestion 
really frightened Mr. Yeager. "Come to 
my room to-morrow morning," continued 
Father Yeager, "Leave your plow, 
there are others to attend to it. I wish 
to give you a three months' trial to as- 
certain whether you have talent for the 
ministry; if you have, you shall con- 
tinue your studies — if not, I will then 
tell you so." Father Yeager handed 
his son a Latin grammar, saying: "This 
is a comparatively easy study, but it 
will furnish you a knowledge of the 
system of grammar in general, which is 
so necessary for the study of all lan- 
guages. Study this two hours, and then 
ask me all the questions you can, about 
what you understand and all that you 
do not understand. After that come 
down and go into the garden, and take 
such exercise and do such work as you 
may wish. In the evening you will 
again take two hours of study, and thus 
continue on." In this way Mr. Yeager 
studied. His father was a drill-master 
and disciplinarian, and knew how to 
create and maintain an interest on the 
part of his student. Especially, how- 
ever, did he observe and keep a close 
surveillance on the conduct of his son. 
He impressed him with the importance 
and responsibility of the work, and con- 



stantly urged upon him to observe such 
a conduct as is becoming a candidate 
for the Christian ministry, and which 
may meet with the approval of God and 
man. This education, so often neglect- 
ed on the part of those to whom young 
men who have the ministry in view are 
intrusted, but which is so essential to 
the formation of the character of the 
true minister of Jesus Christ, exerted a 
most powerful and an abiding influence 
on the mind of young Yeager. To this 
may be attributed, perhaps as much as 
to anything else, that devotion, earnest- 
ness and zeal which characterized Rev. 
Joshua Yeager's ministry through the 
long period of well nigh three score 
years among a people whom he served 
so long and loved so well. 

At the meeting of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania, 
held in the week of Trinity Sunday, 
1827, Mr. Yeager was examined with 
two other candidates for licensure. 
Rev. Dr. F. W. Geissenhainer, of New 
York City, was the chairman of the 
Examining Committee. The examina- 
tion was very thorough. The three 
candidates made a very satisfactory ex- 
amination and were admitted to the 
Synod as licentiates. 

At the Synodical meeting of the fol- 
lowing year, which was held at Reading, 
Mr. Yeager's preparations were reported 
"very good." On this occasion he also 
preached before the Synod on the last 
evening of the session, Tuesday evening, 
July 3, 1828, on the text: 1. Tim. iv, 12-16. 

From 1827 to 1831 he was the assist- 
ant of his father in his four congrega- 
tions, Friedensville, Allen town, Schoe- 
nersville and Hecktown. In 1831 his 
father gave him the Friedensville and 
Allentown congregations and retained 
for himself the other two. Upon his 
father's decease, in 1832, he was also 
elected pastor of the other congregations. 



876 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Joshua Yeager's large field of labor 
extended over an immense territory, and 
at least a dozen congregations have 
sprung, in part or entirely, from his 
original pastorate, such as Apple's 
Church, Hellertown, South Bethlehem, 
Bethlehem, West Bethlehem, Salisbury, 
Alton a, Rittersville, Catasauqua, Hower- 
town, Bath, St. Paul's, St. Michael's, 
St. John's and St. Peter's, Allentown, etc. 

He remained the pastor of the Allen - 
town Church (St. Paul's), till 1853, 
twenty-two years. This congregation 
enjoyed unprecedented prosperity dur- 
ing Father Yeager's pastorate. He 
preached regularly every two weeks and 
held also week-day evening services. 
About the time of his withdrawal from 
the congregation. Rev. Dr. B. M. 
Schmucker, who followed Dr. Yeager 
in a very few months to the better 
world, was called as assistant pastor by 
the English speaking portion of the 
congregation. 

The Friedensville Church was served 
longest of all by him as regular pastor, 
from May 22, 1831, to Trinity Sunday, 
1885, fifty-four years. Adding to this 
the period during which he served the 
congregation as assistant of his father, 
his services extended over fifty-eight 
years. 

Of the Schoenersville Church he was 
pastor a year less. He was elected pas- 
tor of this church in December, 1832, 
and continued till Trinity Sunday, 1885, 
over fifty -three years. In connection 
with his father his ministration extend- 
ed over the same length of time. 

The Lehigh Church, in Lower Ma- 
cungie, Lehigh county, he served from 
August 21, 1842, to Trinity Sunday, 
1885, forty-three years. 

The Rittersville Church was built in 
1842, the congregation having been or- 
ganized by Father Yeager out of Schoe- 
nersville. Here he preached his la^t 



regular sermon on Ascension Day, 1885. 

Bes'des these four congregations, he 
also served Jerusalem Church, in Salis- 
bury, from 1843 to 1883, Macungie from 
1856 to 1867, and Hecktown, North- 
ampton county, from 1832 to 1842. 

The life of Father Yeager, whose his- 
tory extends over more than four score 
years, was characterized by constant 
activity and great laboriousness. Ac- 
customed in his early years to hard 
manual labor, he was not easily discour- 
aged when in his ministry difficulties 
had to be encountered. Endowed with 
a strong constitution, which was well 
preserved by the observance of hygienic 
laws, even to old age, he endured expos- 
ure and performed physical and mental 
work almost without a parallel in the 
history of God's ministers. His tall, 
erect, manly form attracted attention 
wherever he went. Strangers stopped, 
as they passed him on the street, to 
admire his splendid physique. He 
never missed an appointment by sick-v 
ness, nor from any other cause. He 
was an almost complete stranger to the 
ordinary ailments of humanity. 

His preparations for the pulpit were 
always carefully and conscientiously 
made, and, hence, his audiences always 
listened to him with close attention. 
As a rule, which he had obtained from 
his father, he selected his text and be- 
gan his preparations for Sunday on the 
Monday preceding. Hence, he was 
never found unprepared, and always 
had something interesting for his hear- 
ers. His discourses were brief and 
pointed, prepared with special reference 
to the conviction and conversion of 
sinners. 

As he was noted for his neatness in 
dress and the careful arrangement of 
his toilet, even in its minutest detail, 
so his sermons were prepared with 
scrupulous exactness; his skeletons, 



. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



877 



which he always had before him when 
in the pulpit, evinced a systematic 
arrangement such as is seldom found in 
the discourses of the most finished pul- 
pit orator. His sermons were char- 
acterized by special earnestness and 
deep emotion. This was not studied, 
but heartfelt. Father Yeager in tears, 
in the pulpit and before his catecheti- 
cal classes, were not an unusual sight. 
These were no tears of sympathy at 
funerals, but the outpourings of his 
soul for the love of souls. 

This is the more remarkable when we 
remember that Father Yeager entered 
the ministry in a day when the pulpit 
was particularly noted for its coldness, 
when head religion, and not heart relig- 
ion, had sway in many of our churches 
in America and Germany. He could 
aver with all his heart: "I believe that 
Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the 
Father from eternity, and also true man 
born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord." 
In Him he believed and Him he 
preached, of Him he spoke to the sick 
and dying, and to Him he pointed the 
sinner seeking salvation. He firmly 
believed and preached the inspired 
word in his ministry of almost three 
score years, and thousands of souls were 
given him as the seal of such a ministry. 

On one occasion, those who were not 
so favorably disposed towards him laid 
hold of an inadvertent expression with 
the design to injure him. In one of his 
sermons he exclaimed, in the fervor of 
his soul, closing the Bible: "Do you be- 
lieve all that is contained in this book? 
I don't believe it." The apparent ambi- 
guity of the expression was seized upon 
and Father Yeager decried as a ration- 
alist. But this, as all such efforts 
necessarily must, reverted to the injury 
not of Father Yeager, but of those who 
had watched the opportunity to injure 
him. It gave him an opportunity to 



preach an explanatory sermon and to 
state in emphatic language, such as he 
was capable of employing, that he had 
said: "Do you believe all that is con- 
tained in the Bible? I do not believe 
that you do, or else your actions would 
be vastly different." The sermon had 
a telling effect, and made an impression 
which is not forgotten to this day. 

On another occasion, while pastor of 
St. Paul's, at Allentown, he had to en- 
counter an element of free-thinkers, 
which had developed there and made 
attacks not only on his pulpit teaching, 
but even upon his character. It hap- 
pened, while he was conducting his 
services one Sunday, that two snakes 
were observed by those in the gallery, 
gamboling and playing on the sounding 
board of the pulpit, disappearing in a 
very short time. This occasion, while 
foreboding terror to the superstitious, 
was seized on by the "New Light" party 
and published, not only in the county 
papers, but even in Day's Historical Col- 
lections of Pennsylvania, 1843, and thus 
scattered broadcast, designedly to his 
detriment. The adverse sentiment 
which they tried to create, however, like 
the serpent on the sounding board, re- 
coiled upon bis enemies, when upon 
examination, it was found that the 
snakes had made their way through a 
cracked wall, and were not of the old 
serpent of Paradise, and that that ser- 
pent was to be looked for rather in the 
angels of light, who, in disguise, were 
promulgating the false doctrines which 
Father Yeager was so strenuously and 
successfully combating. 

Many similar incidents could be re- 
lated here, which occurred in a life of 
such length and prominence, but they 
would all combine to illustrate how this 
man of God, by his intrepidity, sus- 
tained by sovereign grace, in which he 
was so firm a believer, and which he 



878 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



proclaimed so many, many years, was 
fitted for the special work of his day 
and generation. A circumstance may 
yet be mentioned which illustrates in 
Father Yeager's life that we, as co- 
workers with Christ, having a steady 
purpose and a high resolve, may make 
our life and labors a success. 

He, though he always enjoyed good 
health, owing, by the help of God, to 
his temperate manner of living and the 
care of his body, had, nevertheless, in 
his youth contracted, by severe study, 
spells of indigestion, from which he 
suffered occasionally in early life. Ap- 
plying to half a dozen physicians with- 
out being relieved, he at last came to a 
distinguished doctor, and applied to him 
for medicine. The reply was: '*I will 
give you none. But every evening, 
when you have finished your studies, 
take a wood-saw and saw hickory wood 
into stove-lengths for half an hour — 
take a similar dose in the morning." 
This advice was followed, and the relief 
came. Father Yeager ever after recom- 
mended this medicine. The moral is 
that much of the indisposition from and 
aversion to hard work, in the student's 
and minister's life of to-day, could be 
cured thus, instead of reverting to ques- 
tionable diversions by which mind, body 
and soul are enervated and unfitted for 
the arduous task of life. 

But the strong man, the giant frame, 
the acute intellect, had to succumb at 
last. Joshua Yeager had looked for- 
ward from the day that he laid down 
the active ministry, Trinity Sunday, 
1885, for the time of his departure. 
He had wished to die in the harness, 
but it pleased the Lord to give him a 
brief rest before his course on earth 
was finished. Like St. John he was 
permitted yet, for several years, to ap- 
pear in the midst of his people, whom 



he had served so long and loved so well, 
saying unto them: "Little children, love 
one another," and lifting his hands in 
benediction over them. On Decoration 
Day, 1888, as he was seated at his par- 
lor window, where he loved to look out 
on the busy scenes of life, he was 
stricken with apoplexy and became 
helpless, though his intellect remained 
active and did not entirely forsake him 
till quite near his end. On the 1st of 
August, however, it pleased Almighty 
God, in His wise and gracious provi- 
dence, to call this aged servant to his 
rest, he having attained the age of 85 
years, 10 months and 8 days. On the 
following Thursday funeral services 
were held at the late residence of the 
deceased, conducted by Eev. Dr. S, A. 
Eepass of St. John's English Lutheran 
Church, of Allentown, and in St. 
Michael's Lutheran Church, where Rev. 
B. W. Schmailk, a former pastor and 
special friend, and Rev. Dr . G. F. Spieker, 
the present pastor, delivered addresses, 
a very large concourse of people having 
assembled. Rev. Dr. A. R. Home, his 
successor in the charge which he had 
served, read a biographical sketch of 
the deceased, and also performed the 
burial service on Fairview Cemetery, 
all of which was done in accordance 
with his desire expressed years before. 
A son, Robert J. Yeager, of Allen- 
town, and a daughter, Mrs. J. B. 
Reeme, of Chicago, survive. His wife, 
who was Maria, a daughter of Jacob 
and Maria Grimm, of Friedensville, 
died eleven years earlier than he. His 
daughter Amanda, first wife of J. B. 
Reeme, his son. Dr. Theodore C. Yeager 
and an unmarried daughter, Sarah W., 
also preceded him to the eternal world. 
Six grandchildren also survive, namely, 
Minnie W. and Norton, children of Dr. 
Theodore C. Yeager; Albert and An- 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



879 



drew, sons of Robert J. Yeager; and 
Effie B. and Annetta, daughters of J. B. 
Reeme, Esq. 

Well done, good and faithful servant; 



enter thou into thy reward, while we 
remember those who have spoken unto 
us the Word of Life. — Rev. A. R. Home, 
D.D. 




REV. WILLIAM B. YONCE, Ph.D. 



Rev. William B. Yonce, Ph. D., was 
born January 6, 1827, in Wythe Co., Va. 
His parents were John Peter Yonce and 
Allie Brown, both of whom were mem- 
bers of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church, always taking special interest 
in all that pertained to her welfare. 
Wm. Yonce was a thrifty farmer in this 
region of Virginia, and dispensed his 
hospitality with that liberal spirit for 
which all true Virginians are noted. 

Doctor Yonce was carefully trained in 
the public schools of his native county 
until about twenty years of age, when 
he entered Wittenberg College, in Ohio, 
from which institution he graduated as 
valedictorian and first honor man of his 
class, in 1853. 

He was married, in 1857, to Eliza 
Victoria Glossbrenner, second daughter 
of Rev. I. I. Glossbrenner, D. D., who 
for forty-two years was Bishop of the 
United Brethren Church, and labored 
zealously and successfully in that church 
as a minister of the Gospel for fifty-six 
years. This union was blessed with 
four sons, three of whom grew to man- 
hood. The eldest of these, Glossbren- 
ner V. Yonce, has been for the last ten 
years Professor of Natural Sciences in the 
Lutherville Seminary, Md. The second 
Ivan V. Yonce, is U. S. mail agent on 
the N. & W. R. R, in Virginia. The 
third, C. A. Newton Yonce, is a minis- 
ter of the Gospel in the Mississippi 
Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran 
Church. Mrs. Yonce died in 1874. 



Dr. Yonce, having been dedicated to 
God in holy baptism in infancy, was 
comfirmed at the age of fifteen, by Rev. 
J. A. Brown, in St. John's Evangelical 
Lutheran Church, near Wytheville, Va., 
on a voluntary profession of faith. 

In 1858 he was ordained at St. James' 
Church, in Washington Co., Va., in the 
bounds of the Synod of south-western 
Virginia, of which he has ever since 
been an active, zealous, and popular 
member. Alhough never occupying the 
pastoral relation. Dr. Yonce has done 
valuable service in his synod, supplying 
vacant pastorates and mission points, for 
which he never received any remunera- 
tion. 

Few men have shared more largely 
the confidence and esteem of his fellow- 
laborers in the ministry, and of the 
people to whom he has ministered with 
zeal and devotion to the cause of Christ, 
than Dr. Yonce; several times they have 
elected him president of his synod, a 
position which he always fills with ac- 
ceptance and ability. 

His sermons are carefully prepared, 
thoroughly evangelical, full of the mar- 
row of the Gospel, and delivered with 
characteristic force. 

From 1854 to 1856 he taught at Wit- 
tenberg College. In 1857 he was 
elected to the chair of Ancient Lan- 
guages and Literature in Roanoke Col- 
lege, Virginia, which position he has 
filled with marked ability and fidelity 
ever since. Though the college was 



880 



AMEEICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



young, without endowment, over-shad- 
owed by older and wealthier institutions 
with stronger denominational backing, 
and had to pass through varied and 
trying ordeal, Dr. Yonce never fal- 
tered in his attachment, nor wavered in 
his determination to contribute to the 
upbuilding of the institution, believing 
that with advancement of Christian 
education and Christian culture, he was 
faithfully serving the Master. A faith- 
ful history of Roanoke College, nestled 
among the mountains of Virginia, 
beside the head-waters of the Roanoke 
in the history of the moral heroism, 
zeal, devotion, and self-sacrifice of these 
devoted men who gave to its service 
their untiring energies, wisdom, counsel, 
their lives, in the persons of David F. 
Bittle, D. D., its first president. Rev. 
W. B. Yonce, Prof. Ancient Languages, 
and S. Carson Wills, Ph. D., Prof. 
Natural Science and Mathematics. To 
these men the Lutheran Church espec- 
ially in the south was much. The men 
whom they have trained in the Gospel 
ministry as well as in other vocations, 
have reflected well on their Alma Mater. 
In the counsels of the College Faculty 
Prof. Yonce has always been regarded 



as prudent, wise, and safe. Thorough- 
ly conservative in his make up, he has 
often served in the important relation 
of balance-wheel in the college ma- 
chinery and prevented unwise decisions 
on matters of discipline and college 
polity. Always a friend of the student, 
he was at the same time no less a friend 
to the college, and always tried to serve 
the former through the latter. 

As a theologian. Dr. Yonce is thor- 
oughly Lutheran, firm in his acceptance 
of the unaltered Augsburg Confession 
and the Symbolical Books, and but for 
his retiring disposition would rank high 
among our ablest men. 

As a scholar in general. Dr. Yonce is 
broadly read, a man of literary taste and 
turn, with a very decided poetic ten- 
dency of mind. 

I As a linguist, the Church has few, if 
any superiors. Recognizing this ability 
his Alma Mater conferred upon him 
the degree of Ph. D , a much deserving 
and well bestowed compliment. 

To apply the suggestive lines of 
Horace, according to his own modest 
estimate, he has been a good whetstone 
for others to sharpen their wits upon. 



o^^X^^X^o 

PROF. HALVOR T. YTTERBOE, A. B. 



Prof. Halvor T. Ytterboe, A.B., was 
born Nov. 25, 1857, on a farm near Cal- 
mar, Winneshiek Co., la. He is the 
son of Eivim Thykesen Ytterboe, who is 
a prosperous farmer living three miles 
east of Calmar, la. His mother's maiden 
name was Mari Dalen. Both parents are 
from Lundherred, Nedre-Thelemarken, 
Norway, and came to this country in the 
fall of 1852. Mr. Ytterboe worked on 
the farm till he was seventeen years old, 
when he entered Luther College, De- 
corah, la. After remaining there six 
years, he was graduated in the spring 



of 1881. The following year he enrolled 
at the State University of Iowa, taking 
a special course, studying principally 
didactics. In the fall of 1882 he became 
a teacher at St. 01 af College, Northfield, 
Minn., and was elected Principal of the 
Preparatory Department of this insti- 
tution in 1890. 

On the seventh day of July, 1886, he 
was united in marriage to Miss Elise 
A.malia Kittilsby, of Calmar, la. They 
have had three children, but only two, a 
girl and a boy, are living. 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



881 



REV. PROF. H. ZIEGLER, D.D. 



The subject of the followiDg sketch is 
the oldest of a family of seven children. 
His father, Jacob Ziegler, was a native 
of Baltimore county, Md. His grand- 
parents, on his mother's side, were de- 
scendants of the Lesher and Miunich 
families of Berks county, Pa. His an- 
cestors were all Germans, and emigrated 
to this country during its colonial period. 

H. Ziegler was born in Center county. 
Pa., near the Old Fort, on the 19th of 
August, 1816. He was baptized in his 
infancy by the Rev. P. Hgen, and re- 
ceived into full communion with the 
church through confirmation, by Rev. 
H. D. Keyl, at the age of nineteen years. 

His early education was very meager, 
being acquired between the age of seven 
and twelve years, at a common country 
school. The only branches then taught 
were spelling, reading and arithmetic, 
and in his case, by special request, the 
simplest elements of book-keeping. Of 
grammar, geography, history, etc., we 
neither knew nor heard anything. This 
was his only book-eduation when he en- 
tered the preparatory department of 
Pennsylvania College. 

His early physical training had not 
been neglected. From the age of twelve 
to fourteen, he worked regularly at his 
father's blacksmith's anvil. At this date, 
in 1830, the family settled in Yenango 
county. Pa., on 150 acres of land all in 
its native condition of timber and grubs, 
and houseless and barnless. His father's 
only capital to commence with was one 
horse, one cow, his blacksmith tools, 
and less than |50 in money. Henry 
was the father's only help, the other 
sons being only six and four years of 
age. Besides working in the shop and 
clearing land at home, Henry spent his 
winters mostly abroad to aid in support- 
Ill 



ing the family — chopping cord wood for 
the iron furnaces, and threshing out 
grain with the flail. This gave him 
energy, self-reliance, perseverance and 
a sound, vigorous constitution. 

His special awakening and conversion 
occurred at the age of eighteen, under a 
sermon by a Cumberland Presbyterian 
minister, on the words: "Kiss the Son, 
lest he be angry, and ye perish from the 
way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
little", Ps. 2: 12. Accepting the invita- 
tion, he tpok his seat in front of the 
altar; and after a prayer being offered, 
he received from the minister the sim- 
ple but significant advice: "Take the 
Word of God for the man of your coun- 
sel." The surrender to Christ was abso- 
lute; the advice was rigorously observed; 
and the new life in Christ was at once 
entered upon with earnest and undeviat- 
ing purpose. He at once introduced 
morning and evening worship into his 
father's family, and commenced to hold 
Sabbath services from house to house, 
by reading the Word of God, by prayer, 
and a few simple words of instruction 
and exhortation. His soul yearned for 
the salvation of his neighbors. As the 
first-fruits of these efforts, his father 
soon took part in family worship, and 
became and remained an earnest Chris- 
tian until he passed over into the Church 
triumphant. 

Deeply impressed with the words: 
"Woe is unto me, if I preach not the 
Gospel", the decision was soon made to 
prepare for the ministry. 

Having not yet been received into 
fellowship with the church, Rev. H. D. 
Keyl, then occasionally preaching in his 
father's house, spent a week with us, 
devoting it entirely to giving him in- 
struction in the catechism. On the 



8a2 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



Sabbath following, he was confirmed and 
received his first communion in his 
father's barn. This was in the spring 
of 183o. 

In the autumn of the same year, he 
entered upon his course of preparation 
for the ministry. Being asked by his 
father how he could pay his way through 
college, his reply was: "If there is no 
other way, I will work in the blacksmith 
shop by day, and study by night." He, 
however, received $100 a year from the 
Parent Education Society, and was thus 
enabled to devote himself unremittingly 
to his studies, though frequently mak- 
ing his meals, whilst boarding himself, 
on bread, salt and water, ot on cold 
mush with a little milk or apple-butter. 

Strapping his baggage on his back he 
made his first trip to Gettysburg, 250 
miles, on foot. During his course of 
preparation he made the same trip, and 
in the same way, twelve or fourteen 
times, never getting an invitation to 
ride even a single mile by a passing 
traveler. At the end of his first year in 
the preparatory school, he was admitted 
to the freshman class of college, when 
he was able to read only the simplest 
sentences in Jacob's Greek Eeader — 
being a great mistake on the part of the 
faculty, and a great wrong to their ar- 
dent young pupil. He graduated in 
1841, having interrupted his studies one 
year on account of failing health and 
for want of funds. His theological 
course was completed in the autumn of 
1843 — having spent seven years in 
preparation. 

He was licensed by the West Penn- 
sylvania Synod in 1843, and subse- 
quently ordained by the Pittsburg 
Synod at Greensburg, in 1846. His 
first field of ministerial labor was at 
Selinsgrove, Pa. Here and at Sunbury 
he assisted the venerable Kev. J. P. 
Shindel, Sr., as co-pastor, and Rev. J. 



G. Anspach, at Lewisburg, in the same 
capacity. Besides, he served the church 
at Liverpool, Perry county, where, on 
May 19, 1844, he was united in marriage 
to Miss Eliza App, daughter of John 
and Catherine App, of Selinsgrove. 

From 1845 to 1850 he labored in the 
Pittsburg Synod for several years as 
general traveling missionary, and also 
as missionary president. In this work 
he traveled over parts of Crawford, 
Venango, Mercer, Beaver, Bvtter and 
Allegheny counties. He was sometimes 
an entire month from home, and in the 
saddle almost daily. 

From 1850 to 1853 he was located at 
Williamsport, Pa., where he served the 
only Lutheran church then in the place; 
besides, three others regularly, and part 
of the time five. These were distant 
from Williamsport, varying from eight 
to eighteen miles. Here he organized 
the first English Lutheran church of 
Williamsport, the English element 
peaceably withdrawing from the mother 
organization, and leaving the Germans 
in the undisputed possession of the 
church property. Before leaving this 
field a church lot was purchased, and 
the initiatory steps taken to erect a 
house of worship. The work was com- 
pleted by his successor, the Rev. 
Joseph Welker. 

From 1853 to 1855 he labored for the 
Parent Education Society, as their agent 
to awaken a deeper interest in this sub- 
ject, in the synods and churches, and 
also for the solicitation of contributions. 

His last field of ministerial labor was 
in Clinton and Center counties, Pa., 
from 1855 to 1858. Residing at Salona, 
he served the church here, besides two 
in Sugar Valley, two in Nittany Valley, 
and the little flock in Lock Haven — be- 
ing distant from the parsonage six to 
eighteen miles. Before leaving this 
charge, the commencement was made to 



AMEKICAN LUTHEKAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



883 



erect an exclusively Lutheran church, 
leaving the German Reformed to occupy 
the old building, but not relinquishing 
our right to the property. 

By the efforts of Rev. B. Kurtz, D.D., 
and the author of this sketch, the Mis- 
sionary Institute was located at Selins- 
grove, Pa., in the spring of 1858. Dr. 
Kurtz was chosen as superintendent 
and first theological professor, and H. 
Ziegler, as second professor. In this 
capacity, the labors of the latter com- 
menced in the autumn of 1858, and were 
continued for twenty-three years, to 
1881. 

During this period his labors were 
very onerous. For the first few years 
after the establishment of the school, 
Dr. Kurtz occasionally gave instruction 
in three or four branches for a few days, 
but the entire three years' course was 
taught substantially in all its details by 
Dr. Ziegler, with the exception that 
Dr. P. Born relieved him of three of 
four studies during the last two or three 
years. He also prepared his own text- 
books, three of which — Catechetics, the 
Pastor, and the Preacher — were pub- 
lished for general sale; three others — 
Natural Theology, Evidences, and Dog- 
matic Theology — were published only 
for the students; whilst others — as 
Chronology, Biblical Criticism, Herme- 
neutics. Church -government, and the 
Augsburg Confessions — were copied by 
the students from the professor's manu- 
scripts. Luther's Small Catechism re- 
ceived special attention. A weekly 
recitation was given in it, so as to go 
over the entire ground during the three 
years* course. The recitations were 
held in the same simple manner as 
when instructing a class of children — the 
students were, for the time, regarded as 
youthful catechumens. Each member, 
including the professor, took his turn 
as catechist — the professor generally 



pointing out mistakes, suggesting im- 
provements, etc., at the close. 

As quite a percentage of the theolog- 
ical students were always married men, 
the necessity was early felt of having 
houses on the grounds of the Institute 
for their accommodation, and practically 
free of rent. This necessity resulted in 
the erection of five double houses for 
the accommodation of ten families. 
This labor fell exclusively on Dr. Ziegler 
— the collection of the funds and the 
superin tendency of the work. The total 
cost of the whole was about $8,000. 

All this labor could be performed by 
one professor only by, in some way, 
lessening his labors. This was done by 
changing the system of instruction. 
Instead of having three classes — one for 
each year of the three years' course — 
all the students were merged into one 
class, and all pursued the same studies, 
except in Hebrew. In this way, three 
recitations daily would accomplish the 
same as six on the old system. One 
professor could do the work of three. 
The plan worked admirably. But the 
professor nevertheless finally broke 
down, and was compelled to resign in 
1881. 

During his twenty-three years of 
service the round number of one hun- 
dred students were educated, all of 
whom were licensed and entered the 
ministry. 

In the spring of 1882, he settled in 
Des Moines, la., hoping to regain his 
health, and again resume the work 
either of professor or pastor, neither 
of which has been realized. Yet, he 
has not been idle. He spent nearly two 
years in the Milwaukee Hospital, partly 
as a patient, but also as assistant super- 
intendent to his esteemed and life-long 
friend. Dr. W. A. Passavant. Two tracts 
were prepared and published by the 
Lutheran Publication House, Philadel- 



884 



AMEEIGAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



phia, Pa., on the Conversion of Luther, 
and Our Preparatory Service. During 
the celebration of Luther's fourth cen- 
tennial, an essay was prepared on 
Lutheran missions from the earliest 
times, and delivered on several occasions. 
Appointed on a committee by the Gen- 
eral Synod of the Lutheran Church, at 
Omaha, in 1887, to prepare a develop- 
ment of Luther's Small Catechism, over 
two years of unremitting labor was 
bestowed upon this work. 

Besides, during these years from 1882 
to 1890, a number of books which had 
been in progress of preparation for 
years, have been completed in manu- 
script, namely, "Our Needs and God's 
Promises," "Prayer," in twelve chap- 
ters, "The Recognition and Communion 
of Friends after Death," "Perfection 
and Sanctification," and "The Witness, 
Sealing and Earnest of the Spirit." 
Others are still in course of preparation, 
as, "The Eeligion of God's Approval", 
"The Nature, Grounds, etc., of the 
Christian's Joy," "The Ministry of 
Angels in the Government of God's 
Providence and Grace," and a "Miscel- 
lany, Original and Selected." 

A brief reference to his method 
of preparing and delivering his ser- 



mons may not be out of place. His 
method of composing sermons was the 
"Elaborated Mental Composition," con- 
sisting in studying out carefully one's 
theme, general and subdivisions, illus- 
trations, explanations, narrations, argu- 
ments, motives, inferences, scripture 
and other quotations, and not unfre- 
quently even individual expressions and 
words; and all this so thoroughly that, 
at the time of delivery, the whole soul 
could be thrown into it without even 
the thought of failure. ( The system is 
explained at length in the "Preacher.") 

His union with Miss App was blessed 
with seven children, two sons and live 
daughters. The youngest, a daughter, 
died at the age of three years; and the 
second, the wife of Rev. J. W. Reese, 
died in 1881, at the age of thirty-four 
years. Two other daughters married 
Rev.'s J. B. Shoup and G. W. Fortney. 
The remaining daughter is with her 
parents. 

The elder of the two sons. A, H. F., 
is engaged in journalism, publishing a 
weekly paper, the Des Moines Graphic^ 
Des Moines, Iowa. The younger. Rev. 
J. A. M., is Professor of Mathematics 
and Astronony in Carthage College, 
Illinois. 







j^p)p)^]sgj^.j-^^ 




KEY. PETER ANSTADT, D.D. 



Rev. Peter Anstadt, D, D., was born 
November 20, 1819, in Hoh Einod, New 
Bavaria, Germany. His parents were 
Peter Anstadt and Elizabeth (Altman). 
In his tenth year he emigrated with his 
parents to the United States of North 
America, embarking from the port of 
Havre de Grass, and landing, after what 
was then considered a prosperous voy- 
age of seven weeks, in the city of New 
York Soon after the family removed to 
Lycoming Co., Pa., where the father 
purchased a tract of land at the foot of 
the Allegheny mountains, ten miles 
north of the town of Muncy and four- 
teen miles east of the city of Williams- 
port, Pa. Here the family homestead 
was established, which his only brother, 
two years younger, still occupies. 

In Germany he had already acquired 



the rudiments of a common school edu- 
cation. In America he continued his 
attendance at the common schools, and 
soon acquired a knowledge of the ordi- 
nary branches of an English education. 
He early manifested a love of literature. 
The writings of Joseph Addison, were 
peculiarly attractive to him on account 
of their simplicity and clearness of style, 
and the edifying Christian spirit which 
pervades them. On this account he 
adopted Addison as his model in writing. 
At an early age he was called to teach 
the public school in the neighborhood 
of his home. After a course of cate- 
chetical instruction by the Rev. Charles 
Stover, he was confirmed as a member 
of the Lutheran church, in what was 
then called the Brick Church, about 
three miles from Muncy. From this 



886 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



time on"^ he formed the resolution to 
enter on a course of study preparatory 
to the Gospel ministry. He is the first 
one of that large number of young men, 
who came out from the Muncy pastorate 
to enter the ministry in the Lutheran 
Church of the General Synod. Among 
those may be mentioned the Stecks, 
Evans, Profs. Born and Dimm. He 
studied two years in the preparatory de- 
partment of La Fayette College at 
Easton, Pa., and then entered Pennsyl- 
vania College at Gettysburg, Pa., where 
he graduated in 1844. He also studied 
theology in the Seminary at Gettysburg. 
He was licensed and ordained by the 
Allegheny Synod, and received a call to 
the Lutheran church at Hillidaysburg, 
Pa. In 1848 he accepted a call to what 
was then called Luther Chapel, but is 
named the Third Lutheran Church in 
Baltimore. In 1851 he accepted a call 
to St. James' Lutheran Church in Get- 
tysburg. In 1861 he accepted a call to 
what was then called the Old Lutheran 
Church, in Selinsgrove, Pa. In 1877 
he removed to York, Pa., where he still 
resides. 

During his residence in Gettysburg 
he gave instructions for a short time in 
Pennsylvania College in the German 
language, and while he lived in Selins- 
grove, he taught in the Missionary In- 
stitute, German, Hebrew, Church His- 
tory and Church Government. 

Almost from the beginning of his 
ministry he has been engaged in liter- 
ary labors. Many articles from his pen 
have been published in the Lutheran 
Observer and the Lutheran Evangelist. In 
Baltimore he began to edit the Luther- 
ische Kirchenbote. This paper was pub- 
lished from 185] to 1863, successively 
in Baltimore, Gettysburg, and Selins- 
grove. At this time the Kirehenbote 
was discontinued, and he founded the 
Ameriean Lutheran, This paper con- 



tinued to be published during sixteen 
years when when the subscription list 
was sold to the Lutheran Observer. There 
was a very general regret among the 
subscribers at this merging of the 
Ameriean Lutheran into the Lutheran Ob- 
server. One minister in New York 
state wrote: "I will have a settlement 
with you when we meet in Hades, for 
selling out the American Lutheran." 

There were three main reasons for 
the sale and transfer: A disagreeable 
partner in the printing ojSice; the 
establishment of the Lutheran Evangelist 
at Springfield, Ohio, which, it was sup- 
posed, would absorb many of his western 
subscribers, but chiefly the editing and 
publishing of the Teachers' Journal^ 
which Mr. Anstadt had commenced in 
1873. The establishment of this Journal 
was not of his seeking, but he always 
believed that he was led into it by the 
Providence of God. It occurred in this 
way: 

He had published Explanatory Notes 
for two years in the American Lutheran, 
which were very acceptable to the Sunday 
School workers. In the year 1873 a 
Sunday school convention of General 
Synod Lutherans was held in Bucyrus, 
O., for the purpose of discussing the 
propriety of publishing a Teachers' 
Journal and Lesson Leaves. The 
Philadelphia Board of Publication was 
represented at this convention by a 
number of its members. After two days 
of discussion the Board declined to 
undertake the publication of a Teachers' 
Journal. Then the originators of 
the convention wrote to Mr. Anstadt: 
"As the Board of Publication has 
declined the publication of a Teachers' 
Journal, we now request you to publish 
such a journal on your own responsi- 
bility, and we have no doubt the Church 
will sustain you." After due considera- 
tion he complied with this request, and 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BI0GEAPHIE8. 



887 



has now been publishing the Teachers' 
Journal and International Lesson Papers 
for over seventeeen years. The addi- 
tional labor, which this work imposed, 
was too much for one man to perform; 
hence the sale of the American Lutheran. 
At various times he has also edited 
and published smaller papers and peri- 
odicals, as follows: The Temperance Ban- 
ner, The Theological Monthly, The Prohibi- 
tionist, Auswahl Deutscher Sprichwoerter, 
Gettysburg, 1853 ; The Seven Calumnies, 
a controversy with Bishop McGovern, 
then Roman Catholic priest, in pam- 
phlet form; Communion Wines vs. Bible 
Wines; A Christian Catechism on the 
Order of Salvation. 



In the year 1889 the degree of D.D. 
was conferred upon him by his Alma 
Mater, Pennsylvania College. 

On Dec. 22, 1853, he was married to 
Miss E. A. Benson, of Baltimore. There 
were seven children in the family, three 
sons and four daughters. The two old- 
est are married. The eldest son is 
foreman in the printing office; the 
second son, Rev. W. W. Anstadt, is pas- 
tor of the Lutheran church in Hunting- 
don, Pa.; and the youngest son is now 
in the theological seminary at Gettys- 
burg, in the course of study, preparatory 
for the ministry. 




REV. JOHAN ARUNDT BERGH. 



Rev. Johan Arundt Bergh, was born 
in Norway, January 12, 1847, and came 
to America in 1860. He graduated from 
Augsburg Seminary in 1871 and was 
ordained the same year by Rev. C. L. 
Clausen, the first president of the Dano- 
Norwegian Conference. He was the 
first minister of that body in north- 
western Minnesota and North Dakota, 



and took an active part both in the 
religious strifes of the time and • the 
building up of our Church in that some- 
what northern but nevertheless promis- 
ing field. In a few years a number of 
churches were organized, more ministers 
called, the work pushed, and the North- 
west was ere loug the strongest of the 
Conference, 



888 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



In 1873 he was joined in marriage to 
Bergitta Meland, who faithfully shared 
the privation of the husband in his 
work for Christ and his Church in the 
new settlements, with no mission funds 
of any kind to back. After six years of 
successful labor in this field with Fergus 
Falls as his home, he accepted a call 
from northeastern Iowa, at the urgent 
request of Rev. J. Olsen, then president 
of the Conference, who regarded his 
service of importance in this new place; 
and in 1882 it was decided by friends 
that he should accept a call then tendered 
him from Luther Valley Church, Orford- 
ville, Wis., one of the oldest Norwegian 
Lutheran congregations in America. 

As one of the oldest ministers in the 
Conference, and a man acknowledged 
with energy and outspoken convictions, 
Rev. Bergh has been more or less as- 
sociated both with the work and strife 
of the Norwegian Church in the last 
twenty years. Both in church councils 
and the press he has taken an active 
part in the questions of the day. The 



movement that last year (1890) re- 
sulted in the union of three of the 
Norwegian Synods, found in particular 
in him a warm and tenacious supporter. 
His paper had co-laborers from the 
different synods on its editorial staff, 
and, when others either kept silent or 
openly fought the movement, it lifted 
the banner high. Among the polemical 
writings of his countrymen in Amer- 
ica, Rev. Bergh's book, "Gammel og 
ny Retning," occupies an honorable 
place. From his hand we also have 
*'I ledige Stunder; a Livsbilleder," 
Christian stories and historical sketches, 
gathered and partly re-written by the 
author. As a member of the "Lutheran 
Society," Chicago, he has for a number 
of years been engaged in a praiseworthy 
effort to keep bad books and papers out 
by furnishing the people with good and 
Christian literature, and on his own 
responsibility he is publishing several 
standard books in the Dano-Norwegian 
language and Vort Blad, a monthly jour- 
nal for church and house. 



REV. ALBERT E. EGGE, Ph.D. 



Albert E Egge was born in Winne- 
shiek Co., la., Feb. 12, 1857. He 
attended the common school until the 
age of sixteen, when he entered the 
Luther College at Decorah, la. In 
June, 1879, he graduated as Bachelor 
of Arts, and in the fall took charge of 
the Norwegian Lutheran parochial 
school in Decorah, which position he 
held until March, 1881, when he was 
called to fill a vacancy at St. Olaf's 
School, Northfield, Minn. In the fall 
of 1882 he went to Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, Baltimore, Md., where he 
studied for five years. In 1884 he was 



appointed Graduate Scholar in Teutonic 
Languages and the following year 
Fellow in Teutonic Languages. His 
studies were chiefly Modern Languages 
and History. During the last three 
years of his stay at the university he 
was instructor in Early English, and 
the last year also in Anglo-Saxon. In 
June, 1882, he received the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy, and in the fall 
accepted a position at St. Olaf's College 
(formerly St. Olaf's School), where he 
has since taught English, German, and 
History. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



889 



PROF. I. F. GROSE, A.M. 



Prof. I. F. Grose, A.M., was born in 
Kenyon, Goodhue Co., Minn., May 25, 
1862. He is of Norwegian-German par- 
entage, bis father being from Stettin, 
Germany, and his mother from Sogn, 
Norway. His parents immigrated to 
this country in the fifties and settled in 
Minnesota in 1860. Throughout his 
boyhood he attended the Lutheran 
parochial schools and the American 
common schools. At the age of fifteen 
he became a student of St. Olaf's School, 
Northfield, Minn., where he stayed for 
two years, whereupon he entered Luther 
College, Decorah, la., whence he gradu- 



ated in 1885. In 1886 he was appointed 
to teach mathematics at St. Olaf Col- 
lege, which position he has held for five 
years. He has always been very much 
interested in church matters and was 
for a long time seriously intending to 
devote himself to the ministry, but, dur- 
ing his college career, he had to stay 
away for a year, which he spent in 
teaching. This work he found so agree- 
able that he concluded to make it his 
profession. In 1890 he obtained the 
degree of Master of Arts from Luther 
College. 




REV. JOHN N. KILDAHL. 



Rev. John Nathan Kildahl was born 
Jan. 4, 1857, in the neighborhood of 
Trondhjem, Norway. His parents are 
Johan Kildahl and Nikoline, nee Buvarp. 
His father being a parochial school 
teacher, Mr. Kildahl received a careful 
and pious home training, which gave 
112 



the youthful mind a Christian bent, a 
circumstance for which he has had fre- 
quent occasion to thank God. In 1866 
he came with his parents to America, 
and located in Goodhue county, Minn., 
where he regularly attended both public 
and parochial school until he was fifteen 



890 



AMEEIOAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



years of age. After having attended a 
course of catechetical instruction under 
the able and well-known Eev. B. J. 
Muus, he was confirmed by him in 1872. 
Two years later (1874) he entered 
Luther College, Decorah, la,, whence 
he was graduated, after having com- 
pleted the full course in 1879. He then 
entered Luther Seminary, at that time 
located at Madison, Wis., where he pros- 
ecuted the study of theology with un- 
common diligence and aptitude under 
the Rev. Prof. F. A. Schmidt, D. D., 
graduating with honor in 1882. Having 
received a call as pastor from Yang and 
Urland's congregations in Goodhue 
county, Minn., he was ordained to the 
sacred ministry in August of the same 
year, at Northfield, by the Eev. B. J. 
Muus. 

The year 1882 records also another 
important event in the history of Mr. 
Kildahl — his marriage to Miss Bertha 
Soine on the eleventh of July, the same 
person who confirmed and ordained him 
officiating also on this occasion. 

During the school year of 1885-6 he 
served as theological professor in the 
Eed Wing Theological Seminary, his 
congregations being served during that 
time by an assistant pastor. After hav- 
ing served his pastoral charge in Good- 
hue county for seven years, he accepted, 
in 1889, a call to Bethlehem's Norwegian 



Lutheran Church, Chicago, 111., where 
he was installed by Eev. N. C. Brun in 
July. His labors in this great Western 
metropolis have been signally blessed, 
the congregation having more than 
doubled its membership since his arrival, 
and many having been brought to a pro- 
fession of Christ by his earnest preach- 
ing of the word. Rev. Kildahl was 
assistant editor of the Lutherske Vidnes- 
byrd during the year, 1888-9 and 1890. 
He has written numerous articles in the 
church papers, mostly of a doctrinal and 
devotional character, and is a member 
of the Board of Eegents for Augsburg 
Seminary, Minneapolis, Minn. 

As a preacher Eev. Kildahl is emi- 
nently clear, simple, and practical. 
There is a sobriety and earnestness, 
coupled with a gentleness and affection- 
ateness in his manner, that seldom fails 
to leave upon his audience the impres- 
sion of his perfect sincerity. His ser- 
mons combine the instructive, the 
rhetorical, the logical, and the emotional 
in fair proportions. He is fluent, earnest, 
solemn, and appropriate. His genial, 
generous spirit, his facility at adapting 
himself to persons of every character 
and condition, and his disposition to 
identify himself with them in all their 
joys, and sorrows, and interests, give 
him an influence over them which few 
pastors possess. — J C. J. 



J 




REY. JOHN N. LENKEE. 



Eev. John Nicholas Lenker was born 
Nov. 28th, 1858, at the junction of the 
north and west branches of the Susque- 
hanna river, in Sunbury, Northumber- 
land County, Pennsylvania. His father 
was a Pennsylvania-German Lutheran 
and his mother Scotch-Irish Metho- 
dist. His grandfather on his mother's 



side was a Presbyterian, and in this 
church he was baptized. Through the 
influence of a Lutheran Sunday-school 
and a Young Peoples' Prayer Meeting 
he early united with tlie Lutheran 
Church. 

Missionary Institute at Selinsgrove, 
Pa., only six miles from his home, was 




Rev. J. K Lenkee, A. M. 

Page 890. 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



891 



the means of starting him in his edu- 
cation. Attending there three years and 
studying at home two years he took his 
senior year at Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, Ohio, graduating in 1879, 
at the age of twenty-one. In 1881 he 
graduated also from the Wittenberg 
Theological Seminary, and he was or- 
dained to the holy ministry by his home 
Synod in 1880. 

In the fall of 1881 he visited Eng- 
land, Germany, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden, Finland, Russia, the Baltic 
Provinces, Austria and Switzerland, and 
by his addresses, writings and inter- 
views with representative Lutherans 
succeeded in interesting the Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Church of these countries 
to do much more Christian work for 
their emigrating children. At this time 
emigration had reached its highest 
figures and his efforts consequently met 
with hearty response everywhere. Two 
pamphlets he wrote, the first "Kirch- 
liches Address fuer Amerika," and 
''Dringende Bitte fuer Auswanderer" 
were timely and well received. 

He has always shown the warmest in- 
terest in extending and establishing 
Christ's Kingdom in the world, through 
the agency of the Lutheran Diaspora 
and is the president of the American 
Lutheran Immigrant Missionary So- 
ciety which was organized at Tekamah, 
Neb., in 1882. 

At the Nebraska Synod in Waverly, 



Rev. Lenker was present and expressed 
a willingness to go to the largest city in 
Nebraska without an English Lutheran 
Church and establish one without the 
aid of the Boards of Home Missions 
and Church Extension. Grand Island 
happened to be this town, where he 
landed, Oct. 4th, 1882. His hopes were 
more than realized in that he organ- 
ized two congregations and erected two 
church edifices, German and English, 
the latter costing $8,000, besides doing 
mission work in the large neighboring 
towns. This was all done without aid 
from our boards but not without much 
sacrifice on the part of the missionary. 

The German congregation soon called 
Rev. Wm. Rosenstengel as their pastor 
and Rev. Lenker served St. Paul's Eng- 
lish Lutheran congregation until July 
19th, 1886, when he resigned to accept 
a call to represent the Board of Church 
Extension in the West, to which work 
he is at present giving all his time and 
energy. 

While in Europe Rev. Lenker started 
to do a much needed but very difficult 
work in collating the complete statistics 
of the Evangelical Lutheran through- 
out the world which have been exten- 
sively published by the secular and re- 
ligious press in many languages and 
countries. Strange to say his tables 
are the first comprehensive ones which 
have appeared. 




PROF. JOHN S. NORDGAARD, A. B. 



Prof. John S. Nordgaard, A. B., was 
born in Gausdal, Norway, June 17, 1857. 
In his early youth he attended the 
common school of the valley,] which in 
those times was considered very good, 
it being a graded school con^ioting uf 



two departments. In the year 1867 he 
came with his parents to Coon Prairie, 
Vernon Co., Wis. Here he began to 
attend the public schools, and fitted 
himself for a teacher. 
_In the spring of 1870 he removed 



892 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



with his parents to Polk county, Wis., 
where he took up the work of teaching, 
in which he was engaged for about three 
years. He then entered Luther College, 
Decorah, Iowa, where he studied for 
six years, graduating as Bachelor of Arts 
in 1880. Thereupon he spent one year 
at the University of Christiania, Norway. 
Eeturning to this country in the fall of 
1881, he entered public life and served 
three terms as county clerk of Polk 
county, Wis. Politics, however, was 
not his favorite profession; teaching or 



some other literary pursuit was his choice. 

With this in view he spent a year at 
the Northern Indiana Normal School, 
Valparaiso, Ind., where he took a special 
course comprising such branches as he 
expected to teach, but more especially 
methods of teaching. In the fall of 
1889 he accepted a position in St. Olaf 
College, Northfield, Minn., where he 
still remaiiis. 

In 1883 he was united in marriage to 
Florence Olive, of Prescott, Wis. He 
has four children. 




Addendum to 



Sketch of 

See page 582. 



De. Peschau. 



In February, 1891, Pastor Peschau 
received a flattering and pressing call 
from The Church of the Holy Ascen- 
sion, of Savannah, Ga. This is the 
largest Lutheran church and congrega- 
tion in the Southern states. The elegant 
edifice, which is worth $75,000, is often 
called, on account of its size, beauty and 
arrangements; "The Cathedral Church." 
Pastor Peschau declined this honorable 
call and remained with his flock in 
Wilmington, Del. On June IC, during 
the commencement exercises at Mt. 
Pleasant, the Faculty and Board of 
Trustees of North Carolina College be- 
stowed upon the subject of our sketch, 
D. D. This was done most heartily and 
unanimously, and was the only honor of 



the kind given at the commencement 
of 1891. 

At the eighty-eighth convention of the 
North Carolina Synod Eey. Dr. Peschau 
was publicly introduced as "The silver- 
tongued orator of the North Carolina 
Synod," and concerning this The Lutheran 
Visitor's account of the Synod's session: 
"On Saturday morning the annual 
address on Education before the Synod 
was delivered by the Eev. F. W. Peschau. 
He was introduced as the silver-tongued 
orator of the North Carolina Synod, 
and fully sustained that reputation. 
The address was a learned, able and 
eloquent presentation of the subject, 
and is highly complimented by all who 
heard it." 



« 




PEOF. C. J. EOLLEFSON, A.B. 



Prof. C. J. Eollefson, A. B., was born 
on the 15th of December, 1866, near 
Arendahl, Fillmore County, Minn. In 
1876 he removed with his parents to 



Granite Falls, and three years later they 
settled on a farm in Yellow Medicine 
County. From 1883 to 1886 he studied 
at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and 



f 



AMERICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



893 



in the fall of the latter year he entered 1 18th of June, 1890. In the fall of the 
the Freshman class of St. Olaf College, I same year he was appointed teacher of 
where he continued his studies the four I physics and chemistry at St. Olaf's 
subsequent years, graduating on the | College. 




PROF. EDMUND J. WOLF, D. D. 



Prof. Edmund J. Wolf, D. D., was 
born December 8th, 1840, near Rebers- 
burg, Centre Co., Pa. His parents, 
Jacob and Mary Wolf, were Pennsylva- 
nia Germans, the ancestors on both sides 
having come from Germany about 
the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. They were devout members of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Church, and 
reared their children, of whom they had 
nine, in this precious faith. They were 
well-to-do farmers, and though not to be 
numbered among the rich, were in 
comfortable circumstances and able 
to give their children a fair educa- 
tion. Several of the older sons became 
successful merchants, and one, Franklin 
B., entered the ministry in 1863. He 
gave promise of great usefulness, but 
his constitution succumbed to the expo- 
sures of two years service in the war, and 
he died in the fall of 1865. 



In his early years our subject attended 
the common schools, and was recognized 
as a well-behaved boy, who cared more 
for his books than for sport, although he 
was not indifferent to the latter. 

When but thirteen years of age his 
father died, leaving the care of the 
younger children to an anxious mother 
and the counsel of older brothers. He 
did not become unruly toward these, al- 
though from the time when in his ten- 
der years he lost his father, young 
Edmund may be said to have made his 
way through the world by dint of his 
own indomitable energy. He worked on 
the paternal farm for another summer 
and then left home to attend an Acade- 
my in Mifflinburg, Union Co., Penn. 
From this school he went into a broth- 
er's store for several years, but influ- 
enced by the example and encourage- 
ment of his brother at college, he 



894 



AMEKICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGKAPHIES. 



gradually came to the conclusion to 
secure, if possible, a college education. 
The years 1857-60 were divided between 
attendance at the Aaronsburg Academy, 
in his native county, teaching public 
school, studying privately, without teach- 
er or guide, and teaching a Classical 
School in Bellefonte, Pa. 

On opening this school, which had 
been in charge of college graduates, our 
young professor found several students, 
who, especially in the languages, were 
somewhat in advance of their new 
teacher. Not daunted by this trying 
experience, nor disclosing his dilemma, 
he applied himself to these studies in 
such a way that only students of extra- 
ordinary industry could have kept pace 
with him, and his teaching was re- 
garded, by his pupils and a cultivated 
and refined community, a decided 
success. 

Several young men were here prepared 
by him for the Freshman class at col- 
lege, and one was advanced so that he 
could with credit enter the Sophomore 
class. Our teacher, then, in the sum- 
mer of 1860, relinquished this school, 
and passed an honorable examination — 
excepting in Greek — for entrance into 
the Sophomore class of Pennsylvania 
College. Though somewhat broken in 
health, possibly the result of over-appli- 
cation while engaged in teaching, he 
was looked upon as a diligent student 
and took high rank in his class, carrying 
off the first honor, and receiving as his 
appointment on the Commencement 
program the Greek oration. Both 
prizes were more of a surprise to him 
who won them, than they were to his 
associates and rivals, since our subject 
at an early stage in his college course 
conceived a prejudice against the prev- 
alent system of notation, and concluded 
as for himself to have none of it. Hence 
he never, till the final award was pub- 



lished, was aware that his standing was 
at the top of his class. 

A few days before the final examina- 
tion of the class in 1863, General Lee 
crossed the Potomac and began the in- 
vasion of Pennsylvania. Governor Cur- 
tin issued an order for a special corps 
of troops for the emergency. A com- 
pany of students from Pennsylvania 
College and the Theological Seminary at 
Gettysburg enlisted for their country. 
Although they never crossed the line of 
their state and did not take part in the 
bloody battles of Gettysburg, this emer- 
gency corps, in its brief service of a few 
months, saw some hard service on the 
march, and trying exposure in camp, 
enough to test the military qualities of 
the men. Young Wolf enjoyed the con- 
fidence of his ofiicers and his associates 
as a faithful soldier. 

Childhood's teaching had not been 
fruitless. Without the use of many 
books his earliest reading had been 
mainly the Holy Scriptures. The Sun- 
day-school was not then equipped as it 
is now, but scholars were encouraged to 
memorize the Scripture text, and thus 
the young mind was literally stored with 
Scriptures. . Dr. Wolf believes to-day 
that that memorizing of the Bible was 
of greater value to him in religious ex- 
perience and even in his preaching, than 
any other method of Scripture study 
since has been. 

There were times in the slippery paths 
of youth, when he was in danger of stray- 
ing from wisdom's ways, and having lost 
parental restraints and authority at 
a perilous period, he sometimes fell in 
with evil companions, and has always 
regarded his escape from a life of sin 
and shame as bordering on the miracu- 
lous. The memory of fiery temptations 
has kept alive a deep sense of the mercy 
and grace of God, which rescued and 
saved his soul. 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



895 



A decisive period was reached in his 
life, on reading a Sunday-school book 
which kindled alarm and terror in his 
soul, and for a long period kept him in a 
state of deep suspense and doubt, from 
which he at last found relief through 
the kindly evangelical counsel of a friend 
—a Presbyterian elder — who directed 
his trust to a gracious and Almighty 
Saviour. Shortly afterward he attended 
catechetical instruction and was con- 
firmed by Rev. P. P. Lane. 

The purpose to become a minister was 
not formed until toward the close of his 
college career. This decision, like every 
other step in his life, being made appar- 
ently without any pressure from with- 
out, upon his own judgment, and after 
earnest prayer, he believes to have been 
directed from on high, since a very 
gracious Providence seems to have 
hedged his way and directed his steps 
all through life. Not unconscious of the 
fact that, though comparatively young, 
he has enjoyed a large measure of favors 
and honors, he can say with absolute 
truth that they have never come from 
his own seeking, nor so far as he knows, 
from any activity of partial or interested 
friends. Prof. Wolf has thus far been 
a favorite of Providence. 

Entering the Gettysburg Seminary in 
the fall of 1863, he had for his instruct- 
ors, Drs. S. S. Schmucker, C. P. Krauth, 
Sr., and C. F. Schaeffer, all able, emi- 
nent teachers, but holding very diverse 
views on the Confessions of the Church. 
In almost every lecture the first was 
wont to disparage and discredit the 
Symbols, and the last, with great earn- 
estness, was constantly inspiring his stu- 
dents with the greatest reverence for 
them. Dr. Krauth's position was about 
midway between them. In his exegeti- 
cal classes he always directed students 
to the recognized Lutheran expositions. 
Young Wolf's mind had probably re- 



ceived from his father's opposition to 
Methodistic practices in the Lutheran 
Church the first impress of clear and 
sound Lutheranism. Growing up amid 
these practices in the congregations with 
which he was wont to worship, he could 
never reconcile himself to their scrip- 
tural character. The unintermittent dis- 
praise of distinctive Lutheran doctrine 
by the Professor cf Dogmatics disposed 
him to study the subject for himself, 
and he thus learned to love all the more . 
heartily the doctrines which then were 
so often assailed. At the same time he 
attended Dr. Schaeffer's German lec- 
tures in which his predisposition to 
Lutheran doctrine received daily a fresh 
impetus. Thus,along with such classmates 
as Prof. H. E. Jacobs, D. D., LL. D. ; M. 
H. Richards, D. D.; G. F. Spieker,D.D.; 
J. B. Riemensnyder, D. D., and others, 
Dr. Wolf became fully grounded in a 
positive Lutheran consciousness and the 
apprehension of a specific Lutheran 
faith, at the very time when the alleged 
unsoundness of Gettysburg became 
the plea for the founding of the Phila- 
delphia Seminary. In the fall of 1864 
he went to Europe to complete his the- 
ological studies at German Universities. 
He spent one semester at Tubingen, 
when the popularity of Beck was at its 
height, and received from the great 
Bibel- Theolog a powerful impulse to the 
study of the Scriptures. From Oehler 
he learned Old Testament Theology, and 
from Palmer, Catechetics. By the ad- 
vice of the late pastor, Louis Harms, he 
went from Tubingen to Erlangen, where 
the entire faculty were known to be pro- 
nounced Lutherans. The lectures of 
Thomasius on Christologie, accompa- 
nied by the fascination of his personal- 
ity, so illuminated Lutheran doctrine, 
and so exhibited its relation to human 
salvation, that our subject was from that 
time set like a rock in devotion to the 



896 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGEAPHIES. 



faith of the Church of the Reformation. 
Delitzsch was then Professor of Old 
Testament Language and Theology, and 
both in the lecture-room and in the in- 
timacy of private intercourse to which 
the renowned Hebraist admitted this 
American youth, he exerted a very stim- 
ulating influence on his active and re- 
ceptive mind. During his attendance 
at this University, he had his home in 
the family of an ex-Herr Landrichter. 
The high culture and the social connec- 
tion of this family with two generations 
of scholars and other celebrities, gave to 
him his first conceptions of the mani- 
fold superiority of Grerman life, and he 
has ever since been the earnest cham- 
pion and defender of the large body of 
educated and pious emigrants who come 
to this country from the home of Luther. 

On his return from Europe, Mr. Wolf 
received license as a minister of the 
Gospel from the Synod of East Pennsyl- 
vania, in the fall of 1865. He was im- 
mediately and unanimously called to the 
pastorate of the Turbotville charge, in 
Northumberland Co., Pa., consisting of 
four congregations. 

He was married on December 13th, of 
the same year, to Miss Ella Kemp, of 
Baltimore Co., Md. Assuming charge 
of the above congregations on January 
1st, 1866, he labored indefatigably in 
their upbuilding, preaching in both lan- 
guages, and being especially diligent in 
the catechisation of the young. His 
ministry was looked upon as eminently 
successful, the congregations attending 
worship were large and sometimes 
crowded, the membership was nearly 
doubled in the course of a few years, 
while benevolence and other forms of 
piety showed a marked advance. Feel- 
ing the burden of four congregations 
too heavy a charge, he accepted, in the 
summer of 1868, a call to the Lombard 
St, Lutheran Church, in the city of 



Baltimore, a church in which Drs. 
Krauth, Jr., Seiss and Swartz had been 
his predecessors. 

The war and various other causes had 
led to the decline of the congregation, 
and the young pastor found himself in a 
field demanding the utmost exertion of 
his gifts. The effect of his labors grad- 
ually became apparent in largely in- 
creased attendance, in two jjrosperous 
Sunday-schools, — one meeting in the 
forenoon and one in the afternoon, — in 
the doubling of the revenue and more 
than that augmentation of benevolence; 
but as in his former charge success here 
was mainly ascribed to catechetical 
fidelity, his use of the German tongue 
enabling him to command the confi- 
dence of the Germans, and in this way 
to secure their children for the catechet- 
ical class. Another step which pro- 
moted the congregation's prosperity was 
the adoption of the free pew system. 

In November, 1871, Pastor Wolf was 
startled by the information, incredible 
to him, that he had been elected Profes- 
sor in the Theological Seminary at Get- 
tysburg. He was only thirty years of 
age, had been in the pastorate but six 
years and had never for a moment en- 
tertained the thought of ever exchang- 
ing the pulpit for a professor's chair. A 
note in his diary at this time says: "I 
certainly am not competent for this po- 
sition, nor have I the faintest predilec- 
tion for it, except as it affords opportu- 
nity for study." After allowing himself 
several months for deliberation, not 
feeling himself drawn to the position of- 
fered, and encountering a unanimous 
and persistent protest against it from 
his congregation, he declined the honor- 
able and responsible "call. Two years 
later it was renewed in a full meeting of 
the Board, and then public opinion and 
the reluctant consent of the congrega- 
tion were interpreted as voicing the will 



AMEKIOAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



897 



of God, and in April, 1874, Mr. Wolf 
was inaugurated Professor of Church 
History and New Testament Exegesis, a 
position which he still holds. Several 
times during a vacancy he has for a 
year taught also Dogmatics, in addition 
to his regular department. He has re- 
peatedly been offered the pulpit of prom- 
inent congregations with salary much in 
excess of his present compensation, but 
he has felt it a duty to remain at his post 
as teacher. The presidency of Roanoke 
College was also tendered him at one 
time. Franklin and Marshall College 
conferred on him the degree of D. D., 
in 1876, eleven years after his entrance 
into the ministry. 

When yet a student at the University 
Dr. Wolf began to send contributions 
from his pen to the Church papers, his 
letters appearing in the editorial columns 
of The Lutheran, while Dr. C. P. Krauth 
was its editor. When pastor in Baltimore, 
he contributed to the Lutheran Observer 
and the Independent, and he has ever since 
shown considerable journalistic activity, 
articles upon various subjects appearing 
over his name, from time to time, in the 
Christian at Work, Independent, Homiletie 
Review, The Treasury, Sunday-School Times, 
and other periodicals of high standard. 
For ten years he was one of the editors 
of The Lutheran Quarterly, in which his 
reviews of new publications elicited very 
favorable comment from various quar- 
ters. He was also for a time one of the 
associate editors of The Lutheran Evan- 
gelist. 

He has been engaged to write for 
different encyclopedias and has lately 
furnished a number of important arti- 
cles to the Concise Encyclopedia of Religious 
Knowledge, in course of publication by 
C. L. Webster & Co., New York. He 
furnished for this work a compre- 
hensive sketch of the Lutheran Church 
in this country, having rendered the 
113 



same service for the Schaff-Herzog 
Encyclopedia, and quite recently for the 
National Tribune, Washington, D. C. 

In 1882 he delivered the Holman 
Lecture on the Augsburg Confession, 
before the Gettysburg Seminary. His 
subject was the XVII. Article, and his 
treatment was an exhaustive analysis of 



I the teachings of the Confessions on Es- 
chatology. It was issued in pamphlet 
form and is also contained in the vol- 
ume of Augsburg Lectures, published 
by the Lutheran Publication House. 

He was a member of the Joint Com- 
Imittee of three General Bodies, which 
prepared the Common Service, and he is 
said to cherish a feeling of sincere pride 
that he held a humble place in that dis- 
tinguished committee. Dr. Wolf has 
received very honorable recognition out- 
side of the Lutheran Church. He was 
chosen a delegate to the World's Evan- 
gelical Alliance, which met at Copen- 
hagen in 1884. One of his most 
creditable public performances was 
his address at Boston before the 
Evangelical Alliance of the United 
States, on "Our Debt and Duty to the 
Emigrant Population", which elicited 
the applause of the vast audience to 
whom it was addressed, and has won for 
him the abiding gratitude of the Luth- 
eran Church, more especially those 
bodies made up largely of the foreign 
element. 

He is a member of the National Acad- 
emy of Theology, of the Society of 
Biblical Literature and Exegesis, of 
the American Society of Church History, 
and of the American Institute of Chris- 
tian Philosophy. He is likewise one of 
the managers of the Evangelical Alliance 
in the United States. He is the 
author of "Lutherans in America," 
published by J. A. Hill & Co., New 
York, which is the first effort at a com- 
prehensive history of the Lutheran 



898 



AMEEICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



Church in this country, and which 
treats all branches and portions of 
the Church without bias and with a 
sincere desire to give to each a just 
and honorable presentation. The im- 
partiality as well as the general his- 
toric fidelity of this volume has been 
gratefully admitted by representatives 
of all the different sections of the 
Church. Ten thousand copies of it were 
sold in less than ten months after its pub- 
lication. 

A number of his sermons have ap- 
peared in the Homiletie Review and in The 
Treasury, 

Dr. Wolf was for a long time afflicted 
with weakness in the eyes and has suf- 
fered much from nervous prostration, but 
by a careful husbanding and a wise exer- 
cise of his powers he has succeeded in 
rendering valuable services to his Church 
and to the Christian cause in general. 
HiSj, attitude on all church questions 
and public issues is generally conserva- 
tive, but his opposition to all the varie- 
ties of secret societies has always been 
pronounced and radical. 



The writer deems it proper to add, in 
conclusion, that an intimate personal 
acquaintance with Dr. Wolf, extending 
over a period of sixteen years, justifies 
the tribute that he is a man of heroic 
loyalty to truth and right, and of un- 
wavering devotion to the Church and her 
institutions. He has the courage of his 
convictions, and does not hesitate on all 
proper occasions to defend, by tongue 
and pen, the doctrines and usages of 
his Church. 

While he is loyal to the General 
Synod and is closely identified with its 
practical and progressive work, he has 
never been a partisan who cannot see 
anything good in other branches of 
the great Church of the Reformation. 
As professor of Church History in the 
theok)gical seminary, and as an author 
in the line of Church history, his studies 
have given him an outlook that precludes 
the probability if not the possibility of 
his being anything but a Lutheran of 
the broadest and most cosmopolitan 
type. 




The honorary title of Doctor of Divinity has lately been conferred upon 

Eev. George Sveedeup, 
Eev. F. W. E. Peschau, 
Eev. J. E. Bushnell, and 
Eev. J. Heischman. 




INDEX. 



Acrplins, Israel A 17 

Adelberg, R 20 

Albert, L.E.D.D 21 

Albert, C. 8, D.D 21 

Albrecht, C 22 

Aldrich.N 24 

Andersen, Paul 25 

Andersen, R 29 

Andrewson, O 35 

Anspach. J G 37 

Anspach, F. R., D D 40 

Anspach, J. M., D.D 41 

Anstadt, P.,D.D 885 

Arendt. F. W. M 43 

Arensius, B. A 43 

Artman, H. G. B 44 

Aughey S, Ph.D., LL.D 45 

Bachman , Jno D . D. , LL . D. . . 47 

Bading.J 53 

Baker, J. Chr., D D 54 

Bansemer, C. F,, D.D 57 

Barclay, J H.,DD 57 

Barnitz, 8 B , A.M, 59 

Bartholomew, E. F.. D . D 60 

Bangher, H. L. 8r.,D.D 63 

Baugher, H, L, Jr., D.D 65 

Baum, W. M., D.D 66 

Bauman, J. A., Prof 69 

Beate8,Wm 69 

Becker, H.A 74 

Behringer,G.F 75 

BeJfonr, E., D.D 76 

Bell,E.K 77 

Berg, A 77 

Berg, K. K, Prof ; 79 

Berger, Jacob . . - 81 

Bergh, J. A 887 

Bergman, C.F 82 

Bergman,J.E 84 

Bergsland, H. H 86 

Bernheim, G. D., D.D 88 

Bikle, P. M., PhD 89 

Bikle, L. A.,D.D 90 

Bittle, D. F.,D.D 91 

Bjarnason, J. 94 

Bjork, Erik 96 

Blegen, J. H.,Prof 97 

Boeckman, M. O. Prof 98 

Bolzius, J. M 99 

Born, Peter, D.D 102 

Bothne, G. Prof, A.M 103 



Bowers, H. G 104 

Bowman, W. 8., D.D 104 

Brandt, C.K. A 106 

Breckenridge 8. F.,Sc.D 109 

Brob8t,8. K Ill 

Brown, A. J., D.D 114 

Brown, J. A., D.D 115 

Brown, J. A 119 

Brown.B. 8 120 

Brunnholtz P 120 

Buermeyer, F. P 123 

Busby. L. E 123 

Bushnell, J. E„D.D 125 

Butler, J. G.,8r 127 

Butler, J. G., Jr., D.D 129 

Campanius,'John 131 

Carlsson, E., D.D 132 

Carlson, A. B, 148 

Carpenter, Wm 134 

('aughman, E 137 

ClaDsen, C. L 138 

Cervin, A. R 139 

Clutz, J. A., D.D 141 

(-ol]in,N,D D 143 

Conrad, F. W., D.D., LL.D. .. 144 
Conrad, V. L , D D., Ph.D.... 147 

Cordes, A 146 

Cronenwett, G 149 

Dahl,T.H 152 

Damman, Wm 154 

David, John B.. D.D 154 

Debendarfer, D. L 158 

Demme, C. R., D.D 159 

Diehl, George, D.D 160 

Dietrichsen. J. W. C 162 

Dimm, J.R.,DD 163 

Doermann, H. K G 165 

Domer, S.,D.D 167 

Donmeyer, Geo. J 170 

Domblaser, T. F 172 

Dosh, T. W., D D 173 

Dylander, John, 174 

Dietrich, F. 8 175 

Dysinger, H 177 

Earnest, J. A., D.D 179 

Eberhart, C. L 180 

Egede.H.L 182 

Eggen, J. M 183 

Egge,A. E.,Ph.D 888 

Ehrenfeld, C. L., A. M., Ph. D 184 
cbelberger, L,D.D 188 



EieJsen, EUing 190 

Enders. G. W 192 

Endress, C, D.D 196 

Eioheimo, J. W. . Ph. D 198 

Esbjorn, C. L. E 199 

Esbjorn. L. P, Prof 204 

Evald, Carl A 207 

Eyster, David, A. M 208 

Kyster, Michael 211 

Fabricius, Jacob, A. M 213 

Falckner, Justus 215 

Felland, O G, Prof 216 

Felts, Peter, D.D, 218 

Fink, R. A., D.D 220 

Finckel, 8amuel, D.D 221 

Firy, M. J 222 

Flohr, George D 222 

Fogelstrom, E. A 223 

Fox, A. J.,M.D 226 

Fox, Luther A., D.D 229 

Fox. J. B., Ph. D 230 

Frich, J. B 230 

Frick, Wm. K, A. M 231 

Fritschel, G. W.L., D.D 232 

Fritschel, 8.,D.D 235 

Fry, Jacob, D.D 237 

Funk, I. K., D.D 238 

Garver, Daniel 240 

Geiger, H.R.,Ph.D 242 

Geissenhainer, A . T 245 

Geis8enhainer,F. W., St., D.D 249 
Geissenhainer, F. W., Jr., D.D 251 

Gerberding, G.D., A.M 251 

Giese, E. F., D.D 253 

Gerhardt, Wm., D.D 254 

Gilbert, D.M.. D.D 256 

Goering, Jacob 257 

Goertner, J.H 259 

Goetwater, John E 261 

Goettmann, J. G., D.D 264 

Gotwald, L.A.,D.D 267 

Gotwald, George E 264 

Grabau, A. A 271 

Graebner, A. L., Prof 272 

Greenwald, E., D.D 273 

Grose, I. F.,A.M 889 

Gunn, Walter 275 

Haas, G. C.F 278 

Hallman.S.T 279 

Hamma,M. W.,D.D 281 

Handschuch, J. F 282 



900 



AMEBICAN LUTHEEAN BIOGBAPHIES. 



Hanson, O 285 

Harkey, 8. W., D.D 286 

Harkey, 8. L., D.D 288 

Harrison, W. H.,D.D 2.0 

Hartwig, J. Chr 2y6 

Haskell, J. Bachman 298 

Hasselquiet. T. N., D D 299 

Hasskarl G. C. H , Ph.D ... 301 
Hasskarl, W. R. C, Ph.D, 

LL.D 303 

Hatlestad, O. J 304 

Haupt, A.J. D 307 

Haupt,C. B 309 

Haupt, L. M 310 

Hauer, D. J , D D 314 

Hawkins, J., D.D 315 

Hay,C. A., D.D 318 

Hay, E. G 319 

Hazelius, E. L..D.D 320 

Hedengran, ('. A 323 

Heiberg, J. A 324 

Heilman. L M 325 

Heintzelman, J . D 327 

Heischmann, John J , D.D.. . 329 

Helmuth, J. H. C D.D 331 

Helwig, J. B.,D D 332 

Henkel, A 835 

Henkel, Charles 3b6 

Henkel, D 338 

Henkel, Gerhard 339 

Henkel, P 840 

Henkel, P. C 342 

Henkel, Philip 344 

Henkel, 8. G.,MD 345 

Henkel,8.,D.D 346 

Hennicke, J. F. C 348 

Henninghausen, F. P., D.D.. 349 

Heyer, F 353 

Hill,C.R 354 

Hill, Reuben 355 

Hiller, Alfred, D D 356 

Hinterleitner, G. A. D.D 357 

Hochstetter, C. F 357 

Hoffmann. J. M. T. E 359 

Hoenecke, A. , Prof 861 

Holland, R. C !j61 

Holland, G. W., D.D., Ph D.. 362 

Holman, 8. A., D.D. 863 

Hollo way, H. 0., D.D 365 

Holl8,G. C 370 

Hoppe,K. F. W 871 

Horack, 872 

Horn, B T.. D.D 873 

Home, A. R., D.D 375 

Hoskinson, W. 8., Ph D 377 

Hoyme, G 379 

Huber, B.,D.D 384 

Hubbert, W. E 386 

Hufifard, James A 387 

Hughes. 8. P 387 

HuU, Wm 389 

ImhofF, A. J., D.D..,.. 390 

Jacobs, David, 391 

Jacobs, H.E., D.D 893 

Jacobs, Michael, D.D 395 

Jaoobsen, Abr 396 

Jaoobsen, J. D.,Prof 397 

JaeggU, R.... 399 

Jensen, Has: 



Jensson, Isaac 401 

Johnson, A 405 

Keller, Benjamin ; . 407 

Keller, Ezra, D.D 408 

Keller, Emanuel 411 

Kemp,T. W 412 

Keyl. E. G. W 412 

Kildahl, J. N 889 

Koerner, F. T 414 

Koontz, D.J 415 

Koren,l3. V 416 

Krauth. C. P., Sr. , D.D 417 

Krauth,C.P,Jr.,D.D.,LLD. 420 

Krohn, J. 1 481 

Krotel, G. F.,D.D.,LL. D... 432 

Krug, J. A 434 

Kuchler, Michael 436 

Kuechle,G 48? 

Kuhl,C 438 

Kuhns, H. W.,D.D 440 

Kuhns, L. M, D.D 442 

Kunkelman, J. A., D.D 443 

Kunze, J. C.,D. D 444 

Kurtz, B ,D.D., LL.D 445 

Kurtz, J. N 446 

Kurtz. J. D.,D.D 448 

Laird, 8, D.D 450 

Lang, H 451 

Lankenau, J. D 4^2 

Lape,T 456 

Larsen, P. L 458 

Lehmann, W.F.,Ph.D 459 

Lehmanowfiky, J . J . , Col . 463 

Lenker, J. IS 890 

Lilly, A W., D D , 466 

Lindahl, S. P. A 467 

Lindberg, C. E 469 

Lindemann, J. C. W.,Prof... 470 

Lintner, G. A, D.D 472 

Lochman, A. H.,D D 475 

Lochman, Geo, D.D 476 

Loeber, C. H.,Sr., Prof 478 

Lomen, K O , Prof 478 

Loy, M, Prof., D.D 479 

Lund.E. G., A.M 480 

Lyngby, M. T. C 481 

Lysnes, David, Prof 482 

Mann,L. A 486 

Mann, Wm. J., D.D. , LL.D.. 480 

Margart, J. P, 491 

Martin, Adam 491 

Martin, Jacob 497 

Martin, J. N 501 

Mayer. P F 492 

McAttee, J. Q 493 

McCron, J 495 

McKnight,H.W.,D.D.,LL.D 499 

Mechling,G.W 506 

Mechling, J 508 

Miller, C. A 509 

MiUer,E.,D.D 510 

Miller, Geo. B., D.D 512 

Miller,G. F 515 

Miller.H. 8 516 

MiUer,J 520 

MiUer.J. B 522 

Miller, _ I., D.D 523 

MiUer. L.'G. M.... 524 



Mohn,T. N 524 

Moldehnke.E. F., Ph.D., D.D 525 
Morris, J. G.,D D.: LL.D ... 528 

Mcser, J. R. 529 

Muhlenberg, H. M., D.D..... 530 
Muhlenberg, F. A., D.D.LL D 534 
Muhlenberg, G. H. E.,D.D.. 536 

Muhlenberg, H. A 539 

Muhlenberg, J. P. G 539 

MueDer,H. C 541 

Muus, B. J 545 

Narvesen, C 547 

Nelander, E., Prof 548 

Nicum, J 548 

Norelius, E 550 

Nordgaard, J. 8..A.B 891 

Notz,B. A 554 

No(z,F. W. A., Ph.D 5n4 

Ochsenford, 8. E., A M 556 

Officer, M., AM 557 

Oftedal,S.,Prof 559 

Ohl, J. F 561 

Ort,8. A.,S. T. D 561 

Olsen, Johan 565 

Olsson, O., D D 568 

Ottesen, J. A 570 

Painter, F. V. N., A.M 572 

Paesavant, W. A.,Sr.,D.D... 576 

Passavant, W. A., Jr 578 

PaulsDn, 579 

Peschau, F. W. E., D.D.. 582 892 

Peters.G 584 

Pick,B 586 

Phillippi. A 587 

Pieper, F. A. O . , Prof 589 

Pitcher, J 590 

Pohlman, H. N 592 

Preus, A. C 595 

Preus,H. A 596 

Piince, B. F., A. M 5^-8 

Probst, L. K 600 

Quitman, F. H,D.D 601 

Rasmussen, P. A, 602 

Rath, J. B 603 

Rath, W 604 

Reck, A 607 

Rechenberg, K. F. W 607 

Reck,H 608 

Remensnyder, J . B . , 1> . D 609 

Reimestad, T. 8 610 

Rhodius, L. A., A. M 611 

Repass, 8. A., D.D 612 

Reque, L. 8., A. M 613 

Rhodes, M., D.D 614 

Richard, J. W., D.D 616 

Richards, M. H., D D 618 

Richards, J. W., D D 619 

Richardson, X. J 620 

Richter, A., A.M 623 

Rizer, P... 624 

Ronneberg, A 625 

Roth,D. L 626 

Roth, H. W.. D.D 628 

Roth,T. B., A.M 631 

Rothacker, D 632 

Rothrock, 8.,D.D 633 

Rohr, Ph. voB 686 



AMEEICAN LUTHERAN BIOGRAPHIES. 



901 



Rollefeon, C. J., A.B 892 

Kude, A. K.,D.D 637 

Ruth, F. J 638 

Ruthrauflf, Fr , 640 

RuthraufiF, J 641 

Kuthraufif,J. F 643 

Sander, J. A.M 644 

Sadtler, B., D.D : 647 

Sadtler, S. P.,Ph.D 647 

Schaeffer, C. F.,D.D 648 

SchaeflFer, ('. W., D.D., LLD 655 

Schaeffer, D. F.,D.D 656 

Schaeffer, F. C, D.D 658 

Schaeffer, F.D., D.D 659 

Schaum, J, H 661 

Scheie, A. A 663 

Scherer, S 664 

SchiUing, H. K.,Ph.D 666 

Schmid, E 669 

Schmid, F .-^670 

Schmidt, F. A , D D 671 

Hchmidt, H. C 674 

Schmidt, H. I., D.D 676 

Schmidt, J. F 678 

Schmidt, W 680 

Schmucker, J. G., D.D 682 

Schmncker, B. M , D.D 685 

Schmui-ker, S. S., D.D 690 

Schodde, G. H, Ph.D 693 

Schuette, D. H. L., A.M 694 

Scbultze, C. E 695 

Schwartz J. G 697 

Seip, T. L,,D.D 700 

Seiss, J. A., D.D , LL D 701 

Senderling. J. Z, D.D 708 

Severinghau'-, J. D., D.D 710 

Seyffarth, G , D.D 711 

Shaffer, J. P .DD 712 

Shanor, H.K 715 

Shanor, W. P 715 

Sharretls. N. G 717 

Sheeleigh.M.D.D 718 

Shober, G 721 

Siemon, O A., Ph D 723 



Sihler, W.,Ph.D.,.. 
Singley, W. H., D.D 
Smeltzer, J. P., D.D. 
Smith, E. F., D.D 
Sommer, P. N. . 
Spaeth, A., D.D 

Sparks, D 

Spieker, G. F., D.D 
Spielmann, C, 
Spiggle, G. W, 
Sprecher, S.,D.D., 
Stall, S., A.M... 
Steck, D., D.D. 

Steck, J. M 

Steck, M. J 

Stellhorn, F. W 

Stirewalt, J 

Stalling, G.F., D.D. 
Scholl. G.,D.D.... 
Stirewalt, J. P., A 
StoeverM.L., Ph.D 
Stohlmann, K. F. F. 
Stork, C. A.. D.D... 

Stork, C. A. G 

Stork, T.. D.D 

Streit, C 

StrobeJ, W. D.,D.D 

S.ub.H. A 

Stub, H. G.,D.D ... 
Stuckenberg, J. H 
Springer, F., D.D... 

Studebaker, E 

Stupplebin, M. V.... 
Sverdrup, G., D.D.. 
Swaney, W. H., A.M 

Swartz, J., D.D 

Sweiiseon, C. A., A.I 
Swensson, J. 



LL 



Teleen, J 

Titue, T.T.... 
Trabert, G. H 
Trandberg, P. C 
Tressler, D L., Pb.D 
Trimper, A. A 



W 



LL 

D.r 



.. 724 

.. 725 

.. 728 

.. 729 

.. 732 

.. 734 

.. 736 

.. 737 

.. 739 

.. 741 

.. 742 

.. 748 

.. 750 

.. 753 

.. 753 

.. 755 

.. 757 

.. 760 

.. 761 

.. 763 

D.. 765 

.. 766 

.. 767 

.. 768 

.. 770 
...772 

.. 773 

.. 775 

.. 775 

.. 775 

.. 780 

.. 785 

.. 786 



791 
793 
794 
796 

797 
799 
801 
803 
803 
811 



Uhler, J. P 813 

Uhlhom, J 813 

Ulrich.J 814 

Valentine, N., D.D, LL.D.... 814 

VanAlstine, N., D.D 816 

Vogelbach, J. T 818 

Voight, J. L 819 

Volz, C 819 

Vosseler, H. G 821 

WackGrhagen,A.,D.D .*.. 822 

Wagenhals, J 824 

Wagner, E. R.,Ph.D 825 

Wagner, J 828 

Wahletrom.M 829 

Walther, C. F. W.,D.D 830 

Weber, H. H 838 

Weber, J. H.. A.M 839 

WeddelJ, A. J 843 

Wedekind, A.C., D.D 844 

Weenaas, A 846 

Weiskotten. F. W. , Sr 848 

Weiskotten, F. W., A. M 850 

Weistr, R . B ,D.D 851 

Werner, E. J 852 

Werlz, J. H. W 853 

Wieting, P 853 

Wilee, H. L., D.D 8.^)5 

Wingard, J 857 

Wire. W. C. A.M 858 

Wrangel, K M. von, D.D 860 

Wright. A 863 

Weidner, R. F..D.D 865 

Wolf, E. J., D.D 893 

Wyneken, F. C. D 867 

Wyneken, M. L 869 

Wjse, J. H 870 

Yeager.J.C. W 871 

Yeager, J 873 

Yonce. W. B.,Ph. D 879 

Ytterboe, H. T.,A.B 880 

Ziegler, H., D.D.. 881 



C 173 82 



\ 



LRBD79 














*o^„.^* ' 















T- A 



'i^. ♦• 



C9 



v*^T*\y ^o. 






fc ' %.^* ' /Jl^'-. X.-^*" .•!<&»•• ■ '^^..^* ■ Z*^^'- ■''^^ '^' - 









,^'/\\%p/ /% \^;.- /%. '»^^' y\ '.' . 

»* -/ '^.^. "^q, .^^^'i;.-*/** .o*..l'J.L-.*°o .,-»*\-^!/** 




f>« ;/ 



'^_^.< 









V^V \*^^V V^^*/ V'^-^'./f^. 
^\ \/ yM£:^ ^*..** /Jfe\ \>.^** c:-^^^-' ^- ■" -^ 



^'^^*i^'' - _^/,^^.f\ /,'^^"^^ /i^^S^^;^ 

^ •^R^^o iP*^ "^^^^Ts* -O^^ •vi^^^'v* ^^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pro*s- 

rv •?'*<S^^«* O ^ */^^25'»;* v,K O *i^'^^^« Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide:j 

O. * rTo • ^0"^ ^ ♦ . / ^ • ^^ O^ • • ■ o • .C Treatment Date: May 2006 « 

■S.V ^rvCX :^MM' ^<'^ 'Mf/I&' ^e,'' .jfSS^ .WOBLO LEADER ,« TAPER >.«SEI.V«t»» 

r3^^ • M ? » 5^iSEfi«J^ « - !: a <5^^4p-*^S^ * ^ ? « ^^ 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 






1 1 1 Thomson Part< Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-211' 



Oi.<*- 

























.•1°^ 





'oK 



^^-'^^ 




>-o< 









<^^ "<^^ » 




.^-^ 



r-- o'' ■^.-'Tr,-'-.^*" "o^'i;^-*\o''' \/^-f«'/* 






. »• A 




.^' 



'^O^ 



^oV 






^^-^K 











'^. x^ ♦* 











IV ^ 



'^o 














!•' %^^-/ \'^T^\/ V^^*/ \*^-^\/ 












